Who paid for Tom DeLay’s trips? The more interesting question is why he went to Saipan at all -- and what happened after he returned.

Perfectly Legal

Who paid for Tom DeLay’s trips? The more interesting question is why he went to Saipan at all -- and what happened after he returned.

By Garance Franke-Ruta
Issue Date: 06.06.05

The troubles House Majority Leader Tom DeLay faces for allowing a lobbyist to pay for overseas trips in violation of House rules provide a perfect example of Los Angeles Times op-ed page editor Michael Kinsley’s famous dictum: The real scandal is what’s legal.

And the congressional rules that may yet ensnare DeLay suggest another truism: Congressional ethics operate according to the reverse-sieve effect -- instead of catching major ethical lapses that have injured the public interest for years while allowing piddling matters to slip through unmolested, the system captures small, technical rule violations. When it comes to substance, ethics rules have little to say, because in the strange Beltway calculus of right and wrong, engaging in flagrant acts of ethical turpitude is often known simply as policy making.