The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Rick is no longer leading the Senate's ethics reform efforts. Here's what Rick had to say about his new "backstage role":
"What I was asked by the leader to do was to start a process to see if we could get a bipartisan bill," Mr. Santorum said yesterday after the Senate Rule Committee voted 17-0 to approve new restrictions on members. "I understand the game here; I understand that they [Democrats] don't want Santorum's name on anything that's going to pass. So I'm not worried about getting my name on a bill that's going to pass; I'm worried about making sure we do the right thing from an ethics point of view."
That's interesting, because in January
the story was that Bill Frist had put Santorum in charge with coming up with a new proposal for lobbying reform. At that time, there was no talk of Rick
starting a process.
We have a feeling that, considering
ethical questions that have
come to light recently, Rick's new role may be the result of other people being worried about Rick's capability to "do the right thing from an ethics point of view."
