Mud Path

INSOFAR as the 104th Congress is in the business of tort reform, a good place to start would be to impose a “loser pays” rule for false ethics charges made against members of Congress. The February 23 filing against House Speaker Newt Gingrich by Pat Schroeder (D., Colo.), Harry Johnston (D., Fla.), and Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.) and the March 8 filing by David Bonior (D., Mich.) are unfounded, frivolous, and conspicuously malicious.

Representatives Schroeder, Johnston, and McKinney charge that Mr. Gingrich accepted “free” air time from Mind Extension University to broadcast “certain of his lectures.” They further charge that because MEU is a subsidiary of Jones Intercable, a firm with “substantial interests before the U.S. Congress,” Gingrich has violated House Rule 43, which bars solicitation or acceptance of anything of value from an interested party, and the Ethics in Government Act of 1989. Representative Bonior alleges that Mr. Gingrich misused congressional resources by publicizing his college course in four speeches and by reciting the course’s toll-free number on the House floor in April 1993.

GT

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George Tobin

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House of Representatives

INSOFAR as the 104th Congress is in the business of tort reform, a good place to start would be to impose a “loser pays” rule for false ethics charges made against members of Congress. The February 23 filing against House Speaker Newt Gingrich by Pat Schroeder (D., Colo.), Harry Johnston (D., Fla.), and Cynthia McKinney (D., Ga.) and the March 8 filing by David Bonior (D., Mich.) are unfounded, frivolous, and conspicuously malicious.

Representatives Schroeder, Johnston, and McKinney charge that Mr. Gingrich accepted “free” air time from Mind Extension University to broadcast “certain of his lectures.” They further charge that because MEU is a subsidiary of Jones Intercable, a firm with “substantial interests before the U.S. Congress,” Gingrich has violated House Rule 43, which bars solicitation or acceptance of anything of value from an interested party, and the Ethics in Government Act of 1989. Representative Bonior alleges that Mr. Gingrich misused congressional resources by publicizing his college course in four speeches and by reciting the course’s toll-free number on the House floor in April 1993.