Congress Watch: GOP fears losses in House
It's clear that Republican leaders are extremely worried about the political fallout from the corruption scandal spawned by the investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
That explains why the congressional leadership has been so aggressive this week in announcing proposed new restrictions on the lobbying of Congress. A new batch of recommendations was unveiled this week. Senior party leaders tell U.S. News that they fear the loss of five House seats this fall, which would endanger the slim Republican majority in the House. But behind the scenes the main concern is how big the scandal becomes and how much it hurts the GOP image as the ruling party.
"We need to capture the mantle of reform before the Democrats do it," says a senior Republican involved in the party's image making. "But at this point we don't know how big this thing will be [as a scandal]."