The only way to explain the clearly insane move last night by the House GOP to gut congressional ethical oversight is that they truly believe you, the voter, is an idiot. I say this largely because the House GOP is currently trying to spin their move in ways that are borderline insane. Meet Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Rules amdt approved by House GOP strengthens Office of Cong Ethics & improves upon due process rights. Does nothing to impede OCE’s work.

— Bob Goodlatte (@RepGoodlatte) January 3, 2017

And he’s right. He’s absolutely right. It doesn’t do a thing to impede their work. Except

• Act independently of Congress to investigate actual ethics conflicts
• Take anonymous tips of possible ethics violations
• Actually be an office of congressional ethics

Rep. Goodlatte, I would suggest you delete your account (or have the staffer who runs it delete the account), and then apologize to your constituency, as well as the American people, for insulting their intelligence. You owe them that much if you support this lunacy.

This is such a bad idea, for so many reasons. I detailed some last night, but the fallout from this is actually going to be a big deal. We’re on the third day of the new year and the Democrats have won a news cycle already.

Great job, guys. Way to start the year off right. Let Democrats win the PR game up front AND show that you really had no interest in making Washington D.C. a better place after all.