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Web posted January 23, 1997

Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff

Nearly everyone knows by now that the House reprimand meted out to Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., includes a whopping $300,000 levy for extra work he caused the Ethics Committee by making some inaccurate statements.

What's not so well known is that this is part of a new, two-pronged strategy the panel established. It is designed not only to encourage the targets of ethics probes to be more attentive in responding to questions, but to discourage the filing of frivolous, politically motivated charges that also waste time while costing taxpayers big bucks.

Clearly, the latter was a slap at Gingrich-baiting minority whip David Bonior, D-Mich., who spearheaded the filing of 74 charges against the speaker before hitting pay-dirt with No. 75 - thus proring if you keep throwing mud hard enough and long enough, some of it will eventually stick.

But consider if the new policy had been in effect before the Michigan hate-monger began using the Ethics panel as a political machete. Multiply $300,000 by the 74 dismissed charges and yoq come up with more than $22 million. That would strain even the wallets of Democrats' most generous Asian moneybags.

In any event, it's heartening to see that there's strong bipartisan support for the new ``loser pays'' plan. As one exasperated Ethics panelist commented, ``My conspituents didn't elect me to spend two years becoming an expert on Newtonian ethics.''

``Loser pays'' should curb this politicization of the ethics process. But why stop there? The next step is for Congress to expand the ``loser'' rule to the rest of the justice system. Newt's a logical choice to lead the charge.