substance occuring the ethics board just the timing or you might say the branding. house republicans ultimately backed down from this plan to hamstring the office of congressional ethics. that's a win for people who want independent ethics oversight for this congress which may not be everyone but i feel like it's close to everyone in the country who's not a member of congress and politically some republicans are now mad that they did choose to make this their opening argue. one republican house member saying anonymously "a circular firing squad, our first day here and we're passing around the handgun." put aside the politics, though this lightning fast story shows investigative reporting does matter. not every issue boils down if if the republicans have the vote, some may boil down to whether some votes are too embarrassing or brazen to even be taken in public. joining me now, "new york times" investigative reporter eric lipton who broke the story on