last night after the "new york times" story broke and a second this morning around the time people might be watching the news on tv or reading it online. and that was around the time someone else was reading news -- president-elect donald trump weighing in, tweeting "with all that congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the independent ethics watchdog as unfair as it may be their number one act in priority, focus on tax reform, health care and so many other things of far greater importance. #dts" which is his cool way of saying "drain the swamp." now trump brought attention to this dispute which certainly made republicans' lives harder. we'll note he was supporting their argument for narrowing the office's powers because he was saying it was unfair. so he's not objecting to the 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