Roll Call blasts House Republicans for using taxpayer money to "rebrand" themselves

An editorial in Roll Call:

As believers in a strong two-party system, we support Republican efforts to “rebrand,” “reach out” to the public and develop new ideas.

But political work, such as that being done by the National Council for a New America created by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), should be done with political money and not with resources paid for by taxpayers.

As Roll Call reported on Monday, Cantor staff and GOP ethics attorney Jan Baran have walked a very fine line to comply with House rules in funding, publicizing and staffing the new organization.

But we think that the whole endeavor ought to be paid for out of political contributions....

It may be that the House Ethics Manual needs to be recast to take into account organizations like this that are clearly designed to serve a partisan political purpose but can slip through current rules.

In the meantime, Cantor should reimburse his House account from his campaign account or leadership political action committee for the staff resources that he has used.