House Republicans were guilty of political malpractice Monday night when they tried to change the way the Office of Congressional Ethics will operate in the 115th Congress. But they are to blame not because the OCE works well or is a good thing. It doesn’t and it isn’t. It needs reform, and it would not be wrong to abolish it.

What made the GOP move culpable was, rather, that it was done semi-secretly, near midnight, on a public holiday. This naturally raised a storm of protest and, in the clear daylight of Tuesday, Republicans scrapped their plans. We applaud that decision and suggest that when the party gets around to reforming the ethics process, which is necessary, it does so with plenty of open public discussion first.