Yesterday, for the first time in Congressional history, the Speaker of the House of Representatives was fined $300,000 and formally reprimanded for violating House rules. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly — 395 to 28 — to accept the House Ethics Committee’s recommendations that Newt Gingrich be punished for using tax-exempt organization to advance the political agenda of the Republican Party. He was also reprimanded to making inaccurate and false statements to the Ethics Committee.