Posted on 04/10/2005 11:45:55 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON - Signaling that persistent ethics questions about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay may be starting to weigh down Republicans, a GOP moderate on Sunday called for DeLay to resign his leadership post, and a top GOP senator urged DeLay to answer questions about his ethics.
"Tom's conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election," Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., told the Associated Press after making similar comments at community meetings in his home district this weekend. He said DeLay should step down.
Shays has had a rocky relationship with DeLay, R-Sugar Land, in recent years over questions about campaign finance and ethics rules. But his concerns were underscored by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., a conservative and the Senate's third-ranking Republican, who said DeLay needs to clear the air.
"I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," Santorum said on ABC's This Week. He said that from what he knows of the ongoing DeLay controversies, "everything he's done was according to the law."
"Now you may not like some of the things he's done," said Santorum, who is up for re-election next year. "That's for the people of his district to decide, whether they want to approve that kind of behavior."
Ongoing investigations A political action committee created by DeLay has been under investigation by the Travis County district attorney, and federal investigators are probing a lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, who had ties to DeLay. The majority leader also has been the subject of recent news reports about the propriety of overseas travel, which may have been underwritten by lobbyists, including Abramoff.
DeLay also drew attention for his strident criticism of federal judges, particularly those who refused to order the reinsertion of a feeding tube for Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman who died March 31.
A spokesman for DeLay countered Shays' comment by noting he enjoys "wide support of the rank-and-file" of the House GOP conference. Most of the House Republicans are conservative, and many have viewed the scrutiny of DeLay as part of an orchestrated campaign to undermine their political agenda.
Asked if DeLay has heard from GOP House members who are worried about the volume of critical news reports, DeLay chief spokesman Dan Allen replied: "Members were very supportive through the week last week and going into the weekend."
A top administration official also said Friday that DeLay has not yet become the political liability that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., became in 2002, when he was pushed out of his leadership post by the White House in favor of Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., after making a political gaffe.
"Nobody around here is saying that DeLay is a problem the way Lott was," a senior administration official said.
But the mood on Capitol Hill has become testier as the controversies have raged on.
"I have no comment on anything," Rep. Michael Castle, R-Del., said as he avoided questions about DeLay last week.
Democrats also are trying to embarrass Republicans into dropping their support of DeLay. The Public Campaign Action Fund will announce today that it will run new anti-DeLay ads in key congressional districts.
Undoing rules changes One of the recent targets was Rep. Rob Simmons, R-Conn., who faced questions about DeLay during his own tough re-election battle last November. Simmons also strongly called for the resignation of his state's former Gov. John Rowland, who was convicted of selling access to his office for personal gain.
GOP members have maintained that they are getting relatively few questions about DeLay when they return to their districts. But on Saturday, voters at a town hall forum asked Shays about DeLay, the Greenwich Time reported.
"He is an absolute embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party," Shays told the Greenwich audience.
Shays and Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., the past chairman of the House ethics committee, have signed a Democratic resolution that would undo some of the rules changes that GOP leaders, including DeLay, pushed through the House in January.
The new rules make it harder for the committee to pursue probes against members. Democrats have protested by blocking the committee from officially organizing.
Hefley was removed as chairman after the committee unanimously voted last year to issue three admonishments against DeLay. A key staffer also was fired.
DeLay recently offered to go before the committee to answer charges that have been raised in recent weeks. But his offer was viewed as largely symbolic since the committee is gridlocked.
"This whole ethics thing could not have been handled worse than it was," said Hefley, who recently spoke to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., about ways to diminish the political heat on Republicans regarding ethics.
Loyalty with concerns Hefley said that the loyalty by members toward DeLay because of his strong leadership on tough issues has overshadowed the private concerns of some members about DeLay.
"A lot of folks mention quietly that they are concerned about it. On the other hand, you have a lot of members standing up and pledging their undying support for Mr. DeLay," Hefley said.
Among those standing behind DeLay are House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who said recently, "He's taking a lot of arrows for all of us."
gebe.martinez@chron.com
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Hey Chris .. you have done more damage to the Republican Party then anything Delay has done
Translation: .. We don't like you Chris
Who is Chris Shays?
Shays, you HACK!
If you lived in a real state you wouldn't say such stupid things.
Shays should shut-up.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Ignore this lying liberal POS with an R next to his name.
I support these fools year in year out.....thousands and thousands ($$) and man hours and demonstrations etc.
Now this time between Bush's horrible immigration policy, overspending and Congress's usual weaknesses and ...if they ditch DeLay. DeLay has stones the rest wish they had. And I could give a crap if he pays his family 50K a year to work on his campaign. 50K ain't rich.
I will be about at the bottom of support I have ever had for the GOP. I've watched folks here get disgruntled with the GOP over the years and thought they were off the wall.
Now I'm beginning to understand.
But...there is nowhere else to go for now.
That is why even though we seem in power we are not. The Dems have more of a reliable base which they respect.
The GOP uses the base to win (broken glass) and then abandons them and even ridicules us a bit.
We would not have won without the WOT last November.
The right wing in this country is still too weak. We are not there yet.
It's Monday, that means Republicans need to cave in on something....
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
The Chronicle's editor of some 11-12 years now is Jeff Cohen, a leftist who admitted, during a going-away dinner for his retiring editorial-page editor, coming to the Chronicle with the objective in view of making its editorial page a shrine to Left political advocacy. Their political writers are all superannuated liberal blimps and bloviators, except for the hostile left-wing women, and their editors all take a liberal line.
The paper gets into an amazing, and funny, case of split personality when the publisher orders the editors to endorse Dubya for reelection after they've been bashing him on the editorial page for years.
The secret is understanding that the Chronicle is also compromised, and it's in bed with many of the rich people who run Houston. Which leads to the split personality.
But that doesn't bother them when the subject turns to DeLay.
The Republican Party is disintegrating. I guess they just didn't know what to do with the power once they got it.
Thanks - message sent!
The "allegations" are just that - there is no substance to any of this.
Shays has dropped to a rating of 38%, while DeLay is at 100% according to http://www.acuratings.com
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
STFU, Chrissy girlie-boy.
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