Republican (Chris Shays) calls for DeLay to step down

Houston Chronicle ^ | April 11, 2005 | GEBE MARTINEZ

[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

[Always Right]

Out of 230 some GOP congresscritters, they found exactly ONE who is against Tom DeLay. Yep, the GOP is cracking.....

[roses of sharon]

The GOP and conservatives still refuse to see that the elite NY editorial pages and broadcast networks run this county, and have for decades.

The same with many freepers.

As long as the right continues to make policy to please and avoid criticism by the WP/NYT, they will lose.

The Senate is especially susceptible to this, since they have become a professional body, unlike the House.

We must destroy the NY media, expose their institutional agenda by taking each reporter, editor and their families on individually. Their finances, personal lives, and ties to DC in particular. We need to make them human.

The NY media have destroyed lives, reputations, and livelihoods with impunity for decades.

As soon as our Reps stop speaking to them, listening to them, and responding to them, the better, they need to stick to their local media, and build up certain national media, think tanks, activist groups, blogs, radio, Internet chats, ect.

And they should begin by shutting them down on Delay.

[bvw]

Then McCain must certainly step down. McCain's abuses -- accepting bribes, they were -- were far ahead of any Mr. Delay is involved in.

[SkyPilot]

I doubt there would be a link of it. Rep Robert Dornan's words were "taken down" in the House when I watched in live on C-SPAN several years ago. The ruckus started when Rep Shays wanted to condemn the Boy Scouts on the House floor for baring homosexual men as Scout leaders (if I recall correctly). Rep Dornan angrily protested Shay's procedural vote machinations, and said something like: "Chris won't even come clean about his real motivations for this, he makes me dizzy--he's "in", he's "out."

The Democrats howled and booed, and Rep Frank went ballistic on the house floor.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Thanks for the additional info. Hadn't heard about this before.

[sauropod]

Looks like the news reports were deceitful.

I even heard Brit Hume use the $500,000 figure.

[kittymyrib]

McCain was one of the famous "Keating Five" and should have been thrown out of the Senate. Hillery accepted grocery bags full of cash from the Chinese Communists. Did Shays ever say a word about either of them? No...instead this RINO picks on Tom DeLay. Where are the so-called "conservatives" in the House to defend him? I'm contacting my rep, Jeb Hensarling, to ask him why I haven't heard from him on this. Silent support is not worth a bucket of warm spit when the leftist sharks are circling in the water to pick off another real conservative. It's been happening since Judge Bork's nomination and the pathetic, tongue-tied Republicans STILL haven't learned to fight fire with fire.

[wardaddy]

Over 5 years (50 apiece)....I bet plenty of them have family on the payroll.

I worked for my dad all my life off and on....now I run all family enterprises.

It's not unusual.

[wardaddy]

Bump back to you.

[wardaddy]

I had to ponder that...lol....you mean Ford and the nepotism don't ya?

Maria, paying his family 50K a year apiece for 5 years to work on his campaign in which he has to run for election every two years does not sound wrong to me. Plenty of Congressfolk have family in their office or on the campaign trail.

Did not Cheney have his daughter heading some subtle position? Did she work and travel on her own dime?

She may have...Cheney has infintely more $$$ than DeLay who is far from wealthy.

;>)

[wardaddy]

Amen....

[wardaddy]

50K apiece for 5 years to work on his campaign which are constant since he runs every two years .

They may be staff as well....I do not know.

I believe I saw somewhere that over half of Congress at some point has family on the payroll.

[sauropod]

MSM is despicable. I don't recall hearing that said by anybody.

[sanjacjake]

McCain just shot down his Presidential bid..Shays
is a complete lackey..probably gets along with Barney
Frank and the rest of the Blue states in the
east....Delay has more "testacle strength" than
these so called ..R's ..ever had. It finally has
dawned on the Dems..to "Gingrich anyone"..and the
Republicans, who don't know how to defend their
own...fold like a Lawrence Welk accordion. Jake

[Wallace T.]

George Bush the elder may have seen the handwriting on the wall when he chose to not to return to Connecticut or New York after achieving financial success in Midland, Texas, in the oil business. He may be an old school Yankee to the core, but he is not a short-sighted one.

[NCSteve]

The Republican Party is disintegrating.

It's a terrible process, but interesting to watch all at the same time. The GOP has actually been fragmenting since 1998 when the moderates and liberals in the party got scared they were going to be completely and permanently out of power soon. The rampant big-government liberalism of the current Administration, coupled with the sheer stupidity and invertebrate nature of the current Congress has accelerated the process.

For interesting parallels, read about the disintegration of the Whig party around the time of the Civil War. A perfect illustration of what Sir Winston Churchill (and others) have said: Those who learn nothing from history are doomed to repeat it.

[Wallace T.]

One important avenue of influence the liberal media has is the local newspaper. Conservative talk radio and Internet sites such as this one have reduced the influence of the news magazines like Time and Newsweek, as well as ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN and The New York Times and Washington Post. However, the nation's daily newspapers are an inordinate influence on politics on the local level. Tip O'Neill's aphorism that all politics is local is the most perceptive statement that liberal ever made in his political career.

The disingenousness of these local newspapers is evidenced by their endorsing Republican candidates in areas where the white middle class, their subscriber base, is heavily conservative, such as Dallas or Houston. After three years and 11 1/2 months of rags like The Dallas Morning News and The Houston Chronicle slanting news coverage to the liberal side and having a predominance of liberal or RINO editorial columnists, they endorsed the re-election of Bush in an outburst of strange inconsistency. Not only is this a sop to their customer base, but it adds ammunition to liberal defenders of MSM objectivity by pointing to such editorials that the news media is really moderate.

The bottom line is that the local newspapers need to be starved out of business, or at least cut down to size. Conservatives need to cancel their subscriptions. Business owners should not advertise in these rags. Even alternative free newspapers are better places to place advertisements, as they are openly and forthrightly left-wing.

[wardaddy]

Half a million is just more sensational sounding.

This is a two pronged attack by the NYT and Wash Post over Delay's Schiavo remarks is my guess.

I'm waiting to hear what Bush says. Will he jettison DeLay like Lott (I hope not).

DeLay personally scolded and reeled in Tancredo during the election when Tancredo was chewing on Bush. Something to the effect that "now is not the time, during an election". We have a thread on that here somewhere.

[GrandmaC]

I saw this on Drudge.

Very Sick

I think Tom Delay is making them very nerveous to come up with something like this. Keep it up Tom Delay!

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Republicans eat their own."

---

Of course, in this case the attacker isn't a Republican, it's Chris Shays, who's less Republican than most registered Democrats.