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
Republican (GOP_Raider) calls for Shays to kindly bite every single inch of him.
I had never followed DeLay, nor do I know if any accusations are true or false.
The first time I saw him was his standing for Terri Schiavo. I saw a man of character, courage, integrity, risking his reputation to save the life of one helpless American. I saw a real man. I saw someone making a difference, being a leader for good.
And then all week I saw him devoured by evil people even in his own party. Before, he didn't have the knowledge of the level of evil in the American heart, and thought of course it would be something he could do, get the Senate and House to save a life.
Good people have got to learn not to trust anyone. Sound cynical? Well, Terri Schiavo's dead, and this is not something predictable to a good person.
All I can say is, thank you for trying, Mr. Delay. You have my vote anytime.
Describe how it was questionable and what is "etc" exactly?
From the rest of your answer, I must say, you really don't have any specifics just "feelings" generated from the Dem/msm machine.
Be careful, or you'll be doing their dirty work for them.
He's that liberal homosexual congressman from some yankee New England state that voted against impeaching Clinton.
i think Chris Shays ought ti step down.
***....If he ever runs for speaker, I get to vote on the House floor, and my 'no' vote combined with the Democrats' means he will never be speaker," Shays said, according to a report in Greenwich Time. The newspaper also quoted Shays as saying: "Do I think Tom DeLay will be the majority leader by the end of this term? No. . . . I don't think Tom DeLay is going to survive." ...***
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42422-2005Apr10.html
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Since when does a democrat or in Shays case, a stinking low life rat in disguise RINO, need actual evidence to bring down a fellow party member?
Don't you know it's not the evidence that counts, but the seriousness of the charges that matter
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
A man from whom he had parted ways. And ethics probes in Texas have been orchrastrated by the same man that did this:
***Kay Bailey Hutchison vaulted to national attention in 1993 when she wrested from Democrats a U.S. Senate seat that had been in their hands since 1875. Her drubbing of interim Sen. Bob Krueger, a Democrat appointed to the seat once held by Lloyd Bentsen, not only made her Texas' first woman senator but also marked the first time since Reconstruction that both Texas Senate seats were held by Republicans. Dubbed a rising star in national GOP circles, her climb was stalled when just days after her election she was accused of using state employees and resources for political gain during her 2 1/2-year tenure as state treasurer. She was indicted in 1993 on criminal ethics charges _ which she said were politically-motivated by Democrats. She was acquitted in February 1994 when state prosecutors, disheartened by the judge's pre-trial rulings, refused to present their case.***
Your post gave me the opportunity to raise the question "Does anyone know the facts or are they just repeating democrat talking points?"
No offense meant.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Only the Houston Comical would take seriously a Connecticut homosexual's views on who should represent Texans in D.C.
Exactly!
SHAYS is the one who is an embarrassment to Republicans.
I see no useful purpose in contacting that jerk. It seems that, in his own little mind, what he says is how Republicans SHOULD think.
Isn't there someone 'better' to contact, so 'we'(R's) can make it KNOWN that 'we'(R's) support DeLay all the way?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
And all majors news outlets!!!!
D@mn! On the money sir! (or m'am) A little early here, but you're right on....
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