Posted on 04/12/2005 12:50:36 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON - Republicans loyal to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay strongly denounced on Monday a GOP moderate's call for DeLay to step down from his leadership post.
But House Republicans were closely watching whether the lack of confidence expressed by Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., is shared by a significant segment of the party or represented merely the disgruntlement of a member worried about Democratic opposition back home.
Shays complained during the weekend that DeLay's ethical conduct "is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election."
'Difficult district'
Some party members were privately more troubled by remarks by Rick Santorum, R-Pa., the third-ranking Senate Republican. He said Sunday that DeLay, R-Sugar Land, should "come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves."
Santorum went on to say that from what he knows, everything DeLay has done was legal.
Shays, in Congress since 1987, has had a rocky relationship with DeLay in recent years. He was forced to defend the GOP leader during his re-election campaign last November and won by only four points.
"I didn't appreciate his comments at all," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands. "If you watch (Shays') pattern, he does this every quarter, whether he needs to or not. He finds some way to try and separate himself from Republican leadership. Most people just sort of shrug their shoulders. He's got a very difficult district that gets harder to defend each go 'round."
Questions raised
Top House GOP aides said that while Shays' concerns were predictable, Santorum's comments signaled an uneasiness among some lawmakers that DeLay's troubles could blow up into a major political scandal.
News reports of the past month have raised questions about the propriety of DeLay's political activities.
"What (DeLay) has to do is make certain that his colleagues understand that any issues that arise that are totally without merit are exactly that, totally without merit. And he has to give them a wall of defense that they can use," said former Republican Rep. Robert Walker, a Washington lobbyist.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan restated the administration's support for DeLay on Monday.
"Majority Leader DeLay is someone the president considers a friend, and he is someone that he was worked closely with to get things done in Washington," he said.
The friction between DeLay and Shays has a history. A split occurred while Shays was leading the campaign for passage of the 2002 campaign finance law. GOP leaders, especially DeLay, strongly opposed the measure and viewed Shays' successful legislative tactics as a betrayal.
The Republican leadership punished Shays by denying him the chairmanship of the House Government Reform Committee.
gebe.martinez@chron.comsamantha.levine@chron.com
I just got a fancy packet in the mail, return address "Dick Cheney," with one of those frameable certificates enclosed that thanks me for my work to help re-elect President Bush.
Of course there's a request for a donation to the Republican National Committee in that packet along with the "thank you."
I'm sending it back with this notation:
We've had Shays's number since the Clinton impeachment.
Shays made a big show of grandstanding at "town hall" meetings in front of his constituents in Connecticut -- trying to show how "torn" he was over how to vote on the articles of impeachment.
So Shays tried to have it both ways. Of course, he ultimately voted against the articles.
This is our signal to get on the ball and let them know that the lack of confidence is NOT shared by a significant segment of the party. Come on gang, contact all the GOP Reps.
Somebody find that link where we can shoot e-mail to all Reps and Sens at one time. We need to flood them.
And .. one article didn't even include Santorum's comments about the media cabal and Soros' money which were funding the attack.
I think we all need to be sending lots and lots of email to our House reps and senators - telling them they need to stand with DeLay .. because if they don't they will be next.
I'm with you. I think we should quit kissing his butt and let someone else have the seat. I'm sick of him holding this over our heads.
I've defended Santorum against the pettiness directed at him for not supporting Toomey, imo Toomey wasn't going to win in a Presidential election year. I've let the legislation to raise the minimum wage pass as usual political pandering in a tough upcoming election even though I personally thought rather than benefit, it was going to cause his opponents to smell blood. I thanked him for efforts on behalf of Terri. I retract non of these comments.
I will not defend him from his statements about Delay. Delay is one of the few, brave conservative Republicans in D.C. in power that don't give a damn about the Dems or MSM. That weak response from Santorum has caused me to move across the line. Maybe my feeling will change, but while I can tolerate the game of politics I despise the spineless especially when it concerns defending the soul of conservatism and one of its most principled backers. If santorum loses next year, I'm not inclined to shed a tear.
IMO, there are some things I will not accept. You don't sell out America. You don't sell out the American people. You don't sell out this President. Nor do you sell out Tom Delay.
I know his comments in full, and they were weak.
He went the "Fair and Balance" route that results in tepid support of Delay, some acknowledgement of the critics claims, but also some acknowledgement of the critics motives.
I expect far better but he played on both aisles because he's afraid of his '06 race chances.
At the same time, Democratic groups are funding ads in DeLay's Texas district, in conservative newspapers, and major new stations in Washington. Last week, the Campaign for America's Future ran ads in districts of other Republicans, tarring them with DeLay's troubles. Those targeted include Rep. Rob Simmons (R) of Connecticut, Rep. Tom Reynolds (R) of New York, who chairs the Republican National Committee, and Rep. Doc Hastings (R) of Washington, the newly appointed House ethics chairman.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1381894/posts
Borosage currently serves as co-director of the Campaign for America's Future (CAF) - a leftwing activist group founded in 1996, whose list of advisors includes Sixties radical Tom Hayden; former SDS president Todd Gitlin; former SDS radical Heather Booth; NOW founder Betty Friedan; Jesse Jackson and social scientist and activist Frances Fox Piven, a founder of the "welfare rights movement" of the late '60s and early '70s whose strategy of deliberately overloading welfare rolls to break the "system" actually bankrupted New York City.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1381895/posts
How long until we see a PSA with a "reasonable Republican" asking for DeLay to resign?
Correction to the article: Chris Shays is a LEFTIST.
Sorry to disillusion you, but PA is NOT a "very LIBERAL state". True Pitt and Philly as well as Erie went for Kerry but were it not for these machines, i believe you'd see strong conservative from the true voters. Don't bring up the Specter shiite again as the Unions switched parties for the primaries and defeated Toomey (who wasn't as well known throughout this huge state as Sphincter).
I'm sitting over here, in the Ozark foothills, enjoying the rapid decline of Memphis and Shelby county. King Willie is good for a daily laugh, as is John Ford, and the antics of the city school board fill in the occasional lulls in His Highness's continuing comedy of errors.
What will folks do when Willie sells MLG&W?
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