Posted on 11/17/2004 10:58:25 AM PST by freepatriot32
WASHINGTON (Nov. 17) - House Republicans wrestled Wednesday with ways to keep Rep. Tom DeLay as majority leader in the event he is indicted by Texas grand jury that has brought charges against three of his political associates.
Meeting several hours behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, GOP members discussed compromises that would try to insulate their leader without giving blanket protection to party leaders indicted on felony charges.
DeLay, R-Texas, called the campaign finance investigation in Travis County, Texas a partisan attack on him, even though there has been no indication that he faces an indictment.
A House Republican rule requires that GOP leaders step down if indicted on charges that could bring a prison term of at least two years. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, has proposed that this step-aside rule apply only to federal felony indictments.
That plan ran into immediate trouble, several law makers said, when questions were raised about protecting members who hypothetically could be indicted for murder or other charges that would clearly be non-political. The Republican lawmakers then considered a compromise that would not distinguish between federal and state indictments, but would have the Republican Steering Committee- a group of more than two dozen members - determine whether an indictment was frivolous.
Under this proposal, the steering committee would have to make a decision in 30 days and the indicted leader would have to step aside temporarily while the committee deliberated.
The House Republican Conference, consisting of all House Republicans, would likely make the final decision on whether the leader had to relinquish his or her post.
The grand jury is probing alleged irregularities in 2002 state legislative races. Republican victories in those contests enabled DeLay ultimately to win support for a congressional redistricting plan that resulted in the GOP's gain of five House seats in Texas in this month's elections.
House Democrats have a step-aside provision that applies to both federal and state proceedings similar to the current Republican rule, and their leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, was highly critical of the GOP proposal.
''If they make this rules change, Republicans will confirm yet again that they simply do not care if their leaders are ethical. If Republicans believe that an indicted member should be allowed to hold a top leadership position in the House of Representatives, their arrogance is astonishing,'' Pelosi said.
In September, the grand jury indicted three political operatives associated with DeLay and eight companies, alleging campaign finance violations related to corporate money spent in the 2002 legislative races. The corporate donations were made to Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee created with help from DeLay.
DeLay said he was not questioned or subpoenaed as part of the investigation, led by retiring prosecutor Ronnie Earle.
The majority leader said after the indictments, ''This has been a dragged-out 500-day investigation, and you do the political math. This is no different than other kinds of partisan attacks that have been leveled against me that are dropped after elections.''
In October, the House ethics committee rebuked DeLay for appearing to link political donations to a legislative favor and improperly persuading U.S. aviation authorities to intervene in the Texas redistricting dispute.
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Associated Press Writer Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report
Travis county is a blue pimple on an other wise noble red field. Hope Delay delopes.
500 days, that long huh. Hmmmmm?
BS. You can't let a rabidly political pissant Democrat county prosecutor force out the US Majority Leader by gaming the legal system. Travis Co. D.A. Ronnie Earle has a history of serving up bogus political indictments with zero merits on Republicans (ask Kay Bailey Hutchison.)
if you follow the link at the top of the story it will take you to a instant poll here are the results so far
Should DeLay be allowed to retain his leadership post if he's indicted?
No 86%
Yes 14%
Total Votes: 3,496
An internet poll is unscientific, not a representative sample, and meaningless. Especially one tied to a slanted political story that leaves out half the relevant facts.
Not at all. We can't let our Congressmen be held hostage to a local, politically biased, prosecutor.
Maybe we could do a Clinton on this and make it retroactive - you know, like taxes!
Nancy and her ilk believe they should only need to find ways to bring corrupt, "ham sandwich"-style indictments to bring down their opponents on the Right. Indictments alone should destroy; it should not be left to convictions delivered by juries or appeals anymore, right Nancy?
Here they are again trotting out that which worked with Walsh, Weinberger and Bush, even though prosecution was abandoned quickly dropped after that election and the negative, MSM press had done its dirty work to let the soon-to-be-impeached SinkMaster into the oval orifice.
HF
Hey, 2PAC Pelosi, maybe they're just trying to keep up with you 'Rats, you sure didn;t seem to have a problem going to bat for an impeached lying POTUS.
If the DEMS had anything on DeLay he would have been indicted by now. My gut feeling is that the investigators are leaning hard on those they have already indicted in order to get them to squeal. There isn't anything there. The DEMS in Texas are just royally pissed because their self-imposed little AWOL trips to OK and NM have come back to bite them in the a$$. The ONLY place the DEMS have any sort of "power" in Texas is in the communist bastion of Austin. They suffer from the same "living in a bubble" disease that has afflicted the lame press.
The DEMS in Texas still have not learned that being vicious, punatitive and conniving will not garner them the precious votes they need.
I'm not a member so I can't log in to vote but if I could I would vote for DeLay keeping his job come hell or high water.
Am I the only conservative who gets this "dirty" feeling whenever I see or hear Tom Delay? I mean is this the best we've got in the House?
Time to put lawyer surrogate LE groups in line. They rule the whole country, whether Bush is elected or not. Asserting our equal rights in courts, allowing us to sue lawyer as lawyers, would do a whole good on putting these jerks in line, jerks who think that because they have this accreditation makes them higher lawyers than us, or higher law guns than us.
It's pathetic the way the average man and even the elected leaders of this nation have been discriminated out of courts because they do not have a bar exam under their belts.
Possibly.
'Am I the only conservative who gets this "dirty" feeling whenever I see or hear Tom Delay? I mean is this the best we've got in the House?'
Short answer yes and yes. DeLay has done more for conservative causes than any member of the House. He plays hardball, maybe that accounts for your 'dirty' feeling Moby.
The Hammer is the tops.
He is because he won't bend, so libs and so-called conservs don't like him. 'Dirty' feeling? Moby for sure.
Isn't that where Robin Rather and her merry band of forgers operate from?
Figures.
Yes, signed up just in time for the election no less. The Democrats would love nothing more then to get rid of DeLay. Myself, I'd make him Speaker in a second.
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