Posted on 04/09/2005 1:20:49 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
ANALYSIS
Administration has yet to target DeLay for ouster
Despite signs of strain, critics need more ammunition to bring him down
WASHINGTON - One way to judge whether House Majority Leader Tom DeLay can survive questions about his conduct in office is to watch for signals from the White House, which was instrumental in the ouster of another Republican leader in 2002.
Unlike former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who was pushed out of his leadership post by the White House in favor of Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., DeLay has yet to feel any firm shoves from President Bush's operatives.
"Nobody around here is saying that DeLay is a problem the way Lott was," a senior administration official said Friday. At least, not yet.
Unless DeLay is hit with new, clear-cut evidence of wrongdoing or gets indicted by a Travis County grand jury that is investigating political corruption by his associates, the Sugar Land Republican remains protected by the conservatives in his party, despite persistent questions about his overseas travel and political fund raising and spending.
"I think there's a general feeling that (critics) are going to need more before he's in trouble. There's nothing that compares to the moment when we spoke out about Lott," the administration official said.
But there are signs of strain.
On board Air Force One as it headed back to Texas after the funeral of Pope John Paul II, Bush was asked to respond to DeLay's recent attacks against federal judges, particularly those who refused to order the reinsertion of a feeding tube for Terri Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged Florida woman who died last week.
"I believe in an independent judiciary. I believe in proper checks and balances" between branches of government, the president said, joining other high-profile Republicans, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Frist, who have distanced themselves from DeLay's strident critique of judges.
Just a month ago, Bush was calling DeLay a "close ally," adding, "I have confidence in Tom DeLay 's leadership, and I have confidence in Tom DeLay."
While House Republicans are keeping a stiff upper lip in public, some GOP lawmakers privately worry that DeLay's troubles are becoming a major distraction.
Congressional analysts also note the absence of a strong public statement of support by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., DeLay's longtime ally.
Lawmaker's powerful role The "moment" the White House turned against Lott came when the president, in a high-profile speech, disavowed the senator's praise for the 1948 presidential campaign of pro-segregation Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond.
The firestorm around Lott's comments began as a slow burn, but the heat was turned up by civil rights leaders, as well as by conservative commentators who were unhappy with Lott's willingness to compromise with Democrats.
In the DeLay case, "the White House is going to have to operate with stealth because of DeLay's relationship with the right," which is the party's base, said Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council who once worked for the Christian Coalition. "This is much dicier for the White House than Lott was."
DeLay's staying power so far has more to do with political pragmatism than with his relationship with Bush, which has been testy at times.
Republicans and even begrudging Democrats agree that DeLay is a masterful majority leader, managing to drive through Congress some of Bush's most challenging legislation.
Democrats face challenges DeLay is being increasingly compared to former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, who was forced to resign in 1989, but their circumstances differ. Wright, a moderate, "did not have the kind of emotional support in the Democratic base that DeLay has in the Republican base," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., recalled recently.
Also, Wright resigned before receiving the official findings of an aggressive House ethics committee investigation.
Currently, the ethics committee is virtually nonexistent. Democrats are protesting the Republicans' re-writing of the rules that make it harder to investigate members.
DeLay also is helped by the complexity of the financing of his trips and political activities.
"The challenge (for Democrats) with the attacks on DeLay is that you cannot, in two sentences, explain what the charges are," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
But critical news reports could eventually change that.
Former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., who was on the verge of becoming House speaker in 1998, listed Lott, Wright, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and himself among those who were forced to step aside or leave office because of intense media scrutiny.
"We all faced that sort of thing and it's not comfortable at all," Livingston said. But DeLay "is a fighter and he's effective," and it will take more than what has emerged so far to force him out, Livingston predicted.
gebe.martinez@chron.com
The 'Rats have proven that they are an unscrupulous, lying bunch of thieves whose every word is a damned lie.
Screw 'em. Go HAMMER!!
Regards,
hooray for the new york times.
Anyone taking bets? I say McCain is the first one to turn on Delay.
Another typical leftist ploy. Repeatedly question someone and then say because of all the questions he should step aside.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the libs are too powerless to make the charge stick.
Their ploy, IMO, is to put so much media pressure on that RHINOs and any other weak kneed Republicans so that they will bail on DeLay. If that doesn't work, it still fits their larger picture of painting Republicans as corrupt and politically vicious leading up to the elections of 06 and 08.
With Liberals, politics is a blood sport.
Soros said he would spend all his money, if necessary, to get rid of Bush. To bad he lied because that failed and he is now after all conservatives with money still in tact.
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