Posted on 04/10/2005 11:07:44 AM PDT by AntiGuv
WASHINGTON - The No. 3 Republican in the Senate said Sunday that embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay needs to answer questions about his ethics and "let the people then judge for themselves."
Sen. Rick Santorum's comments seem to reflect the nervousness among congressional Republicans about the fallout from the increased scrutiny into DeLay's way of doing business.
DeLay, R-Texas, has been dogged in recent months by reports of possible ethics violations. There have been questions about his overseas travel, campaign payments to family members and his connections to lobbyists who are under investigation.
"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," said Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.
"But from everything I've heard, again, from the comments and responding to those, is everything he's done was according to the law," Santorum told ABC's "This Week."
"Now you may not like some of the things he's done," Santorum said. "That's for the people of his district to decide, whether they want to approve that kind of behavior or not."
DeLay was admonished three times last year by the House ethics committee. He has blamed his woes on Democrats, liberal interest groups and the media.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last week that the controversy was distracting DeLay from dealing with more pressing problems before Congress.
Santorum, however, said DeLay is "very effective in leading the House" and that "to date, has not been compromised."
A senior Democratic senator, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, had this advice for the Republicans who control both the House and Senate: "Be careful about how closely you embrace Mr. DeLay."
Dodd cited the new rules for the ethics committee that House Republicans rammed through in the wake of DeLay's difficulties. Those rules require a bipartisan vote before an investigation can be launched. DeLay's office also helped mount a counterattack last fall against Rep. Joel Hefley (news, bio, voting record), R-Colo., who was the ethics committee chairman when it came down against DeLay.
"Unfortunately, in his particular case, there's a process that he's tried to change so they could actually reach a determination as to whether or not he's innocent or guilty of the things he's been charged with," Dodd said. "But this is not going to go away."
DeLay "becomes the poster child for a lot of the things the Democrats think are wrong about Republican leadership. As long as he's there, he's going to become a pretty good target," Dodd said on ABC.
The House leader, who took center stage in passing legislation designed to keep alive Terri Schiavo, also has found that President Bush and congressional colleagues are distancing themselves from his comments, after her death, about judges involved in her case.
"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," DeLay said, raising the prospect of impeaching members of a separate and independent branch of government. Later, he complained of "an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."
Bush, declining to endorse DeLay's comments, said Friday that he supports "an independent judiciary." He added, "I believe in proper checks and balances."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said last week that the judges "handled it in a fair and independent way," although he had hoped for a different result.
Democrats have said DeLay's remarks were tantamount to inciting violence against judges.
or Daschle's wife or Berger's stealing classified docs or Gore's fundraising, or...fill in the blank.
Weak, pathetic, cowardly Republicans get played like a drum.
But then his wife and daughter are such great political consultants. They've gotten him reelected how many times? Well yeah they did get the seat gerrymandered with the rest of them in Texas so he would have to be outed as a gay or pedophile to lose but still Im sure they are worth every dollar (Sarcasm intended).
Exactly what the Dems are trying to do and without one thing being proven.
The attack on DeLay started after the re-districting in Texas. If they "get" him they will just start going after the next Repub leader.
It's called tacking toward the center. It's what people that dont live in Heavily Red states have to do get elected. It's also why Dems in red states are shown hunting and are constantly talking about God. What do you want, a constant conservative vote in the Senate or someone that throws red meat to the base until they get voted out. Pennsylvania is not Texas or Wyoming.
Hey I dont meddle in Israel's politics. Stay out of ours.
I am disappointed by this...so am I. Once again the democrats with the collusion of the MSM develop an all out attack on a Republican and our leadership folds.
Pelosy, Reid have much smellier backgrounds and instead of taking the opportunity to turn the tables on them, we go soft and help them destroy our people.
Why not give them headlines like "Santorun says Pelosy, Reid are crooks and Byrd is a racist"?
Many do. They just dont pay anywhere as near as much as DeLay. They feel a need to at least act like they arent ripping off the taxpayer.
So its fair to treat campaign donations as personal income and use it for personal vacations, new cars, etc? Campaign donations are tax deductible to those that wrote the checks.
I haven't seen anything indicating that Delay's wife and daugther are the "great political consultants" you say they are. The only thing I've seen is Delay himself saying they are, which, at this point, is a bit much to swallow.
I think he will be a WRINO. He used to be a conservatives conservative. Now, I think he's just as slimy as the rest of them and will do or say anything to be re-elected.
* You can't swing a dead cat in the senate room without hitting a senator that has family on the payroll. This is not unique to DeLay. That's why this crap is so bogus. *
I hate this arguement. Is this the way you raised your kids ("Come on... all the kids smoke a little.") We MUST hold our people, as ourselves, to a higher standard than "everyone does it."
First off delay was payign his wife and daughter 50k each over 5 years which totals a 100k. Hardly alot of money considering what other people in the beltway do. Hell look at harry reid doling out contracts to his relatives in the millions, or pelosi giving nice lucrative contracts back to campaign contributions. While what delay did isnt illegal it does smell of beltway and most of us here are dissapointed in him for acting this way but he by no means did anything illegal or anything out of the ordinary. Who the hell is santorum to bitch about anything when he has his own little incident with tax payers paying for his kids school.
The problem is that our republican leaders in washington live there far too long and become spineless wonders. They try so hard to be accepted by the beltway establishment since its overwhelmingly liberal and as such they pander and try to please them. The problem with that is nothing they do is ever going to get the liberals to like them and thats why democrats and the media hate Delay so much. He makes no bones about who he is or his political views, ie "The Hammer". If more republicans were like him and didn't give a rats ass about the media establishemnt or the democrats in washington maybye we'd actually get some things done. I mean look at what democrats did to us back in the 80s when they were in charge? When they were in charge they threw us out of commitees and the moderate RINO weenies just tried to get along with them in hopes of a few benefits of political office. The problem is alot of those RINO's are still around and in positions of leadership and as such they still act like their a minority in washington.
For god's sake we are the MAJORITY start acting like it and just ignore these whiny little liberals adn let them piss and moan and nip at our heels.
And that's supposed to be better? What exactly is the difference between $500,000 in direct campaign contributions funnelled into the bank accounts of your family members and a bribe?
No they are not. Check the tax code.
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