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
News reports!!!??? I believe this was since 2001 From a post here: http://www.lipserv.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3619&highlight=&
***.....The latest monthly disclosure filed by Americans for a Republican Majority shows Mrs. DeLay was paid was paid $4,028 last month, while Mrs. Ferro received $3,681. Earlier statements show that the two women received similar monthly fees from the political action committee throughout 2003, 2004 and continues into 2005.
At that rate, DeLay wife makes about $48,250 a year, while his daughter earns closer to $40,000. At that rate over four years, the two of them put together would have made around $350,000. The rest of the $500,000 comes from Mrs. Ferro's consulting firm which works on DeLay's election campaigns. It received $221,000 over four years, or about $55,000 a year.
Republican can point to Democrats whose campaign and political action committees have provided lucrative jobs or consulting contracts to family members. Representative Howard L. Berman, the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee from 1997 to 2003, paid $50,000 from his campaign accounts last year to a consulting firm owned by his brother, according to disclosure forms. Disclosure statements also show that Senator Barbara Boxer, another California Democrat, directed $15,000 from her political action committee in 2003 to a consulting firm run by her son.
Still, I think the hiring family member is a problem with possible corruption, but it isn't against the law or unethical. CBS and the Times knows this is a practice by many politicians, so to single out Delay is transparent dishonesty......
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Also, did you hear Rush read and discuss the Harry Reid LA Times article about how he has his son and 4 sons-in-law set up with sweet deals? Now that's what the media should be covering.
I couldn't have said it better. Oh the seriousness of the charge! Yea, that ought to stir the republican pot, and even better if we can get a few RINO's to sign on to the charges. Innuendo, slander, suggested ethics violations. Anything to muddy the water.
Shays is a vicious pro-rape Rino who should retire and go back to beneath his rock.
Correct.
But that's the total paid over a ten year period, ergo - $50K per year.
That little fact was initially reported but has now been dropped by the MSM. After all, $500K sounds a whole lot worse and naturally damning, than a measly $50K a year salary.
Passing thought: Do you suppose Rep Shays consults much with Rep Frank?
A Different View: I predict that Tom DeLay will, if he hasn't already, drop his attack on the judiciary like a hot rock. There are several reasons, the main one being it's a loser for him and the Repubs.
Second prediction is that if he keeps up the attack, he'll be gone, in one way or another.
We're all going to be gone, one way or another. It's what we do with our time here that counts in the end.
DeLay's been doing good work and he's good at what he does so that means the left has to take him out.
If he has to hold his fire to win the war, so be it but he will not let socialist bullies roll over him.
The Porpaganda Arm of the DamnRat Party (AKA MSM) is trying to do the same thing to Tom Delay that they tried to do to President Bush ( which by the way didn't work then either)is "Death By A Thousand Cuts"
In hopes that he will bleed enough that the sharks will start circling - some btw in his own party!!
Santorum to name one!
Bingo..correctamundo...some little known local dem pol ran against him last time out, and almost beat him..so he's trying to save his seat..but stupidly, he's burning all his bridges behind him..however..Shays is NO dummy..so why this very public outburst now?.....Only ONE possible answer that fits..he wants the GOP leadership to tear him a new one so that he can switch to the Dem party..
Here in Houston, the local newspaper "The Comical" runs a "daily" front page hit piece on DeLay....
Has anyone noticed that DeLay has done nothing wrong...?
But then he'd be in the minority - I think he's having more "fun" in the majority.
Really. I'm surprised Shays is so bold as to take a stand on this. < /sarcasm>
I'd expect him to hold a town meeting, with a finger in the air, dangling his position between pro and con, like he did prior to the impeachment vote.
What a schlup.
Another possibility is that the Democrats have photos of him from the Congressional-Gobbe-Whorehouse.
I think Cin's wife is correct. Shays doesn't want to switch. He likes the attention and knows it will get big press in his district. But it'd be a disaster for him to be in the minority.
It's relentless.
Why is it that conservatives are so very ready to rip other conservatives to shreads. They need to wise up
Just wondering if Rep. Shays was in office during the Clinton era and asked Clinton, who was dividing the country and facing far more serious allegations, to resign?
He was... and no.
Hey - he'd say it was "just about sex."
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