Posted on 04/04/2006 1:39:17 AM PDT by Types_with_Fist
Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader Tom Delay intends to resign from Congress within weeks, closing out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style.
Republican officials said Monday night they expect the Texan to quit his seat later this spring. He was first elected in 1984, and conceded he faced a difficult race for re-election.
"He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership post earlier this year.
But Democrats said the developments marked more than the end to one man's career in Congress.
"Tom DeLay's decision to leave Congress is just the latest piece of evidence that the Republican Party is a party in disarray, a party out of ideas and out of energy," said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
A formal announcement of DeLay's plans was expected Tuesday at a news conference in Houston.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"Succumbing to scandal."
I stop reading right there.
DeLay's 14 minute taped statement will air this morning.
"Succumbing to scandal."
I stop reading right there.
DeLay's 14 minute taped statement will air this morning.
< snip >
"Tom DeLay's decision to leave Congress is just the latest piece of evidence that the Republican Party is a party in disarray, a party out of ideas and out of energy," said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
A formal announcement of DeLay's plans was expected Tuesday at a news conference in Houston.
DeLay is under indictment in Texas as part of an investigation into the allegedly illegal use of funds for state legislative races.
Separately, the Texan's ties with lobbyist Jack Abramoff caused him to formally surrender his post as majority leader in January, within days after the lobbyist entered into a plea bargain as part of a federal congressional corruption probe.
More recently, former DeLay aide Tony Rudy said he had conspired with Abramoff and others to corrupt public officials, and he promised to help the broad federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that already has resulted in three convictions.
Neither Rudy, Abramoff nor anyone else connected with the investigation has publicly accused DeLay of breaking the law, but Rudy confessed that he had taken actions while working in the majority leader's office that were illegal.
DeLay has consistently denied all wrongdoing, and he capped a triumph in a contested GOP primary earlier this year with a vow to win re-election.
In an interview Monday with The Galveston County Daily News in Texas, DeLay said his change of mind was based partly on a poll taken after the March Republican primary that showed him only narrowly ahead of Democrat Nick Lampson.
"Even though I thought I could win, it was a little too risky," the paper quoted him as saying.
In a separate interview with Time Magazine, DeLay says he plans to make his Virginia condominium his primary residence, a step that will disqualify him from the ballot in Texas and permit GOP officials there to field a replacement candidate. "I can do more on the outside of the House than I can on the inside right now. I want to continue to fight for the conservative cause. I want to continue to work for a Republican majority," DeLay told the magazine for its online edition.
It was not clear Monday night whether Texas Gov. Rick Perry would call a special election to fill out the unexpired portion of DeLay's term, or whether the seat would remain vacant until it is filled in November.
Either way, DeLay's concern about the potential loss of a Houston-area seat long in Republican hands reflected a deeper worry among GOP strategists. After a dozen years in the majority, they face a strong challenge from Democrats this fall, at a time when President Bush's public support is sagging, and when the Abramoff scandal has helped send congressional approval ratings tumbling.
Until scandal sent him to the sidelines, DeLay had held leadership posts since the Republicans won control of the House in a 1994 landslide. At first, he had to muscle his way to the table, defeating then-Speaker Newt Gingrich's handpicked candidate to become whip.
But DeLay quickly established himself as a forceful presence — earning a nickname as "The Hammer" — and he easily became majority leader when the spot opened up.
He sat at the nexus of legislation, lobbying, political campaigns and money.
And while he was a conservative, he raised millions of dollars for the campaigns of fellow House Republicans regardless of their ideology, earning their gratitude in the process.
He supported tax cuts, limits on abortions, looser government regulation of business and other items on the conservative agenda, and he rarely backed down.
DeLay was the driving force behind President Clinton's impeachment in 1999, weeks after Republicans lost seats at the polls in a campaign in which they tried to make an issue of Clinton's personal behavior.
His trademark aggressiveness helped trigger his downfall, when he led a drive to redraw Texas' congressional district boundaries to increase the number of seats in GOP hands.
The gambit succeeded, but DeLay was soon caught up in an investigation involving the use of corporate funds in the campaigns of legislators who had participated in the redistricting.
He attacked prosecutor Ronnie Earle as an "unabashed partisan zealot," and said numerous times he hoped to clear himself of the charges quickly and renew his claim to the majority leader's office.
The trial has yet to begin.
Most of the Republican Congress is an absolute disgrace in this area.
While my contempt for Ronnie Earle knows no bounds, and my distaste for the leftoid democrats and media remains, my disillusionment with the Republicans is really, really painful. We elected these guys for a change....., not to quote Bible verses while they threw money out in the streets at a rate exceeding democrats.
Welcome to FreeRepublic.
I wish that he hadn't resigned. This is only going to hurt Republicans.
Thank you. Yours is the second gracious welcome I have received in two days! Thanks again.
¡Bienvenidos a Free Republic!
Have you been introduced to the Viking Kitties before?
It's hard to understand why he will resign and not serve out his term. It reminds me of Rep. Livingston, who was elected to Speaker then destroyed by an ancient and rather contrived "scandal"...He resigned too. Republicans should fight it out, not let the media and Dems win so many of these set-ups.
The clintons take FBI files into their possession, conveniently lose Rose Firm Law Records, rape and sexually assault women, steal china from Air Force One, sell technology to China - while accepting political campaign contributions, show complete incompetence in foreign affairs, that result in the attacks of 9/11,and yet they are beloved by their fellow democrats?
Amazing!
Obviously, you must be ignoring the bible verses.
I think he(she)'s refering to the liberal bible, the postings of the DU.
I get SO SICK of discounting peoples opinion based upon when they signed up!!!
Yes, we do run into a ton of newbies who are here to disrupt, but quite frankly I think he's got a wonderful point here. The Congress has spent like drunken sailors and have done VERY LITTLE to cut wasteful spending. I LOVE Tom Delay. I know that he is one of the best out there, but at the same time, the Republicans have betrayed conservatism yet once again. We need LEADERSHIP!!! Do you think Reagan would put up with this???
Anyway, give people's opinion more weight that just their sign on date.....Its very, you know, snobbish....
What gives you this indication?
IN OTHER NEWS....Sen. Robert Byrd, former Ku Klux Klan member, does NOT plan to retire.
Oh well...
That's got me wondering, too. Now the governor has to call a special election. The Democrat has the money and the name recognition and could conceivably win and wind up running in November as the incumbant. Had DeLay just said he was retiring at the end of his term he would have still removed himself as an issue for the Democrats, kept the seat in Republican hands, and allowed the same amount of time for a successor to come to the front.
Post his name beside names like Preston Tucker, whom wicked and lying men attempted to destroy or succeeded in destroying. I pray Tom Delay is in the former category and that the wicked men join the other wicked men from the last century.
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