Congress - For DeLay, Could Wrongs Make a Wright?

Richard E. Cohen (Email this author)
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Not so long ago, a headstrong House leader with a take-no-prisoners legislative style was held to account for his multiple ethics violations. With the chamber tied in knots by bitterness, the Texan finally took to the House floor to deliver a dramatic one-hour speech in which he defended himself against the allegations but declared that he had had enough.

"I am going to make you a proposition: Let me give you back this job you gave to me, as a propitiation for all of this season of bad will that has grown up among us," House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, told the crowded but hushed chamber, as he offered his resignation on May 31, 1989. "I do not want to be a party to tearing up this institution. I love it."

Now questions about the future of another Texas leader hang ominously over the House. Day after day, newspapers, cable news programs, and radio talk shows have been filled with stories about alleged ethical transgressions by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, including reports of influence-peddling, improper overseas junkets, and campaign finance violations. Of late, he has faced both a stinging editorial from the conservative Wall Street Journal and anti-DeLay TV ads financed by Democratic critics. National polls have revealed a public backlash against his charge for congressional intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, and local polls have found dwindling support for him among his district's constituents.

As Congress returned for its first full workweek following the two-week Easter recess and an abbreviated schedule last week because of the pope's funeral, Republicans sought to show they are focused on their policy agenda, while Democrats helped to fan the flames surrounding DeLay. With the majority leader's woes looking unlikely to disappear anytime soon, both parties this week revealed how they plan to adapt their legislative and political strategies to what has become something of a media and political frenzy. The partisan jousting over DeLay has reached election-eve intensity.

DeLay, for his part, appears to be holding up under the pressure and is attempting to conduct business as usual. On April 13, more than 70 reporters jammed into a Capitol conference room for his weekly "pen and pad" session. DeLay came out swinging on the topics that he wanted to discuss: the "incredible honor" of attending the pope's funeral, the House's busy legislative agenda, and his recanting of his earlier criticism of the federal judges involved in the Schiavo case.

But DeLay refused to respond to most reporters' questions about his ethics problems -- except to reiterate his desire to discuss the allegations with the House Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics) Committee. "I know the Left and some in the media want me to address other issues. I will not do that," DeLay told the assembled reporters, adding that the criticism surrounding him "is not on our agenda, and we're not going to talk about it."

DeLay's House Republican colleagues this week voiced anger and frustration over the constant drumbeat of attacks against their leader, and they were largely dismissive of the charges that have been leveled. "It's a Beltway feeding session by the left wing, coordinating with the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee], to fabricate ethics issues," charged Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and a close DeLay ally. "We are doing our work."

Another House GOP member, who demanded anonymity, declared: "Take this for what it is: an attempt to take down Tom DeLay by some in the media and the Democrats."

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the chief deputy majority whip, said that DeLay is unfazed by the attacks. "He's a very strong individual," Cantor said. "He hasn't missed a beat."

House Republicans appeared to be circling the wagons after two other GOP lawmakers voiced weekend criticism. Moderate Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., told local audiences that DeLay is "hurting the Republican Party" and should resign as leader; Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said during a Meet the Press interview that DeLay "has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it, and let people judge for themselves."

Still, some Republicans conceded that DeLay made his own situation worse by playing a highly visible role in the Schiavo case last month. "The members basically want Tom to get a case of laryngitis," said a former House GOP leadership aide who is among the phalanx of lobbyists intently monitoring DeLay's status.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., held their own session with reporters on April 13. At their well-orchestrated press conference, the two Democratic leaders focused on the larger picture: what they contend is an abuse of power by congressional Republicans. They lamented the poor "quality of democracy" in both chambers, including the design of legislation by and for interest groups, the denial of minority-party rights, the threat of going "nuclear" to end Senate filibusters of judicial nominees, and the breakdown of the ethics process.

Although Pelosi and Reid took the posture of being above the fray, they left little doubt that DeLay has become their poster child for congressional misbehavior. The follow-up questions from reporters and the leaders' replies were dominated by references to DeLay. "The issue here," Pelosi said, "is the ethical fitness of Tom DeLay to be leader of the House."

Publicly, Democrats have sought to keep their fingerprints off the news reports about DeLay. But a veteran House Democratic aide said that the DCCC has been regularly sending negative news clips about DeLay to House Democratic offices.

At a meeting of the House Ethics Committee later on April 13, both parties made clear that they aren't budging from the standoff that has prevented the panel from organizing itself in the new 109th Congress.

Ethics Committee ranking member Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., offered a resolution asking the leaders of both parties to create a bipartisan task force to review the House's ethics rules, which Republicans unilaterally changed on January 4 in their opening-day rules package. But the committee rejected Mollohan's resolution on a party-line tie vote. The panel is the only one in the House with the same number of members from each party.

The ethics controversy arose out of GOP unhappiness with the three "admonishments" that the committee issued to DeLay last fall, shortly before the November election. Democrats and other critics contend that the Republican-written rules changes were deliberately designed to stymie further investigations of DeLay.

Rules Committee ranking member Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., has been outspoken in demanding that the House "restore the integrity of the ethics process" before the Ethics Committee can do business. In response, a House GOP member said that privately, "Democrats are giggling that the media are doing their work for them" with the constant stories about DeLay's ethical issues.

In the wake of the week's events, nobody can confidently say how the drama will be resolved. But for now, at least, Wright's past does not appear to be a prologue to DeLay's future.

Although both Wright's case and DeLay's involved charges of ethical wrongdoing by powerful House leaders, there are key differences between the two. Back in 1989, an Ethics Committee investigation resulted in dozens of findings against Wright, concerning a book deal and other financial transactions. But few Democrats rose to his defense, and it was plain to see that his "reservoir of goodwill" with other members of his party was seriously depleted. Wright spent a few tortured weeks trying to save his speakership, and while he was not explicitly forced out, he eventually threw in the towel.

"With Tom DeLay, there is still an ideological fervor" on his behalf among congressional Republicans and conservative interest groups, veteran Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., remarked during a recent breakfast with reporters. "Wright did not have emotional support among the Democratic base." Another important contrast, in Frank's view: "Wright had an active Ethics Committee.... DeLay has no Ethics Committee to worry about." At least, not right now.

There are also other differences: In 1989, the first President Bush was in office, and the divided party control of Washington made bipartisanship essential to getting anything done. (Wright's departure was followed by an unusually productive legislative season for the 101st Congress.) Now Republicans worry about the impact of DeLay's woes on how the GOP-controlled Congress will handle the ambitious agenda of the current President Bush.

In addition, Wright's ethics problems were not the subject of criminal investigations. Although there is no indication that DeLay is the target of prosecutors, three of his political associates have been indicted by a grand jury in Austin, Texas, and are awaiting trial, and federal prosecutors in Washington have been probing influential Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who had extensive dealings with DeLay. Another important distinction: In the late 1980s, then-backbench Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., generated some press coverage of Wright's alleged misbehavior. But that publicity pales in comparison with today's media frenzy over DeLay.

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