House GOP in turmoil after DeLay indictment

updated 4:43 p.m. ET Sept. 29, 2005

WASHINGTON - Shadowed by scandal, House Republicans face an uncertain new era after upheaval that left Majority Leader Tom DeLay under indictment and forced to surrender his powerful post.

House and Senate Republican leadership were due at the White House Thursday afternoon to plot legislative strategy with President Bush.

“What we do here is more important than who we are,” Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt said Wednesday after the rank and file named him as DeLay’s replacement, at least for the time being. “We have an agenda to move forward here.”

Democrats, 11 long years in the minority, said the GOP offered nothing of the sort.

DeLay’s indictment marks “the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people,” said Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader.

A Texas judge on Thursday set DeLay's court date for Oct. 21 in Austin.

Even as DeLay professed his innocence and his lawyers said they hoped to avoid having him handcuffed, fingerprinted and photographed, potential for fresh controversy surfaced.

Payments to alleged co-conspirator
Records on file with the Federal Election Commission show that Blunt’s political action committee has paid roughly $88,000 in fees since 2003 to a consultant facing indictment in Texas in the same case as DeLay.

Keri Ann Hayes, executive director of the Rely on Your Beliefs Fund, said officials of the organization have not discussed whether to end the relationship with the consultant, Jim Ellis, in light of his indictment.

“We haven’t had that conversation,” she said, adding that so far, Ellis’ indictment had no impact on his work.

DeLay’s indictment produced a public show of unity among Republicans and a scarcely concealed outbreak of power politics, at a time when polls show dwindling support for President Bush and the GOP-controlled Congress. Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist R-Tenn., faces federal investigations into the sale of stock.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Blunt and other senior GOP lawmakers said they expected DeLay to be exonerated. “This temporary arrangement will allow us to continue our work until (he) can resume his duties as majority leader,” said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the deputy whip who will assume many of Blunt’s old duties in the leadership shuffle.

Other expressions of support were more tempered.

RNC does not assert DeLay's innocence
“It is our sincere hope that justice will remain blind to politics. As Tom DeLay clearly stated today, House Republicans will continue to focus on the business of the American people,” party chairman Ken Mehlman said in a statement that did not assert the Texan’s innocence.

Some Republican lawmakers, who refused to be identified by name as a condition for disclosing their personal opinions, said they doubted DeLay would ever return to the leadership table. Others spoke of the possibility for political damage.

“Any time you have anything that smacks of scandal, it hurts all of us,” said Rep. Joel Hefley of Colorado, who served as chairman of the House ethics committee at a time when the panel three times admonished DeLay for his actions.

Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said he will return $15,000 in campaign funds from DeLay’s political action committee to remove any question about the nature of the contribution, according to Thursday’s New Hampshire Union Leader.

Several officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an aide to Hastert contacted California Rep. David Dreier on Monday about assuming the majority leader’s duties in the event DeLay was indicted. Several lawmakers said such a change would have made it easier for the Texan to eventually regain his post.

But by Tuesday, as the grand jury completed its work in Austin, Texas, Blunt forcefully asserted his claim to the job in conversations with the speaker, according to several GOP officials.

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