|
Tom DeLay steps down as House majority leader
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-08 10:44 The 58-year-old DeLay, an exterminator before his election to Congress in
1984, said he intends to seek re-election next fall. "I plan to run a very
vigorous campaign and I plan to win it," he told reporters in Texas.
The voters aside, his political future will hinge not only on the outcome of
the Texas allegations, but on the future of the Abramoff investigation.
Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay aide and an Abramoff business partner,
pleaded guilty in the fall to corruption charges. In court papers, the lobbyist
said he had once paid $50,000 (euro41,346) to the wife of another former DeLay
aide to help kill legislation opposed by his clients.
DeLay has been a fixture in the Republican leadership since the Republican
Party won its majority in the 1994 election landslide.
An outsider at first, he muscled his way up the hierarchy, prospering
politically and ultimately moving up to become majority leader, the No. 2 post,
in 1999.
Contrition was never a quality he displayed to his adversaries _ Democrats,
outside interest groups and others who sought to check the advance of the
conservative Republican agenda he promoted.
DeLay raised millions of dollars for the campaigns of fellow House
Republicans, conservatives and moderates alike, earning their gratitude
regardless of their ideology. He courted controversy almost reflexively,
including his involvement in an attempt to force corporations and industry
groups to hire more Republican lobbyists.
He rarely backed down.
DeLay was the driving force behind President Bill 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.
DeLay's downfall began at home in Texas, when he led a drive to redraw the
state's congressional district boundaries and increase the number of Republican
seats in the U.S. House. He succeeded, but was soon ensnared in an investigation
involving the use of corporate funds in the campaigns of Texas legislators who
had participated in the redistricting.
Flashing his trademark defiance, DeLay attacked prosecutor Ronnie Earle as an
"unabashed partisan zealot." He pledged repeatedly to clear his name and said he
would reclaim his duties as majority leader by the end of January.
The scandal spawned by Abramoff intervened, though.
Within two days of the lobbyist's appearances in federal court last week,
Republican lawmakers began circulating petitions calling for elections. Hastert
immediately made clear he would not stand in the way.
'After the Abramoff thing we got critical mass," said Rep. Jeff Flake, who
long had advocated new leadership.
While Flake is a conservative in a safe congressional district, others
suddenly calling for change were more moderate Republicans who could face
difficult re-election campaigns this fall.
New Mexico's Heather Wilson was among them.
She said three of DeLay's "former senior staff members have admitted or have
been implicated in corrupt and illegal activities to get money for themselves by
influencing legislation. Whether or not Mr. DeLay was involved himself or knew
this was going on, he is responsible for his office."
|
