President Bush Shows Support to Embattled DeLay

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• KWAME HOLMAN:

  House Majority Leader Tom Delay was in the audience this afternoon when the president opened his Social Security forum in Galveston, and he gave Delay a nod.

• PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:

  I appreciate the leadership of Congressman Tom Delay in working on important issues that matter to the country.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  The president has reaffirmed his support for Tom Delay in recent weeks, as several newspapers investigate possible ethics violations by the House majority leader. The reporting has shown that Delay, his staff, and family may have taken extended overseas trips at the expense of lobbyists. Delay himself has denied knowing lobbyists paid for his trips, and some of his conservative supporters have been out trying to turn the focus onto Democrats.

• REP. DAVID DREIER:

  It's amazing that it's the Democratic leadership that has really decided to demonize Tom Delay It's been a great sport in this town for a while.

• REP. BLOY BLUNT:

  I think in this case, the other team thought, well, we can't figure out how to get them out on policy. We need to figure out how to get them out on something that doesn't relate to policy at all.

• SEN. TRENT LOTT:

  This is a manufactured controversy. It's a continuation of the politics of personal destruction we've seen in Washington for years.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  And Delay himself joked about it at a National Rifle Association dinner in Houston.

• REP. TOM Delay:

  When a man is in trouble or in a good fight, you want all your friends around, preferably armed. So I feel really good.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  But in last Sunday's Washington Post: More questions, and a few answers about Delay's travels. The Post said it confirmed Delay's airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 was charged to the credit card of Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist now under a federal tax investigation. An attorney for Tom Delay said he believed the lobbyists would be reimbursed by the organization that sponsored the trip.

  But House ethics rules prohibit payment by a lobbyist, "even where the lobbyist will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client." In the wake of the numerous allegations, Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings last week said Committee Republicans were ready to investigate.

• REP. DOC HASTINGS:

  I am here today with three of my four colleagues on the Ethics Committee to announce that we are all prepared to vote at the earliest opportunity to impanel an investigation subcommittee to review various allegations concerning travel and other actions by Mr. Delay

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  But an Ethics Committee investigation of Delay, or any other member, won't happen until the Committee's five Republicans and five Democrats agree under which rules they will investigate. Last year, Tom Delay was admonished three times by the House Ethics Committee for inappropriate behavior.

  But this year, Republican leaders managed to push changes in the ethics rules through the Republican-controlled House. However, Democrats on the evenly split Ethics Committee have refused to accept the new rules. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia is the committee's top Democrat.

• REP. ALAN MOLLOHAN:

  It is an effort to impose, because the majority can impose through a majority vote, rules upon the Ethics Committee that the Democrats weren't even consulted about. The process is violated; it's a principle extremely important to preserve, as you can understand; if we do not do the ethics committee in a bipartisan way in can quickly become a tool in the hands of the majority to assert influence over the minority, number one. Number two, the rules in and of themselves were bad.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Under one old rule, a complaint against any member would lead to an investigation automatically unless the committee formally disposes of it. Under the new rule, a complaint against a member would be dismissed automatically in 45 days if the committee can't decide what action to take. And Mollohan said that could happen on the evenly split committee.

• REP. ALAN MOLLOHAN:

  In a deadlock situation, under the rules trying to be imposed on the Ethics Committee, that complaint would be dismissed.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  Delay himself recently offered his own interpretation of the rules change during an exchange with the Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer, on the House floor.

• REP. TOM DELAY:

  What some partisans had found, that if there was no agreement and charges brought against a member, the member would be hung out to dry. There would be no action, or there could be automatic action without a majority vote of the committee. That is the problem.

  That is what allows people to use it for partisan politics, is that if one side or the other decides to deadlock the Ethics Committee, then the member that has been charged can be held out and held up for many days, if not months, before a resolution of that charge comes. The speaker came up with a way to make sure that the committee is bipartisan because it requires a bipartisan vote to move forward.

• REP. STENY HOYER:

  We see it differently, Mr. Leader. What we have created is the ability of both sides to stop investigations in their tracks; both sides. Our side, if we block up, and our five say you are not going to investigate Steny Hoyer, they can do it. Either one of us could protect ourselves; either one of us.

  Your side could protect yourselves by your five holding firm. Our side could protect ourselves by holding firm. That may protect us individually, but our position is it does not protect the institution, and that is what our concern is. Yield to my friend.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  And there is another concern some members have expressed, that if and when the Ethics Committee gets back to work, it might be deluged with new ethics complaints based on partisan politics. Delaware Republican Mike Castle:

• REP. MIKE CASTLE:

  I do feel that both parties use this as an offense and defense. Clearly, the Democrats are using it as an offense on Tom Delay, and Republicans are now looking at other Democrats with the idea of building it up as a defense if you will. And so that's not a particularly good situation in terms if getting work done down here.

• KWAME HOLMAN:

  In fact, demonstrations outside today's Social Security forum indicate Tom Delay's politics now are vying with the president's policies for the public's attention. The president however still believes Delay can help him achieve his policy goals. In fact, the two men shared a plane ride back to Washington this afternoon.