4-22-05, 8:56 am

Fostering a Saddam Hussein image this past weekend at the National Rifle Association annual meeting, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) waved a rifle in the air and called on his 'preferably armed' friends to help battle his enemies.
In recent press statements, DeLay named as his enemy the 'leftist syndicate' that has the nerve to point out that congressional representatives mired in ethics charges and criminal investigations ought to step down from House leadership.

Intent on bluster rather than on submitting to open, impartial and thorough investigation, DeLay continued his shrill rhetorical attack on judges, the media and Democrats to anyone who would listen.

Meanwhile, reports of further evidence of the improper solicitation of funds from donors linked to issues pending in Congress surfaced.

According to the Associated Press, Tom DeLay provided campaign donors with expensive skybox seats at entertainment events in 2000 provided by infamous lobbyist 'Casino Jack' Abramoff, now under criminal investigation for stealing from and defrauding his clients.

DeLay never reimbursed Abramoff for the use of the tickets valued at thousands of dollars, and then DeLay voted for against legislation opposed by the donors who used the skybox seats.

While DeLay's lawyers claim the law at the time didn't require him to reimburse Abramoff, the law does require that members of Congress avoid appearance of solicitation of funds and of conflict of interest. House rules also prohibit members from soliciting funds from special interests or from groups with business before the House.

In the last two months evidence has surfaced that DeLay improperly accepted trips financed by Abramoff, who has given tens of thousands of dollars to DeLay's campaign fund, including a trip to London in 2000.

DeLay is also suspected of accepting an all-expenses paid trip to Russia that year ostensibly financed by a non-profit organization. According to the Washington Post, however, the non-profit was a front to hide Abramoff's involvement with financing the trip.

Earlier this week, GOP leaders in a public relations effort to shift focus from DeLay's ethics problems onto the Democrats called for allowing the House ethics committee to investigate DeLay, but under the new rules.

Republican leaders ordered new rules for the ethics committee last October after the committee unanimously rebuked DeLay for the third time. The House ethics committee has rebuked DeLay for abuse of power by improperly using his position and federal agencies to intervene in internal state disputes. In 2003, DeLay was unanimously admonished by the committee for 'creating the appearance of impropriety' when he accepted money from energy company executives who happened to record their intention to purchase congressional votes with $56,000 payments to DeLay's political action committee.

DeLay was also rebuked for threatening a Republican member by withholding financial support for future campaigns because that member refused to vote the way DeLay and the Republican leadership wanted him to.

DeLay is also suspected of funneling almost $200,000 to the Republican Party from corporate donors, a move that is illegal in Texas. This question is still under investigation by an Austin grand jury.

Public documents also showed that DeLay paid two family members over $500,000 from his political action committee in the last four years.

The ethics committee’s new rules limit the time of the investigation and require the committee drop the charges if in that short period of time it doesn't by a majority vote to rebuke DeLay. Earlier ethics investigations took a minimum of several months to complete thoroughly and to the satisfaction of the committee's members.

The committee is composed of an even number of Democrats and Republicans. And though the committee previously voted unanimously to rebuke DeLay for ethics violations on three occasions, it isn't likely to form a majority to do so now.

In an unusual move, the Republican Party leadership ordered the replacement of Rep. Joel Hefley (R-CO) and two other GOP members of the committee with GOP leadership loyalists who have given several thousand dollars to Tom DeLay's legal defense fund.

Republican leaders also threatened to investigate Democrats who called for DeLay's resignation or for more thorough and open investigation.

Responding to the Republican leadership’s imposition of new rules to protect DeLay in an editorial, former ethics committee chair Joel Hefley and current ranking Democrat Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (WV) described the situation as potentially 'the end of a credible ethics process in the House.'

Now the GOP wants to use a process that lacks credibility to 'clear' DeLay.

Unfortunately for them, facts are facts and crooks have to be shown the door.



--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.