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DeLay case gives United States Democrats new political punch
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DeLay case gives United States Democrats new political punch
DeLay, a conservative nicknamed “The Hammer” for his iron-fisted control of House Republicans, was indicted by a Texas grand jury on a single conspiracy charge and forced to leave his leadership post until the issue is resolved.
DeLay said the allegation he conspired to launder corporate campaign donations was a “political witch-hunt,” but Democrats tied DeLay to a series of recent ethical problems facing prominent Republicans and said they formed a pattern of corruption. They promised to make the ethical questions dogging DeLay, Senate Republican leader Bill Frist, White House political adviser Karl Rove, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and lobbyist Jack Abramoff a major issue in the 2006 campaign.
“Tom DeLay and Bill Frist are not alone in their shady style of governing — it is a systemic problem in the Republican Party that goes far beyond these two men,” John Lapp, executive director of the Democratic House campaign arm, said in a fund-raising appeal sent to donors within hours of the indictment. The charge against DeLay comes as public approval ratings for Republican President George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress drop to new lows, and polls show declining support for the Iraq war and growing pessimism about the country and the economy.
Analysts said the sense of public unease, combined with the broadening scandals, was beginning to resemble the conditions that led Republicans to reclaim control of Congress in 1994 and could give Democrats a powerful argument in next year’s congressional elections. “Voters are primed right now to be angry at Congress. You don’t have to work very hard to convince voters that something is wrong in Congress,” said Amy Walter, an analyst for the independent Cook Political Report.
“It fits an anti-establishment message that Democrats want to put out for 2006 – that now is the time for change,” she said. Republicans said the investigation of DeLay, led by a Democratic prosecutor in Texas, was politics as usual and was inspired by DeLay’s effectiveness in taking on Democrats. “Democrats resent Tom DeLay because he routinely defeats them – both politically and legislatively,” said New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, chairman of the House Republican campaign committee.
Time for change?</B>
Scandals already have hurt Republicans in the key election state of Ohio, where Taft’s popularity has plunged dramatically. Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, faces investigations over a recent stock sale. Rove, the architect of Bush’s election victories, has become embroiled in a probe into the leak of a undercover CIA agent’s identity. Abramoff, a close friend of DeLay’s, faces charges he defrauded leaders in a casino cruise line deal and is the subject of other probes.
Continuing political problems for Bush like the Iraq war and high gas prices, and what polls say is declining public confidence in his leadership, could work to the benefit of Democrats next year, analysts said. “If you can build a narrative around a series of seemingly related events, it becomes more compelling, and this narrative fits together very well for Democrats,” said Steven Schier of Carleton College in Minnesota.
“You have a bunch of things that have really worked to the advantage of Democrats in the short-term and really changed the political situation,” he said. DeLay, who won re-election in 2004 with just 55 percent of the vote and faces a tough challenger next year, will be hard-pressed to win another term if his case lingers past next November’s election, Schier said.
But Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, cautioned that the charge against DeLay and other scandals could hurt Democrats as well. “It’s bad for the Congress as a whole. I’m not sure if the public ... will see Republican wrongdoing or a crooked Congress. We have to be very careful how we handle this,” he said.
<B>John WHITESIDES</B>
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
<B>Blunt picked to replace DeLay as US House leader</B>
■ Republicans in the US House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously elected Roy Blunt of Missouri as their majority leader, replacing Tom DeLay, who was forced to step down after being indicted by a Texas grand jury, lawmakers said. After a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, lawmakers said Blunt’s position was an interim arrangement for the rest of the year and that he would share some leadership responsibilities with Rep. David Dreier of California. Blunt had been the third-ranking Republican member of the House with the title of majority whip. House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Dreier, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, will “help move the agenda on the House floor.” Colleagues said Dreier would coordinate the flow of legislation with committee chairmen. House Democrats jumped on the day’s developments, ramping up their criticism of Republican ethics problems. “The criminal indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay is 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 House Democratic leader. But some warned that the indictment was bad for Congress, not just for Republicans. New York Democrat Charles Rangel questioned whether some members of the public “will see Republican wrongdoing or a crooked Congress.”
But Republicans praised DeLay, who received an ovation at the party meeting, and many predicted he would be exonerated from what they described as a politically motivated prosecution. “We all believe that he (DeLay) will return once this indictment is out of the way, and be the leader again,” Blunt said. DeLay said his legal problems will not derail the Republican agenda.“If the Democrats think we’re going to go crawl in a hole and not accomplish our agenda, I wish they could have been a fly on the wall and seen these members come together for a bold and aggressive agenda,” he said.
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