DeLay now relies on well-built friendships
sptimes.com
The man known around D.C. as "Hammer" earned GOP loyalty with campaign cash, an understanding ear and well-timed snacks.
By WES ALLISON, Times Staff Writer
Published May 1, 2005
WASHINGTON - Political friends can be fickle, particularly in times of messy questions about influence peddling and grand juries.
But as House Majority Leader Tom DeLay prepares to face the House Ethics Committee and as a criminal investigation moseys along in Texas, the loyalty he has earned among House Republicans is paying off handsomely, with a near unanimous show of support and few signs his influence is waning.
Since DeLay first won a leadership role in the U.S. House a decade ago, his rise in political power has been accompanied by a rise in political capital, having raised millions of dollars for his colleagues' campaigns and deftly helping them balance obligations to their districts with their obligations to the Republican agenda.
And when hungry representatives are trapped in the Capitol by late-night votes, DeLay stocks his office with hot wings and soft drinks.
"He takes very good care of his members, he understands their needs, and then when he needs to get votes for an issue, he's got a lot of good will built up. And that same good will is helping members stand behind him as he faces these unfair attacks," said Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, who is helping to coordinate DeLay's political defense.
"If you need something done in the United States Congress and you're a Republican, the first person you think of is Tom DeLay."
They call him the Hammer, and he has been known to yank committee assignments and squash legislation when Republicans cross him, or stray too far from the party line.
Last year, the chairman of the House Ethics Committee was removed after the committee admonished DeLay. Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn., who clashed with DeLay, was replaced as chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee by someone more favorable to cutting benefits.
But Republicans say DeLay's real power comes from the currency of any elected office: constituent services. Many say that they appreciate DeLay's hard work in building their majority and that he sincerely cares about their well being.
"If he were powerful and - I'll clean up my language - not nice, and not helpful, the political landscape would be a lot different," said Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Crystal River. "He's helpful to so many Republicans, and that's really what is the basis for the conference loyality."
House Republicans are quick to offer examples, large and small. When Brown-Waite broke her elbow in a fall at the Capitol soon after she was elected to Congress, DeLay called her at the hospital. When she, Feeney and Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Sarasota, sought spots on the Financial Services Committee, the chairman told them it was virtually impossible for Florida to get three seats. But DeLay made it happen, Feeney said.
Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, first heard from DeLay in February 1994, when Foley was seeking the GOP nomination to run for the seat. Some of the state's Republican godfathers weren't supporting him, so Foley was surprised to get an encouraging phone call from a Texas congressman he had never met.
And who then sent a generous check to Foley's campaign. After Foley won, he supported DeLay as majority whip, the No. 3 job in the House.
"Tom DeLay doesn't rule by fear, he rules by friendship," Foley said last week. "I've disappointed him at times, and he's sat me down and said here's where we disagree, but he's never made me feel bad, he's never put pressure on me to change my vote.
"He's always given me the respect I feel I'm due as a representative from my district, and that's the quality people don't seem to see in Tom DeLay. He's a guy who's described as a pest-control man, who's a hatchet, who's the Hammer, who's a religious fanatic."
DeLay, 58, is now the second-ranking member of the House, behind Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. As majority leader, he is key in making committee assignments and deciding which bills get a vote, and when. He coordinates hearings and battles for legislation important to the leadership or the president.
Brown-Waite has bucked the leadership several times, voting against federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case - an effort DeLay led - and objecting to cuts in veterans benefits. She also has been cool to President Bush's plan for creating personal investment accounts within Social Security.
Her district is nearly split between Republicans and Democrats, and Brown-Waite says DeLay knows his members' districts almost as well as they do, and often understands when they have to say no. Last year, when she voted against the intelligence reform bill because it lacked some immigration restrictions she favored, Brown-Waite said DeLay told her she made the right decision, even though he wanted her support.
Brown-Waite's independent streak also did not prevent her from getting $14,000 from DeLay's political action committee in the last campaign.
Through his political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, called Armpac, in the last election DeLay gave far more than any other member of Congress, nearly $1-million to 112 House and nine Senate candidates, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Harris and Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, each got $10,000.
In 2002, Armpac gave a total of $67,000 to eight U.S. House candidates from Florida, including $6,000 to Brown-Waite and $10,000 each to Feeney, Shaw, Harris and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami, Ric Keller of Orlando and Jeff Miller of Chumuckla. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Jacksonville, got $1,000.
Key committee assignments are often awarded to members who are prodigious fundraisers for the Republican Party, and he has required all committee chairmen to establish their own PACs. This year, DeLay launched ROMP - the Retain Our Majority Program - which encourages Republican House members to give $1,000 toward the campaigns of their 10 most vulnerable colleagues.
"This idea of individual members contributing to the party pervades the leadership," said Dan Palazzolo, a University of Richmond political scientist and co-author of a recent study on fundraising and committee assignments.
"DeLay works well in the context of, "We're trying to build a team. . . . If you want to be part of the team, here's what it takes.' And the team takes care of its members. They know how to protect the majority."
Several Floridians, in turn, have contributed to DeLay's legal defense fund, including Shaw, Feeney and Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Palm Bay, who each gave $5,000, according to Public Citizen, a liberal government watchdog group.
Critics say DeLay has essentially purchased his goodwill through Armpac donations. Moderate Republicans have complained he makes it difficult to get their bills to the floor.
Democrats blame him for setting the confrontational tone in Congress, allowing the Republicans to change rules and ram through legislation with little regard for the minority.
"This whole process is just bad. I wish this was the exception, but it has become (the rule) of this House," Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Mass., complained Thursday during debate over the budget, after Republican leaders demanded a rule change allowing a quick vote. Most Democrats hadn't even had a chance to read it.
"I know that your party is in control, but I can't understand why you want to undercut a deliberative process," McGovern said.
The Republicans prevailed.
"He has a willingness to go on the offensive, and has a clarity of vision," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. "Tom DeLay is very skillful, very intelligent, and the Democrats know how effective he is, and that is what this is all about."
State and federal investigations continue.
In Travis County, Texas, the Democratic state's attorney has empaneled a grand jury to investigate corporate donations to a political action committee DeLay founded to raise money for Texas legislative candidates.
In Washington, DeLay faces questions about whether lobbyists financed several trips, which is forbidden by House rules.
Last year, the House ethics committee admonished DeLay three times on unrelated matters, including for holding a fundraiser that suggested access to him was tied to political donations. The committee's Republican chairman, Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., was ousted, as were two staffers. Three Republicans were added.
One of them, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has given $10,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund, while another, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., has given $5,000. Hastert said Hefley's term was up.
Last week, Republicans took to the floor of the House to defend DeLay, describing him as a victim of unfair liberal attacks, and noting that Democrats also face questions over lobbyist-funded travel.
But the true test of DeLay's supporters appears imminent. Last week, Hastert said he had erred in changing the ethic committee rules, and House Republicans voted to change them back. That opens the way for an investigation into DeLay's travel.
DeLay said he welcomes the chance to make his case before the committee. The investigation could take months, and Hefley said even loyal Republicans may tire of the scrutiny, and the distraction. from other Republican priorities, such as Social Security reform.
"In politics," he said, "loyalty fades quickly if they sense there's blood in the water, and DeLay is walking a very thin line."
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