To: American Spirit who wrote (40814 ) 4/7/2005 12:54:38 PM From: longnshort Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 173976 DeLay's reply House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, yesterday dismissed front-page stories in The Washington Post and the New York Times as "a concerted effort" by the liberal media "to twist the truth." The Post article said a nonprofit group that paid for a DeLay trip to Moscow in 1997 had received funding from business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government. The Times article said Mr. DeLay's wife and daughter had been paid $500,000 since 2001 by the congressman's political action and campaign committees. Mr. DeLay, in an off-air interview with CNN producer Ted Barrett, said of the Moscow trip: "It's just like trips that every member takes. It's paid for by a nonprofit organization. It was properly reported. ... No member can be responsible for going into the bowels of researching what this organization, how it gets its money or how it's funded. The rules say if it's a legitimate organization that funds the trip and it's reported, it's legal. We know what's going on here." Mr. DeLay added: "What's going on here is a concerted effort ... to twist the truth to make it look seedy, and it's just not true." As for payments to his wife and daughter, Mr. DeLay said: "My wife and daughter have any right, just like any other American, to be employed and be compensated for their employment. It's pretty disgusting, particularly when my wife and daughter are singled out and others are not, in similar situations in the Senate and as well as the House. But it's just another seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me." The CNN producer asked: "Do you think you have a political problem?" "Not at all," Mr. DeLay replied.