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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (679162)	4/13/2005 11:44:21 AM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 769670

Pesticide Lobbyist Tom Delay Plans To Fight Until End (*Where a hole full of cockroaches awaits him) By Jonathan E. Kaplan and Patrick O'Connor House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has assembled a “formal structure” to counter news stories about his perceived ethical improprieties and ensure the support of Republican lawmakers, GOP sources say. Patrick g. Ryan House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The team — which includes DeLay Chief of Staff Tim Berry, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Flynn, Communications Director Dan Allen, general counsel Elliot Berkes and policy adviser Brett Shogren — holds a 7:30 a.m. conference call with aides from the Speaker’s office, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the Republican National Committee (RNC) to discuss daily media coverage of DeLay. His aides then hold their own meeting in DeLay’s first-floor Capitol office to discuss message strategy for the day. The group, which is tracking media stories on a day-to-day basis, will then meet as needed throughout the day informally as stories break and new developments occur. The Washington Post first reported the early-morning phone call, which is paid for by the NRCC and includes DeLay’s allies on K Street and in the conservative movement, as well as Sam Dawson, a longtime political consultant to the NRCC. Despite the intense media coverage, Allen told The Hill that DeLay, who had his regular weekly meeting with Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) yesterday afternoon, has remained “very focused on doing the work that the conference elected him to do.” House leaders canceled their afternoon meetings yesterday because Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was still recovering from surgery to remove kidney stones. At previous elected leadership meetings, staff had been kicked out of the room when the conversation turned to media stories about the majority leader. Meanwhile, House Republicans, particularly those in the leadership, are monitoring the headlines, too. Although there is no formal whip effort to track support for DeLay, Berry and Flynn have been charged with managing the concerns of any Republican lawmakers. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) has said DeLay should resign. Another Connecticut Republican, Rep. Rob Simmons, distanced himself from DeLay, saying in a statement, “I am ready to make tough choices concerning Mr. DeLay’s actions.” But aside from a few centrist Republicans from the Northeast, most of DeLay’s congressional colleagues have remained supportive. According to a number of GOP aides, a major question is how conservative lawmakers respond. Most GOP centrists voted against a rule change to shield DeLay from having to relinquish his post if indicted, according to unofficial tallies collected from local newspaper reports. If conservatives defect, DeLay would lose a major political base within the conference and could be forced to make a difficult political choice. The media storm surrounding DeLay resembles the tempest that brought down former Speaker Jim Wright (D-Texas) in 1989 and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) in December 2002 for comments he made at the retirement party of then-Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.). Wright faced ethics charges concerning profits from an autobiography and a business relationship with a political supporter, who employed Wright’s wife. Like DeLay, Wright had never been charged with doing anything illegal and the first to turn against him were Northeastern lawmakers, John Mravek of New York and Chet Atkins of Massachusetts. “The main thing is that the Democrats did not rally around Wright the way they are protecting DeLay. If they did, no question he [Wright] would have remained Speaker,” said John M. Barry, who wrote the definitive biography on Wright’s two years as Speaker. “But in those days, they thought they controlled the House by divine right of kings. It was inconceivable that they could lose the House.” The two major differences between the circumstances of Lott’s resignation from leadership and the current imbroglio surrounding DeLay are that Lott’s comments were made during the December recess, when there was very little other news coming out of Washington, and that the Lott controversy revolved around a single sound bite rather than a series of perceived ethical improprieties, the most recent involving the complicated financing of several trips abroad. These latest stories — which garnered front-page headlines in major newspapers — broke when much of the world was mourning the death of Pope John Paul II and coverage of the funeral and papal succession dominated the news cycle. “The difference between the two is that with Lott it was a single simple sentence repeated over and over again on television,” said one senior GOP official. The DeLay story, on the other hand, is much harder to explain because so many more details are involved, the official said, adding that it takes most television reporters about 40 seconds to explain the specifics of the case against DeLay, during which time average viewers get distracted. “Most Americans are probably getting confused about the information the media is giving them,” the official said. “While the national media is interested, Joe America is not.”