DeLay faces a lesson in politics: Power has a risk of pitfalls

WASHINGTON -- They are the perks of power in Congress: campaign funds flush with cash, loyalists spread among Washington's top lobbying firms, and first-class trips to exotic locales, courtesy of groups seeking to curry favor.

But as House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is the latest to learn, the very thing that so many lawmakers aspire to -- power and the benefits that come with it -- can hasten their downfall. Just as the financial and political connections DeLay has built have sped his rise to prominence, they have ensnared him in controversy, with multiple allegations of DeLay violating ethics regulations.

And as in previous instances involving influential legislators, like Jim Wright and Tony Coelho, both Democrats, and Newt Gingrich, a Republican former House speaker, DeLay's position of influence and perhaps his political career are threatened by the cumulative effect of a cloud of allegations, rather than a major, specific charge of wrongdoing.

Last week, as Democrats accused Republicans of ''abuse of power" by seeking to shield DeLay from ethics investigations, DeLay brushed off questions on his conduct.

The allegations swirling around him -- of granting special access to donors, of accepting improper corporate donations, of using a federal agency to further a political cause -- are part of what he calls the ''Democrats' agenda," designed to discredit him and the Republican party. DeLay says that he's done nothing wrong, and that he would answer questions about his actions only before the House ethics committee, though that committee has yet to form this year because of disagreement over ethics investigations.

''I'm not here to discuss the Democrats' agenda; I'm here to discuss our agenda," DeLay, a Texas Republican, said at his weekly press briefing. ''Things are going on, folks, believe it or not."

DeLay's predicament, which has drawn fire from Democrats and has raised eyebrows among some in his own party, shows that power, money, and politics make for a volatile mix, no matter which party is in control.

''Power draws money, and power draws fire. The two streams mix in ethics charges," said John Pitney, a former aide to GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill who now teaches government at Claremont McKenna College in California. ''In the mind of the public, it may not be a crime, but it comes under the heading of SAR: Something ain't right."

As House and Senate leaders have risen in prominence in recent decades, they have become more overtly partisan figures, said Charles O. Jones, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Leadership jobs in both parties have gone to members who have proven themselves to be combative advocates, as well as fund-raisers, traits that involve them in areas that leave them open to scrutiny.

''It makes sense to ride along the edge of the law, and that can be an honest effort," Jones said. ''This is politics that works with narrow margins. If you want to keep your job, you've got to keep that majority."

That brand of hardball sometimes can lead politicians into those margins. Even some of DeLay's defenders concede that, if true, some of the allegations may not stand up to close scrutiny.

''Sometimes in working for the cause, you have to play the game a little bit, so I'm just not going to judge him," said Paul M. Weyrich, a prominent conservative activist who is among those organizing DeLay's defense. ''DeLay has done some things that I might not have done, but they don't rise to the point where you'd say, 'I can't be associated with that.' This is a hatchet job by people who are out to get him."

Gingrich, Wright, and Coelho all fell victim to attacks by opposition parties, who used House ethics rules to make party leaders vulnerable, said Ronald M. Peters Jr., a political science professor at the University of Oklahoma who has written a book on the House speakership. It's a strategy Democrats and liberal groups are now trying to replay against DeLay, he said: unearth a litany of allegations in different areas that could make the majority leader look corrupt.

''There's a `drip, drip' aspect to all of this," Peters said. ''In each case, the opposition party as a matter of policy decided to launch an attack on the leader of the majority party and used, at least in part, the ethics process."

Gingrich, who engineered the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994, was dogged by ethical questions over a partisan-tinged college course he taught and other matters and resigned after Democrats picked up seats in the 1998 elections. Wright and Coelho, the House speaker and Democratic whip, resigned within days of each other in 1989, amid allegations of financial wrongdoing.

The various investigations of DeLay may yet bring criminal charges, but so far, the allegations have less to do with violating the letter of the law than they do with what might be called the ''stench factor," things that may be legal, but nonetheless smell bad.

The reports that DeLay has paid his wife and daughter $500,000 over four years for fund-raising, through his PAC, are a case in point.

''Once you begin to describe it, even if it does go on all the time, it sounds awful," Jones said.

So far, DeLay has shown no signs of retreat. Rather than lower his profile, DeLay has stepped up his rhetoric on the hot-button issue of judicial activism.

He was perhaps the most visible Republican voice calling for federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case last month. And last week he called for the House Judiciary Committee to investigate the judges who declined to order Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted.

Weyrich said DeLay would be well-served by offering a full public accounting of his activities. Two GOP senators, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, have also called on him to do this.

''He's got to come forth and lay this stuff out," Weyrich said. ''It's something that we can't do for him, nor should we.

''Some people are out to get him," Weyrich said. ''He can explain a lot of these things. He can explain them well."

Despite the revelations, DeLay's standing within his party remains relatively strong; only one GOP House member has called on him to resign, and top Republicans and conservative groups have come to his defense.

The vast financial network he has built over two decades in Congress has has also helped his standing, because so many Republicans have benefited from it, and he is remembered as an architect of the Republicans' drive to power.

But as the cases of Gingrich and Wright demonstrate, DeLay would be unlikely to last long if Republican House members begin to think he will hurt them when they're about to come up for re-election, Peters said.

''These leaders survive if they're not a liability," he said. ''When he starts to hurt . . . in his district, that will bring him down."

Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.