A fallen man of the House
Name: Thomas Dale DeLay.
Age: 58
Date of birth: April 8, 1947.
Education: Bachelor of science degree in biology, University of Houston, 1970; attended Baylor University, 1965 to 1967.
Family: Wife, Christine; daughter, Danielle; one grandchild.
Quote: ''The job of majority leader and the mandate of the Republican majority are too important to be hamstrung, even for a few months, by personal distractions." -- DeLay in letter informing House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert that he is stepping aside permanently as House majority leader.
Experience
Worked for a pesticide maker, Redwood Chemical, after college before he started an exterminating business, Albo Pest Control.
1978-1985: Member of the Texas House.
1984: Elected to represent the 22d District of Texas in the US House of Representatives.
1994: Elected majority whip.
July 1997: DeLay is part of a group that tries, but fails, to oust House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
October 1998: DeLay attacks the Electronics Industries Alliance for hiring former Democratic congressman Dave McCurdy as its president and later receives a private rebuke from the House Ethics Committee for ''badgering a lobbying organization."
November 2002: Elected majority leader without opposition.
September 2004: Grand jurors in Texas indict three DeLay associates -- Jim Ellis, John Colyandro, and Warren RoBold -- in an investigation of alleged illegal corporate contributions to a political action committee that DeLay founded. The investigation involved an alleged use of corporate funds to aid Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature in the 2002 elections.
September-October 2004: DeLay is admonished by the House Ethics Committee on three issue: The panel chastises DeLay for offering to support the House candidacy of the son of a US representative, Nick Smith, a Michigan Republican, in return for the lawmaker's vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. The panel says DeLay created the appearance of linking political donations to a legislative favor, and that he had improperly sought the Federal Aviation Administration's intervention in a Texas political dispute.
January 2005: House Republicans reverse a disputed rule that was passed in November 2004 that would have allowed DeLay to retain his House Republican leadership post if he were to have been indicted.
March 2005: Media reports spur Democrats to question DeLay's relationship with the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under federal investigation. Delay has asked the House Ethics Committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay has denied knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff.
April 2005: House Republicans scrap new Ethics Committee rules passed earlier in the year that would have made it harder to proceed with an ethics investigation. Democrats said the rules had been meant to protect DeLay.
September 2005: DeLay is indicted on charges of conspiring to violate Texas political fund-raising law and forced to step aside as majority leader. Ellis and Colyandro are indicted on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in 2002 legislative races.
October 2005: DeLay, Ellis, and Colyandro are indicted by a second grand jury on charges of conspiring to launder money and money laundering. DeLay's attorneys win removal of a Democratic judge from the case because he has donated to Democratic causes and candidates. The Associated Press reports that DeLay and Representative Roy Blunt, who succeeded DeLay as majority leader, orchestrated a political money carousel in 2000 that diverted donations secretly collected for presidential convention parties to some of their own causes.
November 2005: Former DeLay aide Michael Scanlon pleads guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials, a charge that stems from the government investigation of work he and his former partner, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, did for Indian tribes.
December 2005: A judge dismisses the conspiracy charge but refuses to throw out the more serious allegations of money laundering, dashing the congressman's immediate hopes of reclaiming his House majority leader post.
January 2006: Abramoff pleads guilty to charges of conspiracy, tax evasion, and mail fraud, and agrees to cooperate in an investigation that threatens powerful members of Congress. DeLay abandons his bid to resume his post as House majority leader.
SOURCE: Associated Press
