GOP vows to tackle ethics reform
DeLay's departure expected to affect midterm elections
WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders yesterday proclaimed a fresh start for their legislative agenda, vowing to act quickly to reform ethics laws following the news that Representative Tom DeLay -- the focus of much of the ethical debate in Congress -- is planning to resign his seat.
House majority leader John Boehner, who succeeded DeLay as majority leader, said Republicans are responding to recent scandals in Washington. ''We will take steps necessary to plug those areas where problems have erupted," said Boehner, an Ohio Republican, adding that ethics reform will be merely the first of many initiatives this spring, including a new fiscally responsible budget plan.
DeLay's surprise announcement that he will depart the House by mid-June is widely expected to have ramifications for the upcoming midterm congressional elections. DeLay has been a central figure in the Republican Party over the past decade, and as he came under indictment for campaign finance issues in Texas and faced further scrutiny because of his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Democrats grew hopeful that other House Republicans would suffer because of their ties to DeLay.
Democrats greeted news of his resignation as validation of the argument they hope will help them regain control of Congress in November: that a ''culture of corruption" is plaguing Republican-controlled Washington.
Representative Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said voters won't believe Republicans' contention that they have ''turned the page" from the DeLay era. ''DeLay may be gone, but nothing has changed," said Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat.
But some Democrats expressed fear that DeLay's resignation may have come too soon to help the party in November's elections. They had dreamed of an Election Day in which DeLay would fall alongside a dozen or more of his GOP colleagues, in a reversal of the Republican sweep that defeated then-House speaker Tom Foley and 51 other Democrats in 1994.
''If it happened Oct. 1, it would be better," said Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat. ''But on the whole, it's a net plus that he had to quit. This is a big one, and this will further reinforce our critique of" Republicans.
But other Democrats rushed to note that DeLay is only part of the problems they see in Washington.
''Tom DeLay himself has never been the issue," Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. ''Democrats aren't running against Tom DeLay this year. We are running to end the Republican culture of corruption and restore integrity to our government."
Still, DeLay's resignation could make it easier for Republicans to hold onto his Houston-area seat, in an election where control of Congress could be decided in a handful of House races. DeLay said he intends to leave the House and change his official residence to suburban Washington by mid-June, giving the Republican Party time to replace him on the ballot.
DeLay was facing a well-funded challenger in Democrat Nick Lampson, a former representative who moved into the district to challenge DeLay. In announcing his decision yesterday, DeLay cited the importance of Republicans' holding onto his seat among the leading reasons he decided to step aside.
''I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative, personal campaign," DeLay said. ''The times are too grave to waste even two years in the life of this nation -- and allow even one more vote for their agenda of pessimism and failure."
President Bush, who spoke with DeLay about his decision Monday afternoon, predicted that Republicans won't suffer long-term consequences from the possible ethical missteps of some of the party's members. ''My own judgment is . . . that our party will continue to succeed because we're the party of ideas," the president said.
But DeLay's ties to his fellow Republicans are too deep to remove his imprint from the GOP caucus, said Representative Martin T. Meehan, a Lowell Democrat.
''The next election will be a referendum on the system he set up," Meehan said. ''He's a symbol of everything that's wrong with Congress today."
DeLay's money machine flowed to House members across the country, and his ''K Street Project" of pressing lobbyists to hire Republicans has left him with many close allies in Washington, said David Donnelly, campaign director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan group that works to reduce the influence of money on politics.
''I don't think you can simply remove DeLay from the picture and somehow have corruption removed from the equation," Donnelly said. ''Corruption in Congress goes beyond one man."
DeLay continues to proclaim his innocence on the criminal charges he is facing in connection with alleged fund-raising irregularities. And most of DeLay's Republican colleagues continue to stand behind him publicly; House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert praised him as a ''most effective" member of House leadership.
Boehner echoed those sentiments, calling it ''unfortunate" and ''sad" that the Texas Republican felt it was necessary to resign his House seat. He added that the accusations that have swirled around DeLay and other Republicans won't have an impact on congressional races this fall.
But Julian Zelizer, a congressional historian at Boston University, said DeLay's resignation means that Republicans can no longer question the credibility of Democrats' corruption charges. The scandal involving Abramoff, who mostly supported Republicans, could still ensnare other House members, he said.
DeLay ''bowing out at any time is a huge loss for Republicans," Zelizer said. ''It's a symbolic confirmation that the corruption charges are as serious as Democrats are saying." 