[Mb-civic] Republicans change tack over DeLay

[Michael Butler]

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Republicans change tack over DeLay
>By Holly Yeager in Washington
>Published: April 27 2005 20:00 | Last updated: April 28 2005 00:27
>>

House Republicans acknowledged on Wednesday that ethics allegations against
Tom DeLay had become a distraction and agreed to change rules that Democrats
said were designed to protect the embattled majority leader.

“I'm willing to step back,” Dennis Hastert, speaker of the House, said after
a closed-door meeting of Republicans.

The reversal comes amid intense scrutiny of Mr DeLay's overseas travel and
his relationship with Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist under federal investigation.

Mr DeLay, who was admonished three times last year by the House ethics
committee, said he was eager for the panel to review his travel records and
clarify its guidelines. “I look forward to presenting the facts tothe the
committee,” he said.

Republicans have been near-unanimous in their backing of Mr DeLay. President
George W. Bush lent very public support this week, giving him a ride back to
Washington aboard Air Force One after they appeared together in Texas.

A formal inquiry into the latest charges has been blocked by Democrats'
refusal to work under the committee's rules, which were changed in January
to force the automatic dismissal of a complaint if the bipartisan panel was
deadlocked.

The House is expected to vote this week on returning to previous rules,
which allowed inquiries to continue in case of a deadlock. Approval of the
change, still to be accepted by Democrats, would make another investigation
of Mr DeLay a near certainty.

The shift showed that in spite of the broad support, the charges were having
an effect among Republicans, who said on Wednesday that they were eager to
put the dispute behind them.

“All that is in the press today is the ethics stalemate,” Mr Hastert said.

“I think they just took the heat,” said Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic
leader, of the Republican retreat. “I think there has been an editorial in
every paper in the country saying this is wrong.”

She said the committee staff should also be bipartisan, as it has been in
the past, rather that mostly Republican, as now proposed.

New allegations against Mr DeLay have emerged frequently over recent weeks.
Time magazine reported this week that key members of Mr DeLay's staff had
accepted gifts, including golf clubs, concert tickets and airline travel,
from Mr Abramoff, the lobbyist, in apparent violation of House rules.

In a separate report, the Associated Press said that during the mid-1990s Mr
Abramoff's firm said it drafted legislative materials for Mr DeLay and Mr
Abramoff boasted he could use his influence with Republican leaders to keep
bills from getting a vote on the House floor.

At the weekend, The Washington Post published credit card information that
showed Mr Abramoff had paid for Mr DeLay's $7,000 (€5,400, £3,670) business
class flight to the UK and his stays at expensive hotels in London and at St
Andrews golf course in Scotland. Mr DeLay had said the trip was paid for by
a non-profit research group.

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