[Mb-civic] Loss of leader, taint of scandal is a double hit for Bush - Peter S. Canellos - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Loss of leader, taint of scandal is a double hit for Bush

By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff  |  September 29, 2005

WASHINGTON -- President Bush was never personally close to Tom DeLay, 
but he always knew that he needed him badly.

When DeLay was under siege over ethics complaints in April, Bush showed 
his support by squiring his fellow Texan around an airport tarmac before 
boarding Air Force One together, like two pals headed for a golf weekend.

Now, with the administration struggling to overcome complaints about its 
response to Hurricane Katrina and the declining support for the war in 
Iraq, Bush needs DeLay more than ever. But DeLay, waylaid by yesterday's 
indictment, won't be there.

Instead, there will be the taint of another ethics investigation in the 
Republican Party at the same time that Senate majority leader Bill Frist 
answers questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission about his 
sale of stock in a company that family members founded; as Bush's chief 
political adviser, Karl Rove, faces grand jury scrutiny over whether he 
leaked the identity of a CIA officer; and as a Senate committee looks at 
the relationships between scandal-ridden lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a 
host of Republican leaders.

The combined loss of DeLay's leadership in the House, where he was the 
main enforcer of the Republican agenda, and the shift of political focus 
to another alleged ethics misstep, is a double blow to the president at 
a time when he cannot easily bounce back from it, political observers 
said yesterday.

''I think all that voters will hear is 'Republican scandal,' " said 
Daron Shaw, a University of Texas political scientist who worked on 
Bush's 2000 campaign.

DeLay's foibles could take an immediate toll on the Republican agenda, 
which during the Bush years has tended to originate in the House with 
DeLay-enforced party-line votes.

When DeLay is on top of his game, fresh pieces of conservative 
legislation get voted out of the House at a steady clip.

This week, for instance, the House has been preparing to carve out new 
exceptions to the Endangered Species Act, and to provide new tax 
incentives for the drilling of oil.

The cobbled-together leadership team that is replacing DeLay as House 
majority leader may yet succeed in keeping the legislative pipeline 
moving. If not, the leadership void could seriously impede Bush's 
efforts to eliminate the inheritance tax, change the Social Security 
system, expand federal aid to the energy industry, and ensure that 
Republican domestic policies are marbled into the Hurricane Katrina 
relief package.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/09/29/loss_of_leader_taint_of_scandal_is_a_double_hit_for_bush/
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