WASHINGTON – In a game with rapidly growing stakes, Republicans raised the ante Wednesday, offering to open another investigation of Majority Leader Tom DeLay – if Democrats would drop objections to new rules that have paralyzed the House ethics committee.
“We are all prepared to vote at the earliest opportunity to empanel an investigative subcommittee to review various allegations concerning travel and other actions by Mr. DeLay,’ ethics Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said at a news conference attended by three of the other four Republicans on the panel, whose membership is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.
“Let me emphasize that this is an unusual and extraordinary step for the committee to take.”
Analysts called the offer a smart political gambit, but said Democrats also scored points when, an hour later, Democrats rejected it and demanded nothing short of a return to the old rules.
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland called it a “charade” meant to deflect attention from DeLay’s ethical problems and the GOP’s efforts to shield him from further embarrassment.
“While the American people are surely interested to see that Tom DeLay’s fellow Republicans agree that his behavior demands investigation, this offer does not address the fact that Republicans are in a position to block other investigations on a party-line vote,” Hoyer said. “This issue is bigger than the Majority Leader, it is about the integrity of the entire House.”
He cited the new rules that make it impossible to open an ethics inquiry without bipartisan consent. Before the GOP changed the rules early this year, an even split automatically triggered an investigation.
Hoyer also cited Speaker Dennis Hastert’s decision earlier this year to replace most of the ethics committee’s Republicans, including the chairman. Democrats called it a purge meant to stack the committee with DeLay loyalists and punish those who voted to admonish the Texas congressman three times last year.
DeLay has said for weeks that he would like to meet with the committee to address various allegations of misconduct. Critics have focused on lobbyist-paid overseas trips and large campaign payments to his wife and daughter.
DeLay has said he broke no laws or House rules.
But the committee cannot operate until Democrats accept rules imposed by the House majority. Historically, the House has used procedures to which both sides agreed.
Pressure has been growing within the GOP for DeLay to put the allegations behind him. A recent poll showed support in his own Houston-area district slipping.
“Due process is very important. We do not initiate investigative committees in press conferences. We do it through the procedures that are appropriately developed and adopted by the committee,” said Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., the top Democrat on the ethics panel.
He declined to directly address the offer to open an investigation of DeLay, citing a committee rule that precludes public discussion of pending or potential investigations.
The GOP panel member who didn’t attend Hastings’ news conference, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, indicated a similar sentiment. “The congressman feels he cannot comment on any matter before the ethics committee,” spokesman Blair Jones said.
A former chairman of the ethics committee, Smith was reappointed earlier this year. Like fellow panel member Tom Cole, R-Okla., Smith has donated to DeLay’s legal expense fund, and Democrats have accused him of prejudging the Majority Leader.
Smith has said he can remain impartial and that donations were made prior to his ethics appointment Feb. 2.
Hastings said committee member Rep. Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania would chair any investigation of DeLay. She has received $15,000 in recent years from DeLay’s political action committee, which has supported nearly every GOP member of the House.
Earlier, before announcement of the GOP’s offer, DeLay told reporters that he has steered clear of discussions about the ethics impasse, leaving the rules to the speaker. Afterward, DeLay said he appreciated the GOP effort to break the stalemate and looks forward to getting the chance to clear his name.
“I’ve sent letters to the committee asking to appear before the chairman and ranking member to discuss matters. And for more than a month I’ve said I hope for a fair process that will afford me the opportunity to get the facts out and set the record straight. I welcome the opportunity to address this with the committee,” DeLay said in a statement.
‘A gamble’
Democrats argued that the impasse isn’t about DeLay, but about the need for bipartisan consensus on ethics rules.
Republican dismissed that as posturing intended to prolong the spat.
“It is a gamble,” said political scientist Cal Jillson at Southern Methodist University. “It’s an admission by the Republicans that there’s enough there to inquire into it.”
But it’s also an attempt, he said, to shift blame for the lack of a new DeLay investigation onto Democrats. And – if Democrats were to go along – to “put a needle in the balloon that’s building around DeLay. … What they hope to do is get a process rolling and use that process to find that, perhaps DeLay had used bad judgment but he hadn’t broken any House rules.”
Democrats, Jillson said, are playing their cards well by rejecting the offer. They can continue to portray Republicans as “arrogant and out of control” after a decade in power and to characterize DeLay’s personal ethics. “The Democrats are on pretty strong ground, because the previous rules were meant to err on the side of inquiry,” he said.
But another political scholar, Rice University’s Earl Black, said the offer seems to put Republicans on “slightly higher ground,” especially since the Democrats’ stance rests on hard-to-explain technicalities.
“If the Republicans were stonewalling and using the rules to prevent an investigation, that would be a different thing,” Black said. “Obviously, everybody on both sides is playing politics for as much benefit as they can possibly see.”
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