christian grantham
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
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April 12, 2005

As conservative Republican Party leadership and its evangelical base circle around Tom DeLay, they have a question for us to ponder: "Isn't this how Jesus would run America?"

From unanimous decisions by both Republicans and Democrats, DeLay was admonished for ethical lapses not once, not twice, but three times. Several of his colleagues were indicted on felony charges in Texas for criminal activity. DeLay is currently under multiple investigations.

Let's all pay very close attention to those defending DeLay's style of governance. The American people have had it with corruption.

At a party conclave last week, Weldon and others spoke in support of their leader. But one participant who has clashed with DeLay, Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., says reaction was mixed. “No one wants to come out openly and attack him,” says Hefley, who was removed as Ethics Committee chairman after the panel admonished DeLay. House leaders said it was because his term was up; Hefley called it “a purge.”

Another sign that DeLay's allies are worried: Some of them recently convened a summit to plan his defense. “We're going to do whatever is necessary to back him. He's not going to be left out to dry,” says Paul Weyrich, a veteran conservative activist who attended the meeting.

DeLay has been admonished more by the House Ethics Committee than any sitting member of Congress.

Last year, the bipartisan panel — the only House committee with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats — unanimously criticized DeLay for three things. It said a golf fundraiser with executives of an energy company created the appearance that he was giving donors special access. It said he improperly tried to have the Federal Aviation Administration find Texas legislators who were hiding in Oklahoma to thwart action on his plan to redraw the state's congressional districts. And it said he promised a retiring House Republican he would endorse the man's son to succeed him if he voted for Bush's Medicare drug plan.

In 1999, the committee warned DeLay after he threatened the Electronic Industries Alliance, a trade group, for hiring a former Democratic congressman as its president. And it cautioned him in 1997 about creating the impression that campaign contributions would bring “official action or access.”

In addition, two investigations — one in Texas, the other in Washington — are targeting close DeLay allies.

Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle has indicted three DeLay associates for fundraising activity involving Texans for a Republican Majority, an offshoot of DeLay's national political action committee, and hasn't ruled out indicting DeLay. Earle accuses the Texans of using illegal corporate donations to engineer a GOP takeover of the Legislature.

The Justice Department, the Interior Department, the IRS and two Senate committees are also investigating two former DeLay associates, lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, who billed Indian tribes $82 million. At hearings last fall, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that Abramoff and Scanlon worked behind the scenes to close a tribe's casino, then offered their services to help save it.

In recent weeks, foreign trips taken by DeLay and paid for by private interests have come under scrutiny. Three of the trips, to Britain, Moscow and the Pacific Mariana Islands, involved Abramoff. A fourth, to South Korea, was financed by a group registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent and barred from paying for lawmakers' travel. DeLay says he believed the trips were underwritten by legitimate educational organizations.

When Congress convened in January, House Republican leaders rewrote the chamber's rules to make it harder to initiate an ethics investigation. Hefley, ousted at the same time, said it "could not have been handled worse."
[Despite ethics flap, few in GOP publicly criticizing influential House leader - USA Today - 04-12-05]