GOP throwing DeLay to the wolves?

Santorum: DeLay Needs to Answer Questions

By LOU KESTEN Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The No. 3 Republican in the Senate said Sunday that
embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay needs to answer questions about his
ethics and "let the people then judge for themselves."
Sen. Rick Santorum's
comments seem to reflect the nervousness among congressional Republicans about
the fallout from the increased scrutiny into DeLay's way of doing business. One
of DeLay's GOP colleagues in the House called him an "absolute embarrassment"
and doubled DeLay would last as majority leader.
DeLay, R-Texas, has been
dogged in recent months by reports of possible ethics violations. There have
been questions about his overseas travel, campaign payments to family members
and his connections to lobbyists who are under investigation.
"I think he
has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people
then judge for themselves," said Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican
Conference.
"But from everything I've heard, again, from the comments and
responding to those, is everything he's done was according to the law," Santorum
told ABC's "This Week."
"Now you may not like some of the things he's done,"
Santorum said. "That's for the people of his district to decide, whether they
want to approve that kind of behavior or not."
DeLay's spokesman, Dan Allen,
told The Associated Press on Sunday that the congressman "looks forward to the
opportunity of sitting down with the ethics committee chairman and ranking
member to get the facts out and to dispel the fiction and innuendo that's being
launched at him by House Democrats and their liberal allies."
The majority
leader was admonished three times last year by that committee. The committee has
been in limbo since March, when its five Democrats balked at adopting
Republican-developed rules.
At a town hall meeting Saturday in Greenwich,
Conn., GOP Rep. Christopher Shays told constituents that he did not think DeLay
"is going to survive."
Shays, a moderate who has irked Republicans by
bucking party leaders on some prominent issues, described DeLay "as an absolute
embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party," according to the account
Sunday in The Advocate of Stamford.
In November, Shays protested a party
rule change that would allow DeLay to retain his leadership position even if he
was indicted in an ongoing Texas campaign finance investigation.
House
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said last week that the controversy
was distracting DeLay from dealing with more pressing problems before Congress.
Santorum, however, said DeLay is "very effective in leading the House" and
that "to date, has not been compromised."
A senior Democratic senator,
Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, had this advice for the Republicans who control
both the House and Senate: "Be careful about how closely you embrace Mr. DeLay."
Dodd cited the new rules for the ethics committee that House Republicans
rammed through in the wake of DeLay's difficulties. Those rules require a
bipartisan vote before an investigation can be launched. DeLay's office also
helped mount a counterattack last fall against Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., who
was the ethics committee chairman when it came down against DeLay.
"Unfortunately, in his particular case, there's a process that he's tried to
change so they could actually reach a determination as to whether or not he's
innocent or guilty of the things he's been charged with," Dodd said. "But this
is not going to go away."
DeLay "becomes the poster child for a lot of the
things the Democrats think are wrong about Republican leadership. As long as
he's there, he's going to become a pretty good target," Dodd said on ABC.
DeLay, who took center stage in passing legislation designed to keep alive
Terri Schiavo, also has found that President Bush and congressional colleagues
are distancing themselves from his comments, after her death, about the judges
involved in her case.
"The time will come for the men responsible for this
to answer for their behavior," DeLay said, raising the prospect of impeaching
members of a separate and independent branch of government. Later, he complained
of "an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress
and the president."
Bush, declining to endorse DeLay's comments, said Friday
that he supports "an independent judiciary." He added, "I believe in proper
checks and balances."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said
last week that the judges "handled it in a fair and independent way," although
he had hoped for a different result.
Democrats have said DeLay's remarks
were tantamount to inciting violence against judges.
___
Associated
Press writer Suzanne Gamboa contributed to this report.