Democrats, GOP exchange words over ethics rebuke

WASHINGTON -- Leading House Republicans and Democrats exchanged harsh recriminations Thursday over the second ethics committee rebuke in a week for Rep. Tom DeLay, the GOP's No. 2 leader.

The day after the 57-year-old Texan was cited by the House ethics committee for questionable conduct, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said his Republican colleagues should decide whether "they want an ethically unfit person to be their majority leader or do they want to remove the ethical cloud that hangs over the Capitol?"

Her news conference came as House Speaker Dennis Hastert staunchly defended DeLay, calling him "a good man" and attacking the freshman Democratic congressman whose complaint launched the investigation.

The series of angry statements cast a pall over a busy House pushing for adjournment and a return to the campaign trails.

The committee late Wednesday had admonished DeLay, R-Texas, for creating an appearance of giving donors special access on pending energy legislation and using the Federal Aviation Administration to intervene in a Texas political dispute.

Last week, the same committee admonished him for offering to endorse the House candidacy of a House member's son in exchange for the member's favorable vote on a Medicare prescription drug bill.

The committee's publicly issued findings constituted the panel's mildest punishment, and spared DeLay from a lengthy investigation. But the committee noted the rare back-to-back admonishments and that in 1999 DeLay received an ethics committee warning for pressuring a lobby company to hire a Republican.

"In view of the number of instances to date in which the committee has found it necessary to comment on conduct in which you engaged, it is clearly necessary for you to temper your future actions," it said in a letter to DeLay.

DeLay is one of the nation's most partisan political leaders and most successful money-raisers. He has long been known in the Capitol as "The Hammer."

The committee of five Democrats and five Republicans delayed action on an allegation that DeLay violated Texas campaign finance laws. A Texas grand jury investigation has so far led to indictments of three DeLay associates and eight corporations.

DeLay said he considers the complaint against him dismissed, but accepted the committee's guidance. He called the complaint another personal attack by Democrats that fell short "not because of insufficient venom, but because of insufficient merit."

Pelosi, D-Calif., held a news conference as Hastert, R-Ill., was criticizing Rep. Chris Bell, D-Texas, who filed the complaint.

DeLay "fights hard for what he believes, but he has never put personal interests ahead of the best interests of the country," Hastert said in a written statement.

"I am profoundly disappointed that the Ethics Committee has once again become a battleground for politics," he said. "I am troubled by the intimidation tactics of outside groups and organizations who have tried to influence the decision of those upstanding members of the Ethics Committee."

Democrats pounced on such characterizations, saying Republicans were whitewashing the admonishments and downplaying its findings. Rep George Miller, a senior adviser to Pelosi, accused Hastert of being "an enabler of abusive behavior that is habitual."

The White House declined to criticize DeLay. "That's a congressional matter and congressman DeLay has addressed those issues head-on," presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said.

The ethics panel told DeLay that he created an appearance of favoritism when he mingled at a 2002 golf outing with executives of Westar Energy of Kansas.

The tournament at a Virginia resort came just days after the executives contributed $25,000 to Texans for a Republican Majority, a fund-raising organization associated with DeLay.

In addition, company executives donated $33,200 to six House campaigns.

The committee concluded DeLay was "in a position to significantly influence" legislation Westar sought because he is a House leader and at the time was involved in House-Senate efforts to negotiate an energy bill.

The legislation sought by Westar was inserted in the energy bill by another lawmaker, but eventually was withdrawn.

The committee made clear that DeLay did not solicit contributions from Westar in return for a favor, which would have been far more serious.

"Representative DeLay took no action with regard to Westar that would constitute an impermissible special favor," according to the report from the panel led by Chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo., and senior Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia.

DeLay also raised "serious concerns" by contacting the Federal Aviation Administration in 2003 to chase down a Texas Democrat's private plane. State Democratic legislators were fleeing Texas to prevent Republican state lawmakers from passing a DeLay-engineered redistricting plan.

DeLay was elected in 1984 to a district representing the Houston suburb of Sugar Land. He began his ascent in Congress after Republicans captured the House in 1994 -- successfully running for the No. 3 position as majority whip.

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Associated Press Writer Larry Margasak contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

House ethics committee: http://www.house.gov/ethics