Bush Gives New Support to Tom DeLay

By Jeralyn, Section Other Politics
Posted on Tue Apr 26, 2005 at 07:26:58 PM EST
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President Bush today gave new support to embattled Texas Congressman Tom DeLay. They appeared together at a social security event in Texas. And then the President gave DeLay a ride back to D.C. on Air Force One.

White House aides underscored Bush's backing for DeLay -- who has denied wrongdoing -- as he joined the president at a Social Security event in their home state of Texas. Bush and DeLay flew back to Washington together aboard Air Force One.

Bush made no mention of the ethics controversy but he praised DeLay's efforts on important legislation. "I appreciate the leadership of Congressman Tom DeLay in working on important issues that matter to the country," he said. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters Bush supports DeLay "as strongly as he ever has, which is strongly."

Meanwhile, back at the capitol, Republicans are giving serious consideration to repealing the ethics law changes it recently enacted that required at least one Republican to vote to investigate a Congressman.

The change that upset the Democrat the most would require a majority vote to launch an investigation and prevent automatic dismissal of a case. That, for instance, would require at least one Republican vote to investigate DeLay.

Bush is always so out of step. Just as House Republicans gets ready to (hopefully) sacrifice DeLay, he marches in the other direction.

The Republican leaders met after steadily increasing attacks by Democrats, who contended the changes were designed to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay from further investigation.

...The chairman of the House ethics committee, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., offered concessions to Democrats last week, including an investigation of DeLay's conduct. Democrats rejected the offer, insisting they wanted the rules overhauled first. A senior Republican aide said Hastings has concluded that his Republican colleagues must allow another vote on the rules passed in January if they have any hope of allowing the committee to function.

....The ethics committee is one of the few places minority Democrats can assert power in the House because it is equally divided between five Republicans and five Democrats. The Democrats have refused to provide a sixth vote to allow the committee to commence operations.