WASHINGTON
-- A coalition of conservative
and moderate Republicans
launched a formal bid yesterday
to replace Representative Tom
DeLay of
Texas as
House majority leader, as
lawmakers scramble to cope with
the fallout of a widening ethics
scandal on Capitol Hill.
The group's
leaders said more than 15 House
Republicans signed the petition
within hours of its circulation
yesterday afternoon, and said
they hoped to gather as many as
three dozen signatures by day's
end. Organizers said they would
continue to gather signatures
over the weekend, aiming for the
50 they need under House
Republican rules to force a
closed-door discussion and call
for leadership elections.
The reaction from
House Speaker J. Dennis
Hastert's office was notable:
Spokesman Ron Bonjean said the
power-sharing arrangement
Hastert crafted to fill Delay's
shoes wasn't meant to last.
''This is consistent with the
speaker's announcement that this
would only be a temporary
structure and House Republicans
would revisit this matter at the
beginning of this year," he
said.
That suggests
that a leadership change is all
but certain. Some Republican
aides speculated that elections
could be arranged as early as
Monday.
Organizers said
they hope Hastert will see the
movement as a sign of widespread
discontent over the unsettled
GOP leadership arrangement,
persuading him to schedule
leadership elections before he's
forced to call one.
''My hope is that
this will convince them that
this is what needs to be done,"
said Representative Jeff Flake,
Republican of Arizona. ''The
party needs a course
correction."
Flake, a
third-term conservative, and
Representative Charles Bass, a
sixth-term moderate from
New Hampshire,
began circulating the petition
yesterday. The congressmen
represent the party's two
ideological poles, both of which
are frustrated with Hastert's
plan to reserve the majority
leader's job for DeLay while he
fights criminal charges in
Texas.
The attempt to
oust DeLay is a rebuke to the
House GOP's leadership, which
has long been known for
enforcing strict party
discipline. Though Hastert
himself appears secure in his
post, the effort reflects the
agitation among rank-and-file
Republicans who chafed under
DeLay's hard-nosed style of
leadership.
Meanwhile, the
anxiety is growing about
November's midterm elections,
when all House members must
stand for reelection. An
Associated Press-Ipsos Poll
survey released yesterday found
that 49 percent of the likely
voters questioned want Democrats
to take over the House and the
Senate, compared with 36 percent
who favor Republican control.
The GOP holds a 15-seat edge in
the House.
Without permanent
leadership, the tenuous
power-sharing agreement among
Republicans that has kept the
majority leader's job open for
DeLay would continue through the
rest of the year. But that could
prompt continued discontent that
would exacerbate party
infighting, dragging down the
GOP's agenda and giving
Democrats an opening to attack
Republicans for their continued
allegiance to DeLay.
The move to end
DeLay's leadership is occurring
just three days after
once-powerful lobbyist Jack
Abramoff pleaded guilty in an
ongoing influence-peddling case
that could envelop a large
circle of high-ranking
Republicans.
The indictment
does not directly implicate
DeLay, but he has close personal
and political ties to Abramoff,
and several of his former aides
are linked to the disgraced
lobbyist's case. One of them,
Michael Scanlon, DeLay's former
press secretary, pleaded guilty
in November as part of the same
criminal investigation.
DeLay is under
indictment in
Texas in
an unrelated campaign finance
case involving alleged money
laundering; under House
Republican rules, DeLay had to
step down as majority leader
until the case is resolved. But
some GOP leaders fear DeLay may
be criminally charged in the
Abramoff investigation.
''Jack Abramoff's
guilty plea and his close
association with Tom DeLay
underscore the need for a new
majority leader in the
Republican Party," said
Representative Christopher
Shays, a moderate Republican
from Connecticut who is facing a
tight race for reelection.
DeLay's
spokesman, Kevin Madden, said
the congressman is confident
that a majority of House
Republicans still want him as
majority leader. Madden said
DeLay intends to return to the
job after his acquittal, and
characterized the implication
that a DeLay-Abramoff connection
will bring more legal trouble as
''character assassination by
insinuation."
''Mr. DeLay
appreciates that a majority of
his colleagues recognize [he]
remains committed to fulfilling
his responsibilities as majority
leader as soon as he is
exonerated in Texas," Madden
said.
A Bass
spokeswoman, Alissa Southworth,
said the movement to replace
DeLay isn't a statement on his
ability as majority leader.
Still, ''The national Republican
agenda is too important to be
jeopardized by the personal
situation of individual
members," she said.
A new GOP
leadership team would make it
nearly impossible for DeLay to
reclaim his leadership status,
even if the
Texas
case ends in his favor. A new
majority leader would bring his
or her own allies to the job and
probably wouldn't step aside for
DeLay.
Hastert gave
House members an unusually long
holiday break this year to allow
enough time for DeLay's case to
be completed. House sessions
won't resume until Jan. 31, but
DeLay's legal problems probably
won't be resolved by then.
If a majority of
House members supports going
forward, new leadership
elections could be held any time
after Jan. 31. Those who want
fresh leadership say they want
the vote by mid-February to
resolve the situation as quickly
as possible.
While Hastert
continues to enjoy the
confidence of most Republicans,
some suggested yesterday that
the speaker himself may not be
totally secure. Representative
Melissa Hart, Republican of
Pennsylvania, said she signed
the letter calling for the
replacement of DeLay even though
it ''does not go far enough."
''I believe there
should be a full review of the
leadership team," Hart said.
''The Republican conference is
run by a leadership team, and
when the majority leader
position becomes vacant, the
conference needs the ability to
reassess the leadership team as
a whole."
Unease over
DeLay's status began with his
indictment in September for
allegedly laundering political
donations to dodge
Texas
campaign laws; some Republicans
insisted that the caucus
immediately replace him and make
a clean start. Hastert quelled
the grumbling by drafting a
power-sharing arrangement:
Majority whip Roy Blunt of
Missouri
temporarily assumed many of
DeLay's powers, while other
members took on some of Blunt's
responsibilities.
Since then,
however, House conservatives,
particularly a younger
generation without loyalty to
DeLay and including Flake, 43,
are angered by what they see as
runaway spending by Congress.
They also bristled at DeLay's
leadership style of rewarding
supporters, crushing
adversaries, and marginalizing
dissenters.
Meanwhile, the
stakes of the upcoming 2006
elections have grown higher for
moderates, who are more
vulnerable to Democratic
challengers. The Democrats hope
to turn GOP missteps, such as
DeLay's indictment and the
bribery conviction of
Representative Randy ''Duke"
Cunningham of California, into
victory at the polls.
They believe that
those headaches, along with
President Bush's sagging
popularity and the conviction of
Abramoff, a well-heeled,
well-connected GOP lobbyist
whose influence stretched into
the innermost corridors of
Washington
power, could trigger voter anger
and help Democrats regain some
House seats.
Given those
concerns, many moderates contend
that the party needs fresh blood
to keep the Republican agenda on
track, said Ron Talley, a
spokesman for the Republican
Main Street Partnership, a
centrist group that is backing
new leadership elections.
''A good part of
the reelection for any member of
the party is to have an agenda
and go into the election with
the party strong," Talley said.
''You can't operate the company
with temps."
In an election
without DeLay, the top
candidates for majority leader
include Blunt; Representative
Mike Pence of Indiana, chairman
of the conservative Republican
Study Committee; Representative
John Boehner of
Ohio, chairman of the House
Education and Workforce
Committee; and Representative
John Shadegg of
Arizona, chairman of the House
Republican Policy Committee.
