GOP support for DeLay eroding

WASHINGTON – Pressure mounted Thursday on former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to abandon his plan to reclaim his Republican leadership post, with one conservative saying the Texan’s legal woes and links to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff have made him a political liability.

“Sooner or later, self-interest creeps in,” said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. “Here is the threshold question that my colleagues will be asking themselves: How many would today accept a contribution from Mr. DeLay or ask him to come to their district? That becomes the threshold question, the barometer. That is something Tom DeLay understands.”

Flake also said that while many Republicans still regard DeLay as a masterful politician, “Certainly, in the last couple of days, more people have seen it differently.”

Flake’s blunt assessment reflected the views of a growing number of Republican lawmakers and senior GOP aides on Capitol Hill. Although few were willing to speak on the record, the discussions about DeLay’s future illustrated the unease within party ranks sparked by the Abramoff scandal.

The talk also underscored the political struggle confronting DeLay, who for years was perhaps the most influential Republican in Congress.

Flake said that he expects Republican House members to begin circulating a letter within days asking for new leadership elections, and that he intends to be among those signing it. The signatures of 50 Republicans would force a vote among the chamber’s 231 GOP members on whether the party should conduct the elections.

DeLay relinquished his job as House majority leader late last year after he was indicted in Texas on money laundering charges. He is ineligible to run for the post again as long as he faces those charges.

Previously, many Republican lawmakers would have balked at any move to permanently replace DeLay as majority leader, for fear of angering him.

But the political landscape has changed following guilty pleas Abramoff entered earlier this week in fraud and corruption cases and his decision to cooperate in federal investigations into links between him and DeLay and other lawmakers, mostly Republicans.

Flake said, “There are some who say, rightly or wrongly, (DeLay) has become the face of a culture gone bad in Washington.”

Several key Republican aides, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s political sensitivity, said they believed that DeLay would voluntarily step aside – or that House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., his longtime ally, would ask him to do so – if the rank-and-file members began circulating a letter calling for leadership elections.

But Kevin Madden, a spokesman for DeLay, said his boss had no intention of abandoning his bid to return to his leadership post.

“The support for Mr. DeLay has been emphatic and stated publicly,” Madden said. “Mr. DeLay continues to enjoy support because people know that he’s an effective leader.”

Also Wednesday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who still enjoys support within GOP conservative circles, said it was time for House Republicans to elect a new majority leader and support reforms on lobbying activities. He was joined in that call by former Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minn., who enjoys close ties to the White House.