In March, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, already awash in scandal and a four-time target of House Ethics Committee rebukes, found himself in more hot water. Reports surfaced that DeLay took an expense-paid trip to South Korea, paid for by a South Korean lobbying group, in violation of House rules. Shortly thereafter, we learned that DeLay enjoyed a luxurious European vacation paid for by gambling interests, funelled through a corrupt GOP lobbyist. The mess led a White House advisor to tell the Wall Street Journal last week, “We may be reaching a tipping point.”
If we were reaching that point in March, we’ve tipped over it now. Two new revelations — one on the front page of the Washington Post, the other on the front page of the New York Times — suggest Tom DeLay’s standing is crumbling and his career may be in severe jeopardy.
First up is the Post piece, which points to another travel-related quandary.
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.
DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay’s trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.
Those pesky House ethics rules, of course, prohibit lawmakers from accepting trips paid for by lobbyists and/or foreign agents.
Second is the NYT piece, which reported on political committees paying DeLay’s wife and daughter very handsome sums.
The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay’s political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay’s home state, Texas.
Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as “fund-raising fees,” “campaign management” or “payroll,” with no additional details about how they earned the money.
It’s important to note that it isn’t illegal for a lawmaker’s family to have jobs with PACs, but:
Although several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr. DeLay’s family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of new scrutiny of the Texas congressman. […]
“It’s DeLay Inc. ” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. “If it’s not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use their positions to enrich their families.”
The beginning of the end for DeLay? Maybe. As Atrios noted, the sources for these front-page articles appear to be people with close contact to DeLay — suggesting that The Hammer’s own allies have begun to turn on him.
The next couple of weeks should be critical. If DeLay suddenly discovers that his colleagues don’t want to be seen with him, he’s toast.