All indications were the Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) had been tapped to serve as the (temporary) House Majority Leader now that Tom DeLay is under indictment. Now it appears the earlier reports may have been premature.
In a surprising twist in the ongoing GOP power struggle, CNN is reporting that House Speaker Dennis Hastert will ask Dreier and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) “split DeLay’s duties without getting his official title.”
If accurate, I believe it suggests Blunt’s time in the leadership may be “permanent,” not “temporary.” Blunt is an ambitious conservative with a powerful (and borderline corrupt) operation of his own. If he gets the power over the caucus, he’s not going to give it up.
In fact, as it turns out, we’re probably seeing the transition of power from the most corrupt House Republican to the second most corrupt House Republican.
In one of the more startling examples of influence peddling in recent memory, the Washington Post reported in 2003 that Blunt secretly inserted a special provision favorable to Philip Morris into a House bill dealing with domestic security.
In this particular controversy, Congress was preparing to vote on a massive, 475-page bill on the Department of Homeland Security. Literally just a few hours before the final House vote, Blunt inserted a provision into the legislation that to make it harder to sell tobacco products over the Internet and would have cracked down on the sale of contraband cigarettes — two measures Philip Morris has wanted Congress to pass for some time because they strongly affect the company’s profits. The provision had never faced a House vote and had never been approved by the speaker or majority leader, but Blunt did it anyway.
In fact, when you think of a congressman with close ties to a tobacco corporation, Blunt is almost a caricature. Blunt’s son is a lobbyist for Philip Morris in Missouri, Blunt dated then married a Philip Morris lobbyist in DC, and Philip Morris has contributed over $150,000 to Blunt’s political action committees in just the last two years.
It’s not just tobacco. Blunt also controls his own K Street operation, with an efficient system of delivering legislation, contingent on campaign contributions, based on corporate lobbyists’ demands.
Congressional Republicans will no doubt offer words of support publicly, but once Blunt has made himself comfortable in the Majority Leader’s office, the only way to get him out is to elect a Dem majority. DeLay must know this — when Blunt’s Philip Morris scandal broke, many House Republicans believed DeLay planted the story in order to slow Blunt’s assent up the leadership ladder.
I don’t know if DeLay is going to be convicted or not, but I really don’t think he’ll ever get his old job back.