Those pesky, anonymous anti-DeLay quotes

Shailagh Murray and Mike Allen had a good piece over the weekend about the effect the Schiavo controversy was having on Tom DeLay, but one quote seemed particularly noteworthy.

The article noted two primary elements that should concern the House Majority Leader. One is the problem of DeLay thrusting himself into the national spotlight — on an issue in which most Americans think he’s wrong — at exactly the wrong time. Dems want to raise DeLay’s profile to help generate interest in his voluminous ethical and legal lapses. While Republicans have been counting on DeLay’s relatively low name recognition to protect him and his caucus, the Schiavo fight did the opposite.

But the more politically salient issue is the behind-the-scenes frustration felt by a caucus caught off-guard by the controversy and its reaction. DeLay has upset the very lawmakers whose support he desperately needs to survive.

The fracas over congressional involvement has taken many GOP lawmakers by surprise. Most knew little about the case and were acting at the direction of their leaders, who armed them with the simple argument that they just wanted to give Schiavo a final chance, and that they wanted to err on the side of life. But because of the rush to act and the insistent approach of the leadership, Republicans had no debate about whether their vote could be seen as federal intrusion in a family matter, or as a violation of the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branches. Both issues are concerns of many voters responding to polls, and of some legislators themselves.

[…]

One senior GOP lawmaker involved in the negotiations, who did not want to speak for the record, said that DeLay, who is fighting ethics charges on several fronts, faced considerable pressure from Christian conservative groups to respond to pleas by the parents of the brain-damaged woman to intervene before her husband, Michael Schiavo, removed the feeding tube that kept her alive. The lawmaker said that DeLay “wanted to follow through” but added that many House Republicans were dubious and suspected that the leader’s ethics problems were a motivating factor.

Republican concerns grew, the senior House GOP lawmaker said, as a succession of federal judges, some of them conservative appointees, rejected Congress’s entreaty. “A lot of members are saying, ‘Why did you put us through this?’ ” said the lawmaker, who agreed to recount the events on the condition that he not be named.

Congressional Republicans are frustrated enough that they’re taking a political hit for this, but it’s complicated by the fact that their House leader walked them over a cliff without so much as a meeting to discuss it first.

That “why did you put us through this” quote comes less than two weeks after another anonymous GOP lawmaker told the New York Times that DeLay’s ethical and legal troubles may very well force him from his leadership post. The unnamed member said, “I don’t know if it is tomorrow or next year, but it is inevitable.”

These anonymous quotes hint at broader cracks in the wall. After his first four rebukes from the House Ethics Committee, DeLay thrived because his Republican colleagues stuck by him. Some were afraid of him, others were satisfied with the results he produced, but motivations aside, DeLay knew he could act with impunity because his caucus was firmly behind him.

Now, that support doesn’t seem nearly as reliable as it once was. The more these anonymous quotes pop up, the more precarious DeLay’s future appears.