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Thomas Dale DeLay (born April 8 1947 in Laredo, Texas) is an American politician from Sugar Land, Texas and a prominent Republican.

After spending part of his childhood in Venezuela due to his father's work in the oil and gas industry, he received a biology degree from the University of Houston. A conservative, right-wing Republican, DeLay was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984 from Texas's 22nd congressional district. Known as "The Hammer" for his enforcement of party discipline in close votes and his reputation for exacting political retribution on opponents, he was appointed Deputy Minority Whip in 1988, was elected House Majority Whip in 1994, leading the Republican Revolution. After the retirement of Dick Armey, he was elected House Majority Leader after the 2002 Midterm Elections.

On September 28 2005, DeLay was indicted on charges of criminal conspiracy by a Travis County grand jury after having waived his rights under the statutes of limitations . DeLay has publicly countered that the charges are partisan and thus politically motivated, but in accordance with Republican Caucus rules, DeLay has temporarily resigned from his position as House Majority Leader (see below).

Biography and early political career

After living part of his childhood in Venezuela due to his father's work in the petroleum and natural gas industry, DeLay received a degree in biology from the University of Houston in 1970, though he had previously been expelled from Baylor University for drinking. There he gained a reputation as a playboy, earning the nickname "Hot Tub Tom". Prior to entering politics, DeLay had successful business experience in pest control.

DeLay was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1978, and in the following years struggled with alcoholism during his service there. By his own admission, he was drinking "eight, ten, twelve martinis a night at receptions and fundraisers."

DeLay became a born-again Christian in 1985. This followed a battle with alcoholism which plagued his life and caused his expulsion from Baylor. After Christine DeLay began volunteering as a court-appointed special advocate for children in foster care, they also became foster parents. DeLay has declined to comment on reports in The New Yorker that he is estranged from much of his family, including his mother and one of his brothers . According to The Washington Post, DeLay has not spoken to his younger brother, Randy, a Houston lobbyist, since 1996, when a complaint to the House Ethics Committee prompted Tom DeLay to cut his brother off in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest .

DeLay was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984, representing the Texas 22nd congressional district, which includes Sugar Land (map), after his predecessor, libertarian Republican Ron Paul, stepped down, citing his support for the concept of term limits. (Paul returned to Congress in 1996 as a representative of Texas's 14th district.)

Early Congressional career

As a member of the Republican minority in the 1980s, DeLay made a name for himself while criticizing the National Endowment for the Arts and the Environmental Protection Agency.

DeLay was appointed deputy whip by then-Minority Whip Dick Cheney in 1988. When the Republican Party gained control of the House in 1995 following the 1994 election, DeLay was elected Majority Whip against the wishes of Speaker-elect Newt Gingrich.

DeLay was not always on good terms with either Gingrich or Dick Armey, the House Majority Leader; he considered them uncommitted to "Christian values," and in 1997 DeLay tried to upstage Gingrich. Nevertheless, in the heyday of the 104th Congress (1995-1997), DeLay described the Republican leadership as a triumvirate of Gingrich ("the visionary"), Armey ("the policy wonk"), and himself ("the ditch digger who makes it all happen.")

As Majority Whip, DeLay earned the nickname "The Hammer," for his enforcement of party discipline in close votes and his reputation for wreaking political vengeance on opponents. DeLay has expressed a like for his nickname, pointing out that the hammer is one of a carpenter's most valuable tools. In the 104th Congress, DeLay successfully whipped 300 out of 303 bills.

Majority Leader

After serving as whip for eight years, DeLay was elected majority leader upon the retirement of Dick Armey in 2002. His tenure as Majority Leader has been marked by strong Republican party discipline in close votes, and the use of parliamentary political techniques to preserve his party's control of the House. DeLay has also been known to "primary" Republicans who resist his votes (threatening to endorse and support a Republican primary challenge to the disobedient Representative), and, like many of his predecessors in Congress, uses promises of future committee chairmanships to bargain for support among the rank and file members of the party.

Employing a method known as "catch and release," DeLay has allowed centrist or moderate conservative Republicans to take turns voting against controversial bills. If a Congressman says a bill is unpopular in his district, DeLay will only make him vote for it if his vote is necessary for passage; if his vote is not needed, he or she will be allowed to vote against the party without reprisal.

In the 108th Congress, a preliminary Medicare vote passed 216-215, a vote on Head Start passed 217-216, a vote on school vouchers for Washington, D.C. passed 209-208, and "Fast track," usually called "trade promotion authority," passed by one vote as well. Some see these close votes as indicative of DeLay's strategy to enable the minimum number of Republicans to vote in favor of these bills. Both political supporters and opponents have remarked on DeLay's ability to sway the votes of his party.

DeLay is also noted for involving lobbyists in the process of passing House bills. Writers Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose authored a critical biography of DeLay which quotes a lobbyist as saying, "I've had members pull me aside and ask me to talk to another member of Congress about a bill or amendment, but I've never been asked to work on a bill - at least like they are asking us to whip bills now." (The Hammer, 93)

Like many successful incumbents, DeLay's ability to raise money gives him additional influence. Two-thirds of the way through the 2004 election cycle, DeLay raised $2.28 million compared to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert's $1.68 million. Partly as a result of Tom DeLay's management abilities, the House Republican caucus under him has displayed unprecedented, sustained party cohesion.

In 2001 DeLay defied the president when he refused to extend Bush's tax cuts to people making between $10,500 and $26,625 a year; when reporters asked DeLay about what he would do about the low-income tax cuts DeLay simply stated it "ain't going to happen." When Ari Fleischer reiterated the president's desire for a low-income tax cut, DeLay retorted "the last time I checked they don't have a vote."

On economic policy, DeLay is rated a 95 out of 100 by the anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform, and 95 to 100 by the United States Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby. On environmental policy, he earned ratings of 0 from the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters. He has been a fervent critic of the EPA, which he has called the "Gestapo of government" . DeLay has also sided with business owners over labor unions and is against gun control. The ACLU has measured that his voting history aligns with their civil liberties platform 3% of the time .

DeLay blames Senate Democrats and what he dubbed "BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) environmentalists" for blocking legislative solutions to problems such as the 2003 North America blackout .

According to some, it was his Christian conservative viewpoint that led him to vote 100% in line with the views of the National Right-to-Life Committee and 0% with the National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action League.

In foreign policy, DeLay has been a strong supporter of the State of Israel, saying, "The Republican leadership, especially that leadership in the House, has made pro-Israel policy a fundamental component of our foreign policy agenda and it drives the Democrat leadership crazy — because they just can’t figure out why we do it!"

On a 2003 trip to Israel, DeLay toured the nation and addressed members of the Knesset. His opposition to land concessions is so strong that the right-wing National Union Party deputy Aryeh Eldad remarked, "as I shook his hand, I told Tom DeLay that until I heard him speak, I thought I was farthest to the right in the Knesset." Former Mossad chief Danny Yatom said "The Likud is nothing compared to this guy." (The Hammer, 236)

In 2005, DeLay, acting against the president's wishes, initiated the "safe harbor" provision for MTBE in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, together with Rep. Joe Barton . This provision would have retroactively protected the makers of the gasoline additive from lawsuits. The provision was dropped from the final bill.

DeLay supported the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. Critics of this law have argued that it unduly favors creditors over consumers, and have stated that the credit card industry spent millions of dollars lobbying in support of the act.

After being indicted on September 28 2005, DeLay stepped down temporarily from his position as House Majority Leader. DeLay was the first House leader in over 100 years to be indicted. He was succeeded by Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri .

Controversies and accusations

DeLay's defense of Quayle

In 1988, when questions were raised about then-Republican vice-presidential nominee Dan Quayle's apparent use of family connections to get into the Indiana National Guard and thus avoid possible combat service in the Vietnam War, DeLay reportedly defended Quayle by saying that he had tried to enlist himself at the same age, but was told ethnic minorities had already filled most of the available positions and there were none left for him.

No one close to him could say whether he made any other attempt to serve, and later The Washington Post reported that he had received student deferments while at Baylor, gotten a high lottery number in 1969 and then gotten married prior to his 1970 graduation from Houston.

However, he had been asked to withdraw from Baylor for a semester and managed to keep his student deferment during that time, which has never been explained.

Settlement in civil suit

In early 1999, as the House vote on impeaching president Bill Clinton approached (a vote DeLay had worked very hard to ensure would succeed), Anne-Louise Bardach at The New Republic picked up a story first reported by Houston-area alternative weeklies () alleging that DeLay himself had committed perjury during a civil lawsuit brought against him by a former business partner in 1994.

The plaintiff in that suit, Robert Blankenship, had charged that DeLay and a third partner in Albo Pest Control had breached the partnership agreement by trying to force him out of the business without buying him out, and filed suit against DeLay, charging him and the other partner with breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, wrongful termination, loss of corporate expectancy, and injunctive relief. While being deposed in that suit, DeLay claimed that he didn't think he was an officer or director of Albo and believed he had resigned two or three years ago (). Yet his own congressional disclosure forms, including one filed subsequent to the deposition state that he was either president or chairman of the company between 1985 and 1994. The plaintiff also alleged that Albo money had been spent on DeLay's congressional campaigns, in violation of federal and state law.

DeLay and Blankenship settled for an undisclosed sum, and Blankenship's attorney told Bardach that had he known about the congressional disclosure forms, he would have referred the case to the Harris County district attorney's office for a perjury prosecution. These allegations have never been investigated and DeLay has never been charged.

Accusations of misconduct in Texas fundraising and Grand Jury Indictment

After the 1990 census, Texas Democrats drew what some Republicans have argued was the most effective partisan gerrymander in the country. Although Congressional Texas Democrats only received an average of 40 percent of the votes of Congressional Texas Republicans, Democrats consistently had a majority in the state delegation. After the 2000 census, Republicans sought to redraw the district lines to support a GOP majority in the congressional delegation while Democrats desired to retain a plan similar to the existing lines. The two parties reached an impasse in the Texas Legislature, where Republicans controlled the Senate and Democrats controlled the House. As a result the new district lines were drawn by a federal court panel and largely retained the status quo.

In 2001 the Texas Legislative Redistricting Board (a panel composed of the state's Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller, Speaker of the House, Attorney-General, and Land Commissioner) redrew state legislative districts in accordance with the census. The new map that was adopted by the Republican-dominated board gave the GOP an edge in winning the Texas House of Representatives, still controlled at that time by the Democrats. During the 2002 elections under these new maps, DeLay aggressively fundraised for Republican candidates under his Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC). It has since been alleged that TRMPAC was used to funnel illegal corporate donations into the campaigns of Republican candidates for State Representative. This allegation is currently the subject of an ongoing investigation by Travis County, Texas District Attorney Ronnie Earle, which led to indictments against DeLay on September 28 2005.

The GOP victories in 2002 resulted in their control of the Texas House in addition to the Senate. As a result, the Texas Legislature was called into session in 2003 to redistrict the state's congressional lines in favor of the Republican Party. A number of Democrats left the state, going to Oklahoma, and later New Mexico, to deny a quorum for voting. Helen Giddings, the recognized negotiator, was arrested in May of 2003, but later the arrest was called a mistake. Texas House Speaker Craddick apologized to Giddings and then ordered the Sergeant at Arms to incarcerate Giddings in the state capital buildings. On May 26 2005, a Texas judge ruled that a committee formed by DeLay had violated state law by not disclosing over $600,000 worth of fundraising money, mostly from the credit card industry, $25,000 from Sears, Roebuck & Co. $50,000 from Diversified Collections Services of San Leandro. Some of the money was spent on manning phone banks and posting wanted posters on Federal Highways calling for the arrest of Democratic legislators with an 800 number to call if seen after the Democratic caucus left to Oklahoma in order to prevent redistricting legislation from passage. The Federal Highway Administration offered to cooperate in arresting the Democrats, forcing the Democrats to travel to Oklahoma by plane instead of by automobile.

On September 30, 2004, the House Ethics Committee unanimously admonished DeLay because he "offered to endorse Representative Smith's son in exchange for Representative Smith's vote in favor of the Medicare bill."

On October 6, 2004, the House Ethics Committee unanimously admonished DeLay on two counts. The first count stated that DeLay "created the appearance that donors were being provided with special access to Representative DeLay regarding the then-pending energy legislation." The second count said that DeLay "used federal resources in a political issue" by asking the Federal Aviation Administration and Justice Department to help track Texas legislators during the battle over Texas redistricting.

The House Ethics committee at the time of the latter admonishment deferred action on another count related to fund raising while that matter was subject to state criminal action. That state investigation eventually led to the felony indictment on September 28, 2005.

On August 11 2005, the Federal Elections Commission audited Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, a PAC founded by DeLay, and found that it failed to report more than $300,000 in debts owed to vendors and incorrectly paid for some committee activities with money from another DeLay-connected political committee.

The FEC found that ARMPAC misreported receipts and the ending cash balance for 2001 activities and the beginning cash-on-hand, receipts, disbursements and ending cash-on-hand for 2002. ARMPAC also failed to report $322,306 owed to 25 vendors. ARMPAC disclosed the debts in amended reports, the FEC said.

ARMPAC's state, non-federal arm paid some expenses and costs for events and activities that should have been paid by ARMPAC, the report said. ARMPAC representatives are reviewing that portion of the audit and understand "a payment from the federal account to the non-federal account may be required," the FEC said.

There were no details given to indicate if the FEC would pursue enforcement action.

On September 8 2005, a federal grand jury indicted Texans for a Republican Majority, which illegally accepted a political contribution of $100,000 from the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, and the Texas Association of Business on four indictments, including charges of unlawful political advertising, unlawful contributions to a political committee and unlawful expenditures such as those to a graphics company and political candidates .

On September 13 2005, a federal grand jury indicted Jim Ellis, who heads Americans for a Republican Majority, and John Colyandro, former executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, who already faced charges of money laundering in the case. Colyandro also faces 13 counts of unlawful acceptance of a corporate political contribution .

DeLay was indicted on September 28 2005 by a Travis County grand jury on issues dealing with his involvement in the PAC Texans for a Republican Majority. DeLay had waived his rights under the statutes of limitations, which had expired in the summer of 2005. Because of Republican party rules regarding leadership and indictments, DeLay has stepped down temporarily from his position as House Majority Leader, while he retains his seat representing Texas' 22nd congressional district. White House spokesman Scott McClellan commented by saying that President Bush still viewed DeLay as "a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people."

DeLay blasted the charge as a "sham" and an act of "political retribution," perpetuated by his opponents. He added, "I have done nothing wrong, I have violated no law, no regulation, no rule of the House." CNN

Accusations of misuse of federal investigative agencies

During the above Texas redistricting warrant controversy, several members of the Texas State House of Representatives who were members of the Democratic Party left the state in order to prevent the House from having a quorum of members, and therefore preventing the House from acting on any legislation. Although not a member of the Texas legislature, DeLay became involved, contacting:

• Three Federal Aviation Administration offices (in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C.)
• Four Federal Bureau of Investigation offices (in Dallas, Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, Austin, Texas and Ardmore, Oklahoma)
• Two United States Marshal offices (in the Western and Northern Districts of Texas)
• The United States Attorney's office in San Antonio, Texas
• The Office of Legislative Affairs at the United States Department of Justice
• The Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center (in Riverside, California)

DeLay apparently intended to find out where the Democratic legislators were located, and to force them to return to Texas in order to create a quorum in the House of Representatives.

Senator Joseph Lieberman requested an investigation into the Congressman's involvement in the requests, and asked that any White House involvement be reported. Neither was forthcoming.

The K Street Project

DeLay's involvement with the lobbying industry also includes a pointed effort on the part of the Republican Party to parlay the Congressional majority into a dominance of K Street, the famed lobbying district of Washington, D.C. DeLay, Senator Rick Santorum, and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform launched a campaign in 1995 encouraging lobbying firms to retain Republican officials in top positions. Firms that had Democrats in positions of authority, DeLay suggested, would not be granted the ear of Majority Party members. Firms initially responded to this campaign but it has waned since 2004, when the possibility of Senator John Kerry winning the presidency gave ample incentive for hiring Democrats.

DeLay and Terri Schiavo

DeLay also made headlines for his role in the Terri Schiavo controversy. On Palm Sunday weekend in March 2005, several days after the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube was disconnected for the third time, DeLay and other House Republicans met in emergency session to pass a bill allowing Schiavo's parents to petition the removal of the feeding tube to a federal judge. DeLay called the removal of the feeding tube "an act of barbarism." DeLay faced charges of hypocrisy from his critics when the Los Angeles Times revealed that he had consented to ending the life support for his own father, who was in a comatose state because of a debilitating accident in 1988 .

DeLay was accused of stirring up controversy in the wake of a series of high-profile violent crimes and death threats against judges when he said that "the men responsible will have to answer to their behavior." DeLay's comments came soon after the February 28 2005 homicide of the mother and husband of Chicago Judge Joan Lefkow, and the March 11 2005 killing of Atlanta Judge Rowland Barnes. DeLay's opponents accused him of rationalizing violence against judges when their decisions were unpopular with the public. Ralph Neas, President of the liberal People for the American Way, said that DeLay's comments were "irresponsible and could be seen by some as justifying inexcusable conduct against our courts." DeLay publicly apologized for the remark after being accused of threatening the Supreme Court.

In May 2005, the hit NBC television drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent used DeLay's name in a negative way. On the show, Detective Alexandra Eames (played by Kathryn Erbe), investigating homicides of several judges, said, "Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-Shirt." The show was apparently referring to the comments DeLay made about Supreme Court justices during the Terri Schiavo controversy. DeLay responded by writing to Jeff Zucker, president of Universal Television Group: "This manipulation of my name and trivialization of the sensitive issue of judicial security represents a reckless disregard for the suffering initiated by recent tragedies and a great disservice to public discourse." The producer of the show, Dick Wolf, replied that "these shows are works of fiction." Wolf also commented, "But I do congratulate Congressman DeLay for switching the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a television show."

Cuban Cigar

DeLay has long been known as a strong critic of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and a supporter of the trade embargo against Cuba. In April 2005, Time Magazine published a photo from a July 2003 trip to Israel. In the photo, DeLay is seen smoking a Cuban cigar , an activity which is illegal in the United States, but legal in Israel. At the time, smoking a Cuban cigar abroad was legal for U.S. citizens. However, since September 2004, the Treasury Department's enforcement of the law has been toughened to forbid consumption or purchase of Cuban cigars by U.S. citizens anywhere in the world.

DeLay and Jack Abramoff

Tom DeLay allegedly received numerous gifts and other favors from indicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including concert tickets and the use of a private skybox.

The Associated Press reported on April 7 2005:

DeLay's political action committee did not reimburse lobbyist Jack Abramoff for the May 2000 use of the skybox, instead treating it as a type of donation that didn't have to be disclosed to election regulators at the time.

The skybox donation, valued at thousands of dollars, came just three weeks before DeLay accepted a trip to Europe including golf with Abramoff at the world-famous St. Andrews course for himself, his wife and aides that was underwritten by some of the lobbyist's clients.

Two months after the concert and trip, DeLay voted against gambling legislation opposed by some of Abramoff's Indian tribe clients .

See also

• 109th United States Congress

Reference

• Dubose, Lou; & Reid, Jan (2004). The Hammer: Tom DeLay: God, Money, and the Rise of the Republican Congress. PublicAffairs. ISBN 1586482386.

External links

Official U.S. Government Tom DeLay links

• DeLay's page at the House of Representatives website
• Majority Leader Website
• Campaign web site

U.S. Government links on DeLay's ethics issues

• DeLay testimony to the Committee on Resources, April 12 2000, in which he argues against restrictions on oil exploration
• Lieberman: Federal Authority Misused by Texas Republicans
• Investigation of Certain Allegations Related to Voting on the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, Report of the Committee of Standards of Official Conduct, September 30 2004. 72-page pdf file.
• Statement of the Committee regarding disposition of the complaint filed against Representative Tom DeLay, October 6 2004. Cover for documents.
• Letter of Admonishment: October 6, 2004.

Press reports on DeLay (pro and con)

• Campaign contributions made by Tom DeLay at newsmeat.com
• List of donors to Tom DeLay's campaigns at newsmeat.com
• "Be Not Afraid" Tom DeLay speech to the Knesset, July 30 2003
• Tom DeLay News
• "DeLay makes appeal to Jewish voters" Tom Curry for MSNBC, September 1 2004
• "Ethics Panel Reviewing DeLay Complaint" Suzanne Gamboa for the Associated Press, June 23, 2004
• "DeLay Thanks Lobbyists With Vegas Trip" Juliet Eilperin for The Washington Post, September 22 2000
• "DeLay, Incorporated" - Broadcast June 11, 2004 on PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers (RealVideo format).
• "National Journal to report DeLay violated House ethics rules" The Raw Story, February 25 2005
• "Bugged By Tom DeLay" Ned Rice for the National Review, March 23 2005
• "Tom's Kids" about DeLay's efforts to help abused children, Meghan Keane for the National Review, May 21 2004
• "Absolute Truth" Peter Perl for The Washington Post, May 13 2001, about an interview with DeLay
• ABC News report on Saipan trip
• Raw Story report on baby shower
• "Texas Smear Machine Targets DeLay" Peter Flaherty for The American Spectator, September 23 2004
• "DeLay's state PAC indicted" R.G. Ratcliffe for The Houston Chronicle, September 9 2005
• "Indictment's impact on White House agenda" How Delay's indictment this week could stall the White House agenda The Christian Science Monitor, September 29 2005

Citizen groups critical of DeLay

• House of Scandal details DeLay's Ethics Issues
• Flow-chart of DeLay's ethics issues
• According to the New York Times, group's advertisements "will seek to turn DeLay's powerful network into his downfall"
• Taking On Tom DeLay
• Legal Action: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Assists Chris Bell (D-TX) in Drafting Ethics Complaint Against Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) (series of PDF files, and links to related news articles)
• Tom DeLay at Sourcewatch, has extensive list of critical sources under "External Links"

• The Two Faces of Tom Delay: Presented by the Religious Freedom Coalition of the Southeast, "When we contacted Tom Delay's office, they stated that his position is that Christianity is the only "Real" religion." What is a real religion, Mr. Delay? What you have been practicing? If what you have been practicing is "Real Christianity", it obviously should be made illegal. According to evidence, his actions have been corrupt, illegal and unethical. Read the following and remember: "By their Works may they be known." This is a summary of information collected from several sources, including Salon Magazine, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, The New Republic, and The Hill, about Tom Delay."

Biographical Tom DeLay links

• Tom and Christine DeLay Marriage Profile

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