Tom DeLay Tries to Rewrite His Congressional Record
Media Matters (Colorado)
April 11, 2007
Summary: Newsradio 850 KOA host Mike Rosen and former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) spread
numerous falsehoods and mischaracterized DeLay's record as House majority leader when DeLay
appeared on Rosen's April 9 show to promote his new book. DeLay faced charges of House ethics
violations and in 2005 was indicted on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to violate Texas
campaign finance law.
During an April 9 appearance on Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show to promote his book, No
Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight (Penguin Group USA, March 2007), former House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) and host Mike Rosen stated numerous falsehoods and provided dubious
explanations regarding charges of ethics violations and criminal conduct that plagued DeLay during
his career. Media Matters for America has documented many of these distortions.
1. "The Hammer"
DeLay claimed that his nickname as House Republican Whip, "the Hammer," misleadingly suggested
that he coerced members of the Republican Conference to vote the way the Republican leadership
wanted them to, saying, "it didn't happen that way on ... the Republican side."
From the April 9 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:
DELAY: I saw myself as the strategist, as -- we all had our talents, and each one of us -- Newt
Gingrich, Dick Armey, and others -- brought their talents to the leadership table. I guess I think
my talents are finding a way to get things done, and -- for instance, I developed a new way of
counting noses when we were involved in getting the votes to pass legislation. I call it "grow the
vote." I was given the nickname "Hammer" by The Washington Post as a disparaging nickname because
they just knew that I -- if I were effective, I had to be breaking arms and threatening members
to, to vote against their conscience or vote against their di -- district. That wasn't the case at
all. What I did was, is grow the vote, which means when a, a major piece of legislation was
introduced, I immediately went to all the members, found out what their problems were with the --
with the legislation and tried to work out those problems as it moved through the process, with
the idea that, when it got to the floor for a vote, they would want to vote for it, because they
had a part to play in it. That was a completely different way of doing things, and it turned out
to be very effective. It held everybody together. U -- it unified the Republican Conference and it
allowed us to accomplish some pretty amazing things during the Republican majority.
[...]
ROSEN: Are incoming legislators, freshmen members of the House, gathered together and dealt
with like fraternity pledges? Does the leadership tell them, "You're gonna vote this way or there
are going to be consequences. We want you to follow the leadership"? How does that take place?
DELAY: No, it doesn't happen -- it didn't happen that way on, on the Republican side. There are
rumors and reports that it does happen that way on the Democrat side. They had a majority for 40
years, and through that majority they were able to use iron-fisted tactics. When we came in the
majority we wanted to do something different, and that's -- that's what we did. We tried to work
with our members.
As Media Matters has noted, a July 11, 2003, Congressional Quarterly article reported that
during DeLay's tenure, if Republican House members defied their leadership, "punishment" or
"threats" would follow, or committee memberships could be put in jeopardy. Congressional Quarterly
cited the examples of Rep. Christopher Shays (CT), who was denied a committee chairmanship after
using a procedural rule to advance campaign finance reform legislation the Republican leadership
opposed, and Christopher H. Smith (NJ), who was threatened with the loss of a committee
chairmanship if he advanced legislation to guarantee veterans' health spending.
2. District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who indicted DeLay, is a "very partisan Democrat"
Rosen asserted that Travis County, Texas, District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who in September 2005
indicted DeLay for alleged state campaign finance violations, is a "very partisan Democrat,"
implying that he prosecuted DeLay to benefit the Democratic Party.
ROSEN: Let's talk about Ronnie Earle, the very partisan Democrat district attorney from Travis
County. Austin is in Travis County. Austin is also the state capital, and Austin is like -- Austin
is to Texas as Boulder is to Colorado. It's a college town; it's very liberal.
DELAY: You got it exactly right. It's a great -- that's a great analogy. And this is different
than the way you started the show, Mike. It's no longer the politics of personal destruction. It
is now a different level of electoral politics. It's, it's criminalization of politics. It's no
longer good enough to defeat somebody politically or, or vilify them publicly. You have to
carpet-bomb them and disgrace them. Bankrupt them. Ruin their families and send them to jail in
order to gain power. And that's what I've been going through for 11 years now. Just a whole series
of frivolous ethics charges, all dismissed.
Although he was elected as a Democrat, Earle reportedly prosecuted more Democratic officials
than Republican officials, as Media Matters has pointed out. The Houston Chronicle wrote in a
March 17, 2004, editorial that "[t]he record does not support allegations that Earle is prone to
partisan witch hunts."
3. Republicans favor stringent ethics rules
In connection with House ethics charges leveled against DeLay, Rosen misleadingly stated that
"when they came into majority status in the House" in 1995, "the Republicans passed a rule whereby
they agreed to remove from a leadership position ... any member of the House who was indicted for
a criminal offense."
ROSEN: Let's be clear, too, that the Republicans passed a rule when they came into majority
status in the House -- and this was in the context of being hypersensitive to ethics charges --
the Republicans passed a rule whereby they agreed to remove from a leadership position -- not
removing him from the House of Representatives, but from a leadership position any member of the
House who was indicted for a criminal offense.
DELAY: That's correct.
ROSEN: Not convicted -- indicted.
DELAY: That's correct, and the Democrats have no such rule. In fact, a year -- almost two years
ago now, they promised they would put the same rule in their caucus and they, they -- typically --
did not fulfill that promise. But they used this rule against us to pick our leadership. They knew
that if they could get this rogue district attorney to indict me, I would have to step aside. And
that's their, their real target.
In fact, as Media Matters noted, the Republicans adopted a rule regarding the eligibility of a
GOP member to serve in the party's leadership not upon achieving majority status in 1995 but in
1993 when former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) was under criminal investigation. Neither Rosen nor
DeLay noted that in November 2004, while DeLay was under criminal investigation but not yet
indicted, the Republicans rescinded this same rule. According to a Washington Post article, "House
GOP leaders and aides said many rank-and-file Republicans" were "eager to change the rule to help
DeLay." Additionally, as The Boston Globe (accessed through the Nexis database) reported on April
28, 2005, House Republicans -- after intense criticism -- reversed themselves on an Ethics
Committee rule that had blocked investigation of DeLay. As the Globe reported:
In January, House Republicans voted to change the rules, requiring a majority vote on the
committee before an investigation could continue, allowing either party to stop an inquiry into
the conduct of a fellow party member and effectively protecting DeLay. The decision to change the
rules back is a retreat by the Republicans, who have used House procedures to control the
legislative agenda.
4. Private conservative organization paid for DeLay's 2000 trip to Great Britain
Rosen suggested that a 2000 trip DeLay took to Great Britain -- which included a golf outing in
Scotland -- "saved the taxpayers money by taking some of these trips paid for by private
organizations, in this case by the National Center for Public Policy Research [NCPPR]."
ROSEN: Our guest, former Congressman Tom DeLay of Texas' book, No Retreat, No Surrender: One
American's Fight. You've got a chapter, Tom, under the title "Ten liberal lies you've heard about
me." Let's talk about the Scotland trip, for example.
DELAY: Well, Mike, I, I -- as a leader for 12 years, I traveled around the count -- around the
world, not, not very often. In fact, probably not anywhere near what other members travel. I
always thought that it would be better for me to travel paid, paid for by conservative foundations
-- all legally raised money to pay for conservatives to travel. I've been involved in Taiwan in
supporting that government. I've been involved in free-market issues in the Marianas Islands in
Southeast Asia. I was involved with getting persecuted Jews out of the Soviet Union, helping drive
a conservative movement worldwide in many different areas, particularly in, in Europe. And in this
particular instance, I went to Europe principally to meet with Margaret Thatcher to talk about
helping her ge -- regain the government for the Conservative Party over there. I met for, like,
seven days -- five or seven days -- with conservative groups, with government officials, and so
forth. And yes, I play golf. I love golf. It's the only thing I do for myself. And if I get an
extra afternoon, I try to go play golf wherever I am.
ROSEN: And in Scotland you played at Saint Andrews, and it would be a crime to be in Scotland
and not play at Saint Andrews if you had the opportunity. I should also note that the alternative
to a privately funded trip, which you were inclined to take, is what's called a CODEL trip. Which
means what?
DELAY: Which means the taxpayers paid for those.
ROSEN: Right, a congressional delegation trip.
DELAY: Right.
ROSEN: So you saved the taxpayers money by taking some of these trips paid for by private
organizations, in this case by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which is an
admittedly conservative public policy think tank.
DELAY: And, and a think tank and foundation that for, like, 15 years had been paying for
conservatives to travel. All legal. There, there's -- there's been no ethics charge filed against
me because of these trips, and it's, it's totally legal and ethical.
In fact, since-convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff -- not the NCPPR -- bought the
airline tickets for DeLay and several associates, using his private credit card, as Media Matters
has noted. Another registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, reportedly paid for DeLay's
food, phone, and some other expenses during his golf outing. House ethics rules prohibited House
members from accepting travel expenses from lobbyists.
5. The "K Street Project" merely encouraged lobbying firms to "get some clients that want to
influence legislators in a conservative direction"
Rosen and DeLay both sought to portray the "K Street Project" benignly as a means of
encouraging national lobbying firms -- typically headquartered on K Street in downtown Washington,
D.C. -- to solicit clients that favor conservative causes.
ROSEN: How about the -- the K Street Project?
DELAY: Well, the K Street Project, frankly, I'm very proud of. When we took over in 1995 for
the first time in 40 years, there was a culture in Washington, D.C., that I wanted to change. And
that was K Street, where the lobbyists all off -- office. Over 40 years, K Street was loaded
pretty much totally by Democrat lobbyists. If you were a, a, a chairman of a board of an
association, or a company, or even a union, you, you, you would hire as your lobbyist people that
had access, or that had relationships with the people that were in power. That's the way things
are done. And over time they were all Democrats, because the Democrats dominated the legislative
body for 40 years.
ROSEN: And political scientist Theodore White described this as two sides of the iron
triangle.
DELAY: Yeah.
ROSEN: Influential legislators and lobbyists. And in -- in this case, for 40 years the
Democrats were the only game in town. Certainly in the House of Representatives. And the
lobbyists, of course, were in tight with the Democrats who were in power.
DELAY: That's right. And, and they wanted to keep their people in power, and we ha -- we came,
came to power as Republicans in the majority and we wanted to deal with our friends, people that
were supporting us. And we also knew that these Democrats on K Street owe their, their jobs and
their money -- their pay to Democrats. So they, they would work to get us out of power in order to
put their friends in power. So, if you're meeting with somebody and they come to you with an issue
that's important to them, why would you meet with somebody that their whole -- their whole
existence is to get you out and put their friends in?
ROSEN: So, what did you tell these K Street lobbying companies or operations?
DELAY: You ought -- you ought to look for friends of ours and, and Republicans to hire to
represent your interests, because those are the people that we would like to work with.
ROSEN: Yeah. And these are, these are outfits that are in the business of influencing
legislators, and in essence what you were saying is, "Why don't you get some clients that want to
influence legislators in a conservative direction, then come talk to us?"
DELAY: Exactly the point.
The K Street Project is an initiative to track the political affiliations of lobbyists and
pressure lobbying firms to reward Republicans while shutting out Democrats, as Media Matters has
noted. Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks in a January 5, 2006, column
(subscription required) described Republican manipulation of Washington lobbyists as "DeLayism," a
term he coined:
But Republicans need to do more than bump DeLay. They need to put the entire leadership team up
for a re-vote. That's because the real problem wasn't DeLay, it was DeLayism, the whole culture
that merged K Street with the Hill, and held that raising money is the most important way to
contribute to the team.
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