WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- Media reports calling into question the political activities of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay returned the spotlight to the powerful Texas Republican's ongoing ethics problems and further increased rampant speculation that his days on Capitol Hill, or at least at the helm of his caucus, may be numbered.
But despite continuing questions about potential ethical improprieties and relentless attacks by critics, the response from the House GOP establishment and conservative interests continues to be strong, although it is showing signs of cracking.
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., defended DeLay Wednesday, saying the Republican caucus remains steadfastly behind its leader.
"I don't see any waning support of the leader," said Blunt. "In fact, I think more and more members are feeling like he's taken a lot of arrows for all of us, so if anything I suspect it's increasing."
Citing four people with firsthand knowledge of its planning, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that a six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by DeLay was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government.
DeLay reported that the trip was funded by the non-profit conservative group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, which has said in a recent statement that it did fund the trip. However, that group reportedly obtained the funding for the junket from a Russian corporate lobbying entity.
The revelations make this the third overseas trip taken by DeLay that may have been paid for, at least indirectly, by foreign lobbying interests, which is not allowed under U.S. law.
Other lawmakers and their staffs on both sides of the aisle have been on trips sponsored by a registered lobbying agent for the Korean government that also sponsored a trip for DeLay to the country.
In addition, the New York Times reported that DeLay's wife and daughter have been paid more than half a million dollars working for his political action and campaign committees since 2001.
It is not unheard of for lawmakers' family members to work for campaign and political committees, but the news comes at a bad time for DeLay as it only adds fire to the criticism swirling around his powerful political machine and raises the specter of wrongdoing.
A political action group DeLay helped establish, Texans for a Republican Majority, has been the target of a criminal investigation in the state for illegal fundraising activities that have so far yielded the indictment of three of his political associates.
In addition, DeLay was admonished by the House Ethics Committee three times last year for his political activities.
DeLay has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with violating any law, a point raised by his supporters.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Congress has been distracted from its legislative mission by the way the GOP has dealt with alleged ethics problems, and the American people are paying a price for it.
Such clearly political comments along with an ongoing television, radio and newspaper advertising campaign attacking DeLay by Democratic Party-aligned groups such as the Campaign for America's Future feed into the GOP defense that DeLay is being attacked for purely political reasons.
DeLay's spokesman, Dan Allen, told United Press International that House members and Republicans across the country believe the ethics questions are a "highly organized, well-funded campaign" to bring down DeLay and leave the House at a standstill.
He claimed that billionaire George Soros, who funds Democratic political-interests groups including the Campaign for America's Future, is working with Pelosi and House Democrats to attack DeLay.
Pelosi's spokeswoman, Jennifer Crider, said that such conspiracy theories are not true, noting that the minority leader has not personally targeted DeLay.
"His problems are of his own making," said Crider.
Although Pelosi has made repeated calls for the House Ethics Committee to look into whether DeLay's political activities warrant investigation and made an attempt to appoint an independent investigator of his political activities last October, it does mean she is coordinating with liberal interests to bring him down.
The stark politicization of the issue could serve DeLay well in the end and is arguably one of the outcomes hoped for by DeLay and his supporters because it gives him the cover of partisan politics and provides a distraction from the allegations.
For instance, the underlying ethics questions about whether lawmakers should have a better understanding of the groups they work with have remained peripheral.
DeLay has said that members can't be expected to delve deeply into the background of such groups, a position echoed by his spokesman, who said that the Russian trip was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, as the group said in a statement last month.
Despite the strong showing of support for DeLay, including moves by a group of conservative leaders to defend him from what they say is a scurrilous partisan campaign to unseat him and bring down the conservative movement, there are some signs of problems within his party.
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page admonished DeLay last week for violating the broad set of ethics principles that helped bring the GOP into power in the House 10 years ago.
Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., who was ousted by the GOP leadership as the head of the Ethics Committee after it publicly admonished DeLay for his political activities last year, told reporters Wednesday that many Republican members acknowledge privately that they have concerns about DeLay and the related ongoing deadlock with Democrats on the committee.
When asked about the most recent allegations raised against DeLay, Pelosi told UPI she had yet to read the stories and focused on the ongoing battle between Republicans and Democrats in the body over the ethics process.
GOP efforts to change the ethics process in a way that critics say would weaken the Ethics Committee's investigatory and enforcement abilities in order to protect DeLay led the ranking member Democrat on the panel, Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, to lead a Democratic refusal to allow adoption of the new rules.
Mollohan circulated a second letter to lawmakers this week in a search for additional co-sponsors for a resolution to repeal the three changes pushed through by GOP leaders, but prospects for his successfully forcing a House vote on the matter appear slim.
GOP leaders say the changes are needed to stop the leveling of partisan ethics charges against members, such as those made against DeLay last year by former Rep. Chris Bell, D-Texas.
Some of Bell's charges were dismissed by the panel, which also admonished Bell, but they nonetheless led to an admonishment of DeLay.
When pressed on the issue of Delay's ethics problems, Pelosi said that the real questions are not about DeLay's trips, but the broader implications of his political actions.
"It is not about a trip," said Pelosi. "It is about a pattern of behavior the leader has been involved in."
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