Washington – In the fall of 1996, when Roy Blunt of Missouri first ran for Congress, he made an auspicious visit to Capitol Hill.
First he stopped in to see Rep. Mel Hancock, the man he hoped to replace. Hancock urged Blunt to seek the freshman seat on the leadership-heavy Republican Steering Committee. “That puts you in the room with everybody here,” Blunt recalls Hancock told him.
Then Blunt paid a courtesy call to Rep. Tom DeLay, a Texan who had ascended to the No. 3-ranking whip job in 10 short years. “I left that meeting thinking, this is a great guy to work with,” Blunt said in an interview Friday.
He consulted with DeLay over the course of his campaign and arrived in Washington as the protégé of one of the most powerful men in town.
Blunt would outpace his onetime mentor by rising from lowly Missouri freshman to interim majority leader in just nine years.
When DeLay was forced to step down as majority leader on Wednesday after he was indicted by an Austin, Texas, grand jury, Blunt went to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and argued persuasively that he should get the job.
His challenge now – many lawmakers and aides agree – is to prove his mettle in a higher-profile post while not appearing too ambitious, lest he become a threat to DeLay, who has vowed to return to his job when and if his legal problems are resolved.
Although the two have very different personalities, Blunt has modeled his political career on DeLay’s, becoming in many respects a replica of the former majority leader.
Like DeLay, Blunt quickly set up multiple political committees to establish a power base in the House.
Blunt has strengthened and enlarged DeLay’s “K Street” alliance with Washington lobbyists.
The two have a similar network of major corporate donors. Both have extensive financial ties to the Washington lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group. Some of Blunt’s actions have raised ethical issues.
