Washington – A defiant Tom DeLay, who stepped down temporarily as House majority leader because of a criminal indictment, said Sunday he can do his job even without the title and pledged to continue his close partnership with House Speaker Dennis Hastert in pushing the GOP’s agenda.
The Texas Republican, known for keeping colleagues in line and raising prodigious amounts of cash to help elect GOP candidates, said he is guilty only of working to defeat Democrats.
“But that’s not illegal,” he said.
Yet some House Republicans said the fundraising-conspiracy case in Texas has plunged DeLay back into the GOP pack.
“He’s lost his office. He’s lost his staff. And he’s now basically a rank-and-file member who has a lot of friends and will still have influence,” said Connecticut Rep. Christopher Shays, a moderate Republican.
Shays acknowledged he has not been comfortable with DeLay as the No. 2 House GOP leader, citing “continual acts that border – and go sometimes beyond – the ethical edge.”
Democrats said their party stands to gain if DeLay asserts himself in the Republican leadership and the GOP embraces him.
“I hope they continue to let him go out and say just what he’s saying,” said Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who joined Shays on CNN’s “Late Edition.”
DeLay was charged Wednesday with conspiring with two political associates to use corporate donations to support Texas legislative candidates. House rules require any member of the elected leadership to step down temporarily if indicted.
He has said he has done nothing wrong, called the indictment “a sham” and deemed the Democratic prosecutor who pursued the case a “partisan fanatic.”
DeLay told “Fox News Sunday” he expected to dispense quickly with the charges and will serve as a close adviser to Hastert, R-Ill., in promoting an agenda that includes lowering gas prices, cutting taxes and enforcing immigration laws.
“I get to continue my partnership with the speaker,” DeLay said. “The speaker and I have been leading the House for, what, eight years now. It’s because we get along together; we think the same.”
Asked whether he would return to the GOP leadership, DeLay said, “Well, I hope so. I can do my job with or without the title. That doesn’t concern me.”
But GOP Rep. David Dreier of California, the House Rules Committee chairman initially recommended to take over many of DeLay’s duties, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that DeLay “knows he’s not going to run things.”
