New Questions For Tom DeLay

Payments To Family Members, Russia Trip Are Latest Controversies

(CBS/AP) 
DeLay reported that a non-profit group based in Washington paid for the Russia trip. But the Post cites those involved in planning the trip as saying it was bankrolled by "a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign."

Aides to DeLay told the Post he thought the nonprofit group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, was funding the trip on its own. An aide said suggestions to the contrary have only recently come to light.

"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it."

While in Russia, DeLay met with Russian politicians, church leaders and businessman, as well as two Washington-based registered lobbyists. One of those lobbyists, Jack Abramoff, is now under investigation for federal influence-peddling and corruption related to his representation of Indian tribes.

The trip by DeLay and four staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by DeLay's office.

DeLay was slapped three times by the House ethics committee last year. The panel deferred action in another area, saying it would wait until the outcome of a state investigation in Texas.

Contrary to some advice, DeLay used the recent two-week congressional break to raise his political profile.

A leader in the effort to pass legislation designed to keep alive Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman in a persistent vegetative state, he criticized the judges involved in her case in the hours following her death.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," he said, raising the prospect of impeachment. Later, he complained of "an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."

Few other Republicans have gone that far in criticizing an independent branch of government. "They handled it in a fair and independent way," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday of the judges in the case, although he added he had hoped for a different result.

Meanwhile, a new poll shows the controversies have taken their toll on support for DeLay in his own district.

Forty-five percent of 501 voters questioned by the Houston Chronicle last week said they would vote for someone else if a congressional election were at hand, while about 38 percent said they would re-elect DeLay.

Nearly 58 percent of those surveyed said they opposed his decision to get Congress involved in the Schiavo case, while about 33 percent expressed support.