A Kinder, Gentler Majority Leader

Easygoing, with an affable grin, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt is known for a low-key approach that builds compromise, unlike Rep. Tom DeLay, the Texan he is temporarily replacing as majority leader.

Since the Missouri Republican took over the majority whip post from DeLay in 2003, he has built a solid record of marshaling the votes needed to pass even the most controversial legislation sought by the White House.

Perhaps no victory was as big for Blunt as passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement this summer by a 217-215 vote. He was able to stave off defections by several Republicans, holding the vote open until midnight, then cutting it off when passage was assured.

"What we do here is more important than who we are," Blunt said Wednesday. "We have an agenda to move forward here. We're going to have a great team effort to make that happen."

Blunt, 55, already had two decades of experience in Missouri politics — including two terms as secretary of state — when he won his first term in Congress in 1996. His son Matt was elected Missouri governor last year.

Blunt was one of four dozen assistant whips when DeLay's chief deputy, Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, became speaker in a GOP leadership shakeup. In January 1999, days into his second term, Blunt became chief deputy whip. He would succeed DeLay as majority whip four years later.

He has been among DeLay's most visible defenders since the beginning of a probe into possible campaign fundraising violations. Blunt has contributed $5,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund and $10,000 to the DeLay Foundation, a children's charity.

He continued that support Wednesday after DeLay was indicted by a Texas grand jury on a charge of conspiring to violate political fundraising laws. Blunt vowed that DeLay would not stop exerting influence in the House leadership.

"He's going to be an effective and influential part of what we are doing as he works now to get beyond this terribly unfair thing that's happened to him," Blunt said of DeLay.

But Blunt's ties to DeLay could be a source of new controversy. Records on file with the Federal Election Commission show that Blunt's political action committee paid roughly $88,000 in fees since 2003 to a consultant facing indictment in Texas in the same case as DeLay.

Keri Ann Hayes, executive director of the Rely On Your Beliefs fund, said officials of the organization have not discussed whether to end the relationship with the consultant, Jim Ellis, in light of his indictment.

"We haven't had that conversation," she said, adding that so far, Ellis' indictment had no impact on his work.

Blunt has been the target of ethics charges before, arising from his relationship with two lobbyists — his wife and his other son, Andrew.

In 2002, he helped secure an amendment into a spending bill for the Iraq war that benefited United Parcel Service and FedEx Corp. Andrew Blunt is a lobbyist for UPS in Jefferson City, Mo.

Rep. Blunt also tried to help tobacco giant Philip Morris in the 2002 homeland security bill by amending the measure to stop the smuggling of contraband cigarettes. At the same time, Blunt had a personal relationship with a lobbyist for the company, Abigail Perlman. Blunt divorced his wife of 35 years and married Perlman in 2003.

Blunt has denied any undue influence and says neither his son nor Perlman ever lobbied him on the issues.

CBS News Senior Political Editor Dotty Lynch reports Blunt was chosen as DeLay's replacement only after a struggle within GOP ranks. Eventually, Speaker Dennis Hastert moved Blunt, now the number three person in the House leadership, to assume the role of "temporary majority leader."

Some, including DeLay, were pushing for a placeholder, specifically California Rep. David Dreier, the well-liked chairman of the House Rules Committee, who wouldn't get too comfortable in the job. There is some jockeying for the job as the next speaker among Blunt, Rep. John Boehner and Rep. Tom Reynolds and putting Drier in the slot would have avoided playing favorites. But Blunt and his conservative allies blocked that move.