Representative Tom DeLay, the US House of Representatives majority leader, on Wednesday angrily dismissed newspaper accounts that focused on political payments to his wife and daughter as well as additional trips taken by him that have come under scrutiny.
In an interview with CNN, DeLay criticized an article in The New York Times on Wednesday that said his wife, Christine DeLay, and his daughter Dani Ferro, had received more than US$500,000 since 2001 from his political action committees (PACs) and campaign committees.
He called it "just another seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me," contending that his wife and daughter had legitimately earned the money by working as a valued part of his political team.
Defense
"My wife and daughter have any right, just like any other American, to be employed and be compensated for their employment," DeLay said. "It's pretty disgusting, particularly when my wife and daughter are singled out and others are not, in similar situations in the Senate and as well as the House."
His Republican colleagues continued on Wednesday to rally to his defense, although a few have begun to question how long the leadership can withstand such withering coverage.
At a closed meeting of House Republicans in the morning, the majority leader, who is the subject of a campaign fund-raising inquiry in Texas and faces questions in Washington about overseas travel sponsored by outside groups, received a "thunderous ovation," lawmakers and senior party officials said.
They were reacting in part to the article in The Times and another focusing on a trip to Russia that appeared in The Washington Post. The articles were the latest in a number of published accounts about DeLay's conduct and political operations.
"I think the members are very much in the mode that this piling on is being done because there are no competing policy ideas that Democrats have to make," said Representative Roy Blunt, the No.3 House Republican. "The things that Tom has been criticized about in one way or another every member of Congress could be criticized about."
Everyone does it
Several members of Congress, Republican and Democrat alike, have employed relatives on their campaigns, although advocacy groups have characterized as generous the amount of money that went from DeLay's PAC's to his wife and daughter.
However, some lawmakers and Republicans, speaking privately for fear of antagonizing the leadership, said there is some frustration with the mounting news accounts and that DeLay's standing was in danger of diminishing, particularly if there were some explosive new development.
"Members are tired of it," one Republican said.
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