[Mb-civic] New allegations hit top Republicans

[Michael Butler]

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New allegations hit top Republicans
>By Andrew Ward in Washington
>Published: April 24 2005 21:10 | Last updated: April 24 2005 21:10
>>

Republicans faced growing pressure on two fronts on Sunday with fresh
allegations against Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, and John Bolton,
the proposed US ambassador to the United Nations.

Mr DeLay was accused of travelling to the UK to play golf at the expense of
a Washington lobbyist at the centre of a federal criminal and tax
investigation.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Mr Bolton was the subject of complaints from
Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, to Colin Powell, the former US
secretary of state.

While there is no direct connection between the cases of Mr DeLay and Mr
Bolton, the trouble facing the two men is part of mounting turmoil in
Congress for President George W. Bush and the Republican party.

The allegations about Mr DeLay's UK trip represented the strongest evidence
to date that he had violated House ethical rules that bar legislators from
accepting travel from registered lobbyists.

The Washington Post published credit card information that showed Jack
Abramoff, a lobbyist, paid for Mr DeLay's $7,000 (€5,350, £3,650) business
class flight to the UK and his stays at expensive hotels in London and at
the St Andrews golf course in Scotland.

There was no comment from Mr DeLay on Sunday but in the past he has said the
trip was paid for by a non-profit organisation. There was no immediate rush
to judgment by senior Republicans but the allegations are likely to raise
more doubts about his future.

The UK visit is among a series of trips made by Mr DeLay that are under
scrutiny. Republican legislators offered last week to let the House ethics
committee investigate the allegations, signalling a possible weakening of
support for Mr DeLay within the party.

Democrats have seized on the allegations surrounding Mr DeLay as an example
of murky Republican money politics, citing Mr Bolton as a symbol of
heavy-handed US foreign policy.

Newsweek magazine reported that the UK had been irked on "several occasions"
by Mr Bolton's undermining of promising diplomatic openings when he was
under-secretary of state for arms control.

On one occasion, according to the report, Mr Straw told Mr Powell that Mr
Bolton was making it impossible for the US and Europe to reach agreement on
Iran's nuclear programme.

Earlier, the UK had persuaded the White House to keep Mr Bolton off the team
negotiating an end to Libya's weapons of mass destruction programme, fearing
his hardline stance could prevent a deal, according to the report.

Meanwhile, recently de-classified emails emerged revealing the level of
animosity between Mr Bolton and intelligence analysts in the State
Department and Central Intelligence Agency.

Critics have accused Mr Bolton of bullying intelligence analysts to produce
findings that supported the Bush administration's policies on weapons of
mass destruction.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed its vote on Mr Bolton's
nomination last week until May 12.
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