[Mb-civic] Troubled Year Gets Worse for the GOP - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Troubled Year Gets Worse for the GOP

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 29, 2005; Page A01

Bad news often comes in bunches, but for a Republican Party that not 
long ago looked ahead to an unfettered period of growth and expansion, 
yesterday's indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) 
represented one of the most significant blows the party has suffered in 
a year replete with problems.

Since the fall of House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) in 1998, no two 
Republicans have been more responsible for the GOP's recent electoral 
and legislative successes than DeLay and President Bush, a power tandem 
whose strengths have complemented one another repeatedly. Bush has been 
the party's public face, direction-setter and most effective campaigner. 
But in Washington, DeLay has been an iron force who bent the system to 
his will and priorities.
Over the years, DeLay raised and moved vast sums of money to buttress 
GOP candidates, kept the party's often-narrow majority together to move 
a Bush agenda that drew little Democratic support and changed the terms 
by which K Street lobbyists did business with Congress. With muscle and 
determination, DeLay ruled the inside game, and his indictment is 
therefore all the more significant -- a powerful symbol that the 
Democrats will attempt to exploit as an example of the GOP's abuse of power.

The indictment -- which Republicans say is politically motivated -- adds 
to the gathering headwind that now threatens the Republicans as they 
look toward the 2006 elections. Whether this becomes the perfect storm 
that eventually swamps the GOP is far from clear a year out. But 
Republican strategists were nearly unanimous in their private 
assessments yesterday that the party must brace for setbacks next year.

On almost every front, Republicans see trouble. Bush is at the low point 
of his presidency, with Iraq, hurricane relief, rising gasoline prices 
and another Supreme Court vacancy all problems to be solved. 
Congressional Republicans have seen their approval ratings slide 
throughout the spring and summer; a Washington Post-ABC News poll in 
August found that just 37 percent of Americans approve of the way 
Congress is doing its job, the lowest rating in eight years.

On the ethics front, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is 
under investigation for selling stock in his family's medical business 
just before the price fell sharply. The probe of well-connected lobbyist 
Jack Abramoff, a former close associate of DeLay, threatens to create 
even more troubles for Republicans. Finally, the special counsel 
investigation into whether White House senior adviser Karl Rove or 
others in the administration broke the law by leaking the name of the 
CIA's Valerie Plame is nearing a conclusion.

Former representative Vin Weber (R-Minn.) said yesterday that he thinks 
DeLay and Frist are victims of "bum raps," but he nonetheless said that 
Republicans should be worried by the prospect that the issue of 
corruption will become a central theme in the upcoming campaigns.

"I think that the Democrats are unable to exploit issues like energy, 
taxes and Iraq because they have nothing to say," said Weber, who 
remains an important GOP strategist. "The problem with the issue of 
corruption is the opposition party doesn't have to have anything to say. 
All you've got to be is the other party, so it worries me."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/28/AR2005092802388.html
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