GOP Worries Ethics Issue May Hurt Party in '06

Across the country, lawmakers are being peppered with unwelcome questions from news organizations that are digging into the travel records of their own congressional delegations.

"Join Congress, See the World," stated a front-page report in the Chicago Tribune. "There's no locale too exotic or destination too far for Illinois' delegation to visit in service of its constituents." The Times-Picayune of New Orleans cracked on its front page, "State's politicos like to travel -- And they like other people to pay for it." The front page of the May 29 Hartford Courant trumpeted, "Public Trips, Private Funding -- State Delegation Frequent Travelers."

Rick Davis, a Republican strategist who was presidential campaign manager for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), said the ethics issue is putting the party "into a bit of troublesome water."

"The combination of gridlock and ethics charges indicate that the system's busted, and the system is the majority party," Davis said. "The contest for us in the bi-election is to explain what we've gotten accomplished in the last two years, and right now, it's not looking so hot. The focus is on the problems, because there isn't that much happening. We need some successes."

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who has said DeLay should step down, said the allegation that House members abused travel privileges "is a big issue" that will make the party's job a lot harder in the upcoming elections.

"At community meetings, some of the most conservative of my constituents are asking, 'What's going on down there?' " Shays said.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that although a particular member's conduct matters only in that person's specific race, the Democrats plan to make "an overarching theme" of the influence that special interests have gained over the legislative process. Republicans are responding with what they call a "muddy-the-water strategy," in which they encourage news coverage about Democrats' ties to Abramoff, and about Democratic travel that was coordinated with lobbyists.

In the strip malls and along the Cumberland Road where Model T's once caravanned west, Ney's constituents said that they have been shocked by the revelations and that they are starting to wonder whether he is really who they thought he was. Joseph E. Wagner, 60, a Republican and owner of a sports club, has always voted for Ney and recently shook the congressman's hand at a National Rifle Association banquet. But now he is disappointed.

"I'm beginning to think they just ought to bomb every politician out there," Wagner said over a scrambled-egg breakfast at the TeeJay's diner in Zanesville, in the Ohio Valley west of Pittsburgh. "He's just gotten completely out of control. He just got involved with the wrong people."

Ney, in a recent interview, said he has not "stayed in a bunker" throughout the controversy and that he is so busy he does not "have a lot of time to sit and worry." Using the same strategy as DeLay, Ney answers inquiries about specific allegations by saying that he will save his explaining for the House ethics committee.

"Anything questioned is in the package, and that package needs to go to the ethics committee to be discussed," he said. "I feel confident, whenever we can get this into the ethics committee, I can explain my side of it. There'll be hopefully a level there where they'll look at how we function and upon what we thought. I feel good about myself on that."

Asked about his relationship with DeLay, Ney said, "I'm a speaker's guy."

Ney was elected to Congress in 1994, the year of the anti-incumbent revolution. His opponent was Greg L. DiDonato, a Democratic state representative. DiDonato, now a lobbyist, is thinking of seeking a rematch.