A Sept. 29 article incorrectly described a remark made by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) to colleagues the previous day at a closed meeting of the House Republican Caucus. Buyer argued that Republicans should not have acted earlier this year to overturn a rule requiring members to resign leadership posts if they are indicted. He did not say that former majority leader Tom DeLay should have been allowed to retain his post even after his indictment this week in a campaign financing case.
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Attempt to Pick Successor Is Foiled
Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.), left, moved into the leader's job. Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, center, and DeLay had wanted Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), right.
(By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
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In Missouri, the Blunt organization is a family affair. Son Matt, 34, is governor, and son Andrew, 29, is a top state-government lobbyist whose client list is studded with major donors to his father.
As majority whip, Blunt, even more than DeLay before him, has created a formal alliance with K Street lobbyists, empowering corporate representatives and trade association executives to assist the House leadership in counting votes and negotiating amendments to bring holdouts into the fold.
Last year, when the House leadership faced apparently insurmountable odds in passing legislation eliminating a $50 billion export tax break, the lobbying community stepped in to add billions of new tax breaks for major corporations with facilities in nearly every district -- General Electric, Boeing, Caterpillar, United Technologies, Honeywell and Emerson. The support built up majority backing for the measure.
Blunt's best-known special-interest intervention was a 2003 late-night attempt -- unsuccessful, as it turned out -- to add an amendment sought by Philip Morris. Blunt's son then was a lobbyist for Philip Morris in Missouri; Blunt himself was dating a Philip Morris lobbyist whom he later married, and he had received more than $150,000 in contributions from the company and subsidiaries.
In a sign of DeLay's confidence he will return, he will keep his majority leader office in the Capitol rather than vacate it for Blunt.
DeLay found a friendly audience last night at a banquet of Stand for Israel, an organization of evangelical Christians and Jews, which gave him a standing ovation.
"So how was your day?" DeLay said, producing a burst of laughter. "It's really good to be here among so many old friends and brothers and sisters in the cause for justice and human freedom," he said. "Today, as you may know, the justice part has taken on a particularly personal meaning for me. And in case you were wondering, ladies and gentlemen, I fear no evil. The truth is on my side. And make no mistake about it -- justice will be served."
Staff writers Thomas B. Edsall and Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.
