Ethics Issues Snared GOP's Champion

DeLay was blunt about his emphasis on fundraising from the outset -- he and then-Rep. Richard K. Armey (Tex.) each promised in a leadership meeting before the 1994 election to raise half a million dollars for party hopefuls, and DeLay traveled to dozens of House districts, cementing ties to many challengers who won office that fall.

After the historic 1994 elections, when many like-minded conservatives swept into the House, DeLay capitalized on his fundraising prowess in a successful race for majority whip against Rep. Robert S. Walker (Pa.). Walker, who was Rep. Newt Gingrich's best friend and an expert in parliamentary maneuvering, was initially favored to win the contest -- at a time when Gingrich was poised to win election as speaker. But DeLay had distributed so much money that he overtook Walker, securing the votes of 52 out of the 73 freshmen in the Class of 1994.

Walker later decried what he considered the excessive influence of fundraising committees such as DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee (ARMPAC), which, he said, caused the outcome to be determined by money, not talent. But his colleagues largely shrugged their shoulders. Over the next decade, they accepted nearly $4.5 million in contributions from ARMPAC, which drew its funds heavily from tobacco, energy, railroad and communications interests.

Throughout his tenure in the leadership, DeLay frequently traveled to golf resorts and costly hotels for meetings with lobbyists at ARMPAC's expense; he also preferred traveling on corporate jets instead of commercial airlines. But DeLay was not selfish -- he earned the gratitude of many colleagues by extending the same perquisites to them in exchange for their votes.

According to his former colleagues, DeLay's office functioned at times like a hotel concierge, arranging corporate jets, private cars, fishing trips and other expense-paid travel during congressional breaks, key votes and party conventions, all financed by wealthy donors with interests before Congress.

DeLay's own travel has played a role in his undoing, as investigators have begun delving into the circumstances of trips that DeLay took with Abramoff to Moscow in 1997 and to Scotland and London in 2000. The first trip preceded an unusual million-dollar donation -- which former associates say originated with Russian energy executives -- to a group linked to DeLay; on the second trip, Abramoff and Buckham -- both registered lobbyists -- used their credit cards to pay for some of DeLay's expenses, in apparent conflict with ethics rules. DeLay says he was unaware of the precise financial arrangements for the travel.

Research database editor Derek Willis and researcher Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.