The DeLay campaign has been a frantic combined effort by Democrats. Rep. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, a Democrat on the Ethics Committee, has briefed Pelosi on the supposedly non-partisan panel's process. One of the committee's Republicans, Rep. Judy Biggert, has received more than 3,000 anti-DeLay messages generated by Moveon.org. Bucks County (Pa.) Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick, running in a closely contested district, is one of many Republican candidates being pressured to send back DeLay's $5,000 contributions.
Republican House members assumed their colleagues would block charges against DeLay, but "The Hammer's" smash-mouth tactics even make some Republican enemies. Rep. Joel Hefley, a nine-term congressman from Colorado who heads the Ethics Committee, is no friend of DeLay and is still aggravated about not becoming Armed Services Committee chairman. To the amazement of the Republican conference, the Ethics Committee found unanimously against DeLay on lesser charges, including attending a golf tournament sponsored by energy companies.
"With DeLay's wings clipped, he will fall to earth," a Republican power broker told me. But that is not the prevailing view inside the House Republican conference, whose members are grateful for his leadership, his cash contributions and his Texas coup that guarantees two more years of a Republican House majority. DeLay, lacking Gingrich's egotistical exuberance, is willing to stay off television and work outside the spotlight. That makes him a harder target to hit than Gingrich, and in the end a more dangerous enemy for Democrats.
Just before Wright and Gingrich fell, prominent supporters of each told me they had lost confidence. No such winds are blowing against DeLay, only outrage against Nancy Pelosi and the normally less partisan Democratic whip, Steny Hoyer. More House Wars await in 2005.