GOP leader resigns amid bribery scandal

Tom DeLay, a right-wing Republican who was until recently one of the most powerful men in Washington, has announced his resignation from Congress days after a former aide pleaded guilty to corruption charges. The sudden departure of the former House of Representatives majority leader reflects the rising toll on the Republican party of a far-reaching bribery scandal and the party's increasing nervousness about its ability to maintain a hold on Congress at November's elections. DeLay was facing a neck-and-neck reelection race in what was once a safe Republican seat in the Houston suburb of Sugarland, against a Democratic challenger campaigning on the shadow over DeLay's ethics. "I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign," DeLay, a former bug exterminator known as "the Hammer" for his tough congressional style, said in a video announcement of his resignation released on Apr. 4. After years of gerrymandering, much of it masterminded by DeLay, only a few dozen of the 535 seats in the House of Representatives are competitive, but most recent polls suggest that if the congressional elections were held today, the Democrats would retake the chamber for the first time in 12 years. DeLay's fall from grace has been rapid and dramatic. He stepped down as majority leader last September after being indicted in a separate case of political money-laundering in Texas. The pressure on him increased hugely on Mar. 31 with the news that his former deputy chief of staff, Tony Rudy, had pleaded guilty to accepting bribes while on the congressman's staff payroll and maintaining improper links with his office after becoming a lobbyist. Rudy was the second former DeLay aide caught up in what is potentially the biggest political corruption scandal in recent US history. Michael Scanlon, DeLay's ex-spokesperson, pleaded guilty on a conspiracy charge last year. The central defendant is Jack Abramoff, a flamboyant Republican lobbyist and a fervent Bush supporter with close links to DeLay, who showered congressmen with gifts and perks in return for political favors for his clients, who included Native American tribes running casinos and the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific. Abramoff's links to a string of congressmen, including Democrats but mostly Republicans, are under investigation. A senior White House budget official, David Safavian, has also been indicted in the same investigation. A golfing trip to Scotland DeLay took with an entourage in 2000 was charged to Abramoff's credit card. But DeLay said he believed that the trip had been paid for by a non-profit organization. He denied doing anything illegal in a Time magazine interview on the eve of his resignation. Asked if he'd done anything immoral, DeLay laughed and said: "We're all sinners."