Boehner Wins Majority Leader Race Replacing DeLay

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — Representative John Boehner, an eight-term Congressman from far west Ohio, defeated Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri today in a stunning upset to succeed Tom DeLay as the House Republican majority leader.

Mr. Boehner received 122 votes to 109 for Mr. Blunt in a runoff made necessary by an inconclusive first ballot. The victory for Mr. Boehner signaled that many House Republicans are uneasy about the lobbying scandals that threaten to tar some of their party colleagues and wanted far more change than Mr. Blunt seemed to promise.

The first ballot ended inconclusively, with Mr. Blunt earning 110 votes, Mr. Boehner 79 and Representative John Shadegg of Arizona 40. Representative Jim Ryun of Kansas, the world-class miler of the 1960's, got two votes.

Mr. Shadegg and Mr. Ryun, who had not been an announced candidate for the post, then withdrew, leaving Mr. Boehner and Mr. Blunt to battle for a majority. There are 231 Republicans in the House, so 116 votes were needed for victory.

The rest of the NY Times story is here.

State of The Union Speech 2006 Seen as Crucial for Bush

tomorrow's State of the Union Speech by president George Bush is critical, experts say, as Bush tries to bolster his own popularity as poll numbers continue to drop. The president will try to boost the fortunes of a Republican Party tainted by scandal, grappling with soaring budget deficits and consumed by the war in Iraq.

A preview of the importance of the speech here.

Republicans in the House of Representatives Need a New Leader and a New Image

The former majority leader, Tom DeLay, stepped down after he was indicted in a Texas fundraising case and linked to crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

So where is the GOP seeking this fresh face and new start? With two lawmakers - Roy Blunt of Missouri and John Boehner of Ohio - who have cozy relations with lobbyists and a penchant for accepting perks from corporate friends.

A third candidate for majority leader, John Shadegg of Arizona, is less enmeshed with the lobbying establishment and high-powered fundraising. That's one reason he's given virtually no chance of winning. Politicians who don't raise big money and spread it around to colleagues don't often find themselves in line to be congressional leaders.

We don't presume to tell House Republicans which of their colleagues to pick when they vote next Thursday, but the public has a big stake in the outcome. The majority leader, second only to the House speaker on the leadership ladder, has a key role in setting Congress' agenda. DeLay, for example, was the driving force behind the impeachment of President Clinton.

The leadership race demonstrates how Congress' corrupt culture extends beyond DeLay and Abramoff.

The rest of the article.

Delay Participates in Meeting To Chose His Successor

The Dallas Morning News carries the story of a meeting of Texas GOP House members meeting in Dallas to help chose a successor to the fallen House Majority Leader.

Guess who participates with them? None other than the man who got this country in the corruption scandal -- Tom Delay.

My favorite line from the story comes from one of the congressmen at the meeting: "To find somebody who has no ties to K Street, who's never taken a dollar from anybody ... can we find anybody in our conference that's like that? Not likely."

Trying to find an honest man in Washington politics is getting tougher and tougher, isn't it boys!

House Leaders Consider Prohibition On Lobby Paid Travel

House Republicans, seeking to recover their standing with voters in the wake of a lobbying scandal, are considering a total ban on privately funded congressional trips, the lawmaker leading the reform effort said Wednesday.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., said GOP leaders were "seriously considering" the need to eliminate all privately financed travel. "That would be a very strong statement. We want to be bold," said Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee.

The rest of the story.

Texas Court Of Criminal Appeals Turns Delay Down

The state's highest criminal court on Monday denied Rep. Tom DeLay's request for a dismissal of the money laundering charges against him.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied the requests with no written order two days after he announced he was not seeking to return as House majority leader. DeLay previously was forced to relinquish the Republican leadership post on a temporary basis due to the indictment brought against him.

The Dallas Morning News features the AP story.

Analysis: GOP Troubles Do Not End With DeLay

Republicans worried about their party's future have succeeded in pushing embattled former Majority Leader Tom DeLay off the stage. Even so, the Republicans' election-year troubles are far from over.

President Bush, the titular head of the GOP, is waging an unpopular war in Iraq and presiding over a nation with lingering economic anxieties. He suffers from approval ratings around 40 percent — near record lows for his presidency. Questionable stock transactions by the top Republican in the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, are under investigation. A special prosecutor's probe continues into whether Bush administration officials outed a CIA operative in retribution for her husband's Iraq war criticism. A secret anti-terror program that Bush approved to eavesdrop on people inside the United States without warrants is raising concerns about overly broad presidential powers.

The rest of the AP story here.

Two Mid-Westerners Aim To Suceed DeLay

WASHINGTON - In a race framed by scandal, Republican Reps. Roy Blunt and John Boehner pledged action on a reform agenda Sunday as they launched competing campaigns to succeed Tom DeLay as House majority leader.

The rest of the AP story here.

GOP Struggling To Avoid Label of Party Of Corruption

Newsweek describes the efforts people in Washington are making to avoid the "corruption" label. But does the culture of corruption run too deep for them to stop. Will the mid-term elections force Republicans to run from the Delay related corruption trials?