By TODD J. GILLMAN, Dallas Morning News, June 4, 2005

5 Jun 2005 // Tom DeLay has said for months that he wants a meeting with the House ethics committee to clear his name. His many detractors want an inquiry into the majority leader's overseas travel and ties to lobbyists. Republicans offered to kick-start the process a month ago.

Yet for all the bluster, shadowboxing and mutual denunciations, Congress returns this week from its Memorial Day recess without having taken steps toward opening an investigation.

"We would hope for a fairly prompt disposition," said Bobby Burchfield, the lawyer coordinating the DeLay legal team.

Each side alleges foot-dragging, and neither is in a hurry, for various political and tactical reasons. Democrats relish every day they can keep DeLay under a cloud. Republicans have been pleased to see the frenzy of allegations ease.

Some postponement is inevitable, with the trial of three DeLay lieutenants pending in Austin and federal inquiries into lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a central figure in many allegations involving DeLay.

But pressure mounted last month when an Austin judge ruled that Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee DeLay created, violated state campaign disclosure law by failing to report nearly $600,000 in corporate donations spent to help the GOP take control of the Legislature in 2002.

"They may think the whole thing will wear off," said Melanie Sloan, head of the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which drafted a complaint that led to two of three admonitions DeLay received last fall from the ethics committee. "Americans have a short attention span."

Whatever the reasons, congressional aides and lawyers familiar with the process say an ethics inquiry is inevitable. Within weeks or months, they say, the Texas Republican will have to start answering tough questions about his relationship with Abramoff and the financing for trips to South Korea, Scotland and Russia.

"He's got serious legal issues," said Stanley Brand, a Washington ethics lawyer, "not the least of which is the issues being investigated by the Justice Department."

DeLay denies any wrongdoing and says his trips conformed to House rules, as far as he knew.

The Justice Department and two Senate committees are investigating whether Abramoff overcharged American Indian casino clients or violated gift and bribery laws by arranging lavish trips for lawmakers under the guise of nonprofit sponsorships. He denies wrongdoing.

An ethics investigation could take a year or more to resolve.

For the first four months of this year, the ethics committee - divided evenly between the parties - was paralyzed by a rules fight.

Democrats accused Republicans of trying to protect DeLay and refused to let the committee operate under new rules that made it harder to open an inquiry, even after Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., offered to start immediately.

Eventually, Republicans restored the old rules. But the squabbling continues.

Democrats accuse the chairman of trying to stack the committee staff with GOP loyalists, which he denies. And they complained that two new Republicans on the committee had donated to DeLay's defense fund - Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma. Hastings vowed that they wouldn't take part in the deliberations over DeLay.

But that leaves the GOP half of the committee shorthanded.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert is supposed to pick 10 Republicans to fill such vacancies and work on investigative subcommittees. Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi also must submit 10 names. Neither has done so, and work can't start without the lists.

Republicans say Democrats are in no rush because some of them also took trips arranged by lobbyists. And once work resumes, the first lawmaker facing judgment is a Democrat: Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state. Last fall, a federal court said he violated a wiretap law in 1997 by passing along a tape of a phone call involving GOP House leaders.

Texas politics are central to the House ethics spat.

Last year, Democrat Chris Bell - a one-term House member who lost in the primary race last year and has since returned to Houston - filed the complaint that led to two of DeLay's three admonitions.

But the committee held off on allegations involving TRMPAC. Last fall, a Travis County grand jury indicted the committee's head and two other DeLay lieutenants. Last month, in a lawsuit filed by five former Democratic members of the Texas House, a judge ordered TRMPAC's treasurer to pay them nearly $200,000.

The ruling didn't mention DeLay, and his lawyer said it should play no role in the ethics case. But DeLay critics say the ruling gives fresh impetus for an ethics inquiry.

Many are demanding that the committee hire an outside counsel, citing the complexity of the issues and DeLay's influence among House Republicans. Outside counsels investigated former Speakers Jim Wright of Fort Worth and Newt Gingrich, and were hired during the Abscam and Korean influence inquiries.

"It's certainly another embarrassment," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "One court did find his PAC violated the ban on corporate money."