2 in GOP Take Aim at DeLay
House majority leader, facing questions over trips he took, is urged to 'lay out what he did.'
By Mary Curtius
Times Staff Writer
April 11, 2005

WASHINGTON   The near-solid wall of public support that Republicans have displayed for beleaguered House Majority Leader Tom DeLay began to crack Sunday, with a Senate leader saying the Texas Republican needed to "lay out what he did and why he did it" and a House member calling on him to step down from his leadership post.

DeLay, who last year was admonished three times by the House Permanent Select Committee on Ethics for his hardball political tactics, has been the subject of recent news reports involving trips he took that were indirectly funded by lobbyists or foreign agents   a violation of House rules.

DeLay's staff has said that the congressman knew only that the trips were paid for by nonprofit groups and that he had reported that on disclosure forms.