Odd Couple Philosophically, Politically in Step

WASHINGTON —  When J. Dennis Hastert arrived in Congress in 1987 determined to cut red tape for the trucking industry, he quickly found a soul mate. The young Republican from Illinois joined forces with an antigovernment firebrand who already was pushing for trucking deregulation. The backbencher was Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

That prosaic beginning launched a career-long partnership that helped bring the two men to the pinnacles of power in Washington.

With DeLay, the House majority leader, now caught in a swirl of political and ethical controversy, that partnership is being put to its toughest test.

DeLay’s troubles threaten to overshadow the legislative agenda that should be the capstone of Hastert’s tenure as House speaker as he enters what is likely to be the final years of his congressional career.

“There is genuine concern that it’s diverting attention from serious issues,” said a senior House Republican, who, like other lawmakers interviewed, declined to be named for fear of antagonizing House leaders. “This is getting out of control.”

Although Hastert has stood by DeLay, there have been signs of tension between them.

Hastert joined DeLay in leading Congress to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died despite a bitter court battle to keep her husband from withdrawing her feeding tube. But Hastert took a starkly different posture after federal judges refused to reopen the case, refraining from the blistering attacks on the judiciary unleashed by DeLay.

Sources close to Hastert also say the speaker only reluctantly supported a change in the House rules late last year that would have allowed DeLay to continue serving as majority leader even if he were indicted.

Republicans later repealed the rule change in the face of stiff criticism.

Still, few allies have proved as important as Hastert in helping DeLay weather the steady stream of news reports raising questions about the ethics of his foreign travel, political tactics and relationships with lobbyists.

Hastert as denounced the attacks on DeLay as purely political and shepherded rule changes that make it more difficult for the House ethics committee to investigate him.

“If Denny would break with him at some point, that would be a significant situation,” said Robert Walker, a former House GOP leader who was a onetime DeLay adversary. “But he won’t do that unless the facts warrant it. And I don’t see that factual case has been established.”

Delay’s allies say they see no lessening in Hastert’s support for his lieutenant.

“The members, including the speaker, are seeing these attacks for what they are -- an organized attack on House Republicans to prevent us from moving forward on our agenda,” said Dan Allen, DeLay’s press secretary.

In his 2004 memoir, “Speaker,” Hastert expressed gratitude for DeLay’s role as top Democratic target.

“They try to demonize Tom all the time and that just makes things a bit easier for me,” Hastert wrote. “He goes out and becomes the lightning rod. In the meantime, I am free to move the agenda.”

They are an odd couple, with strikingly different personal and political styles. Hastert, 63, is a burly Midwesterner whose monotone voice helps sand the edges off his political rhetoric. He has an unpretentious, affable manner. DeLay, who turns 58 today, has a brash style and a sharp tongue that is music to the ears of the party’s conservative base. If DeLay’s vision of politics is painted in black and white, Hastert’s is swathed in gray.

“There is a personality differential,” said Jonathan Grella, a former DeLay aide. “But certainly philosophically and politically they are very much in tune.”

After the common cause they found on trucking deregulation, their strongest bonds were forged in the hothouse of House leadership contests, an intensely personal form of politicking that often builds lasting alliances or grudges.

Hastert teamed up with DeLay in 1989 to manage the bid by Republican Edward Madigan of Illinois to become GOP whip. Madigan lost by a single vote to Newt Gingrich of Georgia, then a rebellious GOP backbencher who would eventually become speaker. Although their man lost, the campaign helped DeLay and Hastert hone their skills as vote counters, which they later used to help each other up the leadership ladder.

DeLay asked Hastert in 1993 to run his campaign to become whip, anticipating that Gingrich would become the top Republican in the House after the 1994 retirement of then-Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois. After DeLay won the whip’s job, he rewarded Hastert by making him chief deputy whip. That put them both in the inner circle just as Republicans had won control of the House for the first time in 40 years.

Hastert leapfrogged into the speakership in late 1998, a time of tumult. Gingrich had announced his resignation from Congress after the 1998 elections, when Republicans lost a surprising number of seats.

Gingrich’s heir apparent as speaker, Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), stunned his colleagues by suddenly announcing his own resignation amid revelations of extramarital affairs.

That created a vacuum that Hastert was asked to fill. Even before Livingston finished his resignation speech, Gingrich called Hastert off the House floor to tell him he had to take over as speaker, according to Hastert’s memoir.

Some initially looked to DeLay for the job. But he declared himself too controversial to be speaker because of his role in pressing for President Clinton’s impeachment, and he threw his support to Hastert.

During the first years of his speakership, Hastert labored under the perception that DeLay was the power behind the throne. That created tension between their offices because Hastert’s aides suspected that DeLay’s staff was promoting the story line.

Since President Bush took office in 2001, however, Hastert clearly has established himself as his own man, as a friend put it. He emerged as one of the White House’s most trusted and reliable allies. When rumors circulated that Hastert was thinking of retiring from Congress when his term ended in 2006, Bush urged him to stay on.

Although Hastert and DeLay have agreed on most major policy questions, of late they have had differences over strategy and leadership style. In the fall, they disagreed on the need to get a bill reforming the intelligence community passed before the end of the congressional session.

DeLay was prepared to let the bill die, rather than agree to a Senate demand that the House drop controversial immigration provisions in it. But Hastert worked doggedly to reach a compromise. Ultimately, the House agreed to drop the provisions, and the bill became law.

Hastert and DeLay dramatically parted ways in their reaction to Schiavo’s death on March 31. Hastert issued a three-sentence statement that began simply, “I was saddened to learn of Terri’s passing.” DeLay issued a much more pointed statement that lashed out at the judges who refused to rule in favor of keeping Schiavo alive in terms that even some fellow Republicans regarded as threatening.

DeLay has been on the defensive since he was admonished three times by the House ethics committee last year for using strong-arm political tactics.

Investigations are pending before the committee about trips DeLay took to South Korea and Britain that may have been improperly paid for -- in one instance by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under investigation on suspicion of fraud and public corruption, and in another by an entity registered as a foreign agent.

DeLay has denied doing anything wrong.

The spotlight on DeLay grew brighter this week following newspaper articles raising questions about the financing of a 1997 trip he took to Russia and payments to his wife and daughter for political work. He continued to respond combatively, denouncing the articles as “another seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me.”

Hastert’s response was more restrained. “The speaker and the Republican conference fully support the majority leader, and believe he’s been very effective in helping us advance our agenda,” said Ron Bonjean, Hastert’s press secretary.

Hastert, GOP insiders say, is likely to continue to support DeLay as long as there is no clear evidence that he has violated ethics rules or broken the law -- and as long as DeLay’s troubles do not threaten the party’s hold on Congress.

“When you build a relationship that goes through the trials and tribulations of leaders on a day-to-day basis, it can withstand this kind of challenge,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster.

But the political calculus may change if criticism of DeLay begins to resonate outside Washington and voters begin peppering Republicans with questions about him. “These things,” said a veteran lobbyist with close ties to the GOP leadership, “can take on a life of their own.”