Dean Again Suggests Jail for DeLay

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday that “there’s a reasonable chance” beleaguered House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) “may end up in jail.”

Dean, who came under fire as a Democratic presidential candidate last year because he insisted that Osama bin Laden should not be prejudged, said DeLay already had been admonished three times by the House ethics committee for his political tactics and faced a new inquiry to determine whether he broke House rules by taking overseas trips financed by lobbyists. He has not been charged with any crime.

“I don’t think I’m prejudging him,” Dean said during an hour-long interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think there’s a reasonable chance that this may end up in jail. And I don’t think people ought to do these kinds of things in public service.”

This was not the first time that Dean had made such statements. The onetime Vermont governor, who was elected party chairman in February, told the Massachusetts state Democratic convention two weeks ago that DeLay “ought to go back to Houston, where he can serve his jail sentence down there courtesy of the Texas taxpayers.”

Dean’s remarks Sunday on NBC prompted a derisive response from DeLay’s spokesman.

“Leading a party with no ideas, no solutions, and no agenda, Howard Dean’s latest antics, which previously earned a rebuke from his own party, shows the sad state the Democrats have sunk to,” said Dan Allen, DeLay’s press secretary.

Allen was referring to comments by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), himself a frequent DeLay critic, who said after Dean’s Massachusetts appearance that it was wrong for the party chairman to talk about the House’s second-ranking leader “as a criminal” or make reference to “his jail sentence.”

DeLay, who has said he is looking forward to proving his innocence, has asserted that the Democrats and the media have targeted him in an effort to undermine the conservative agenda.

The trips in question include a 10-day visit to England and Scotland in 2000 arranged by Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist with close ties to DeLay who is under investigation for his representation of Indian tribes that paid him tens of millions of dollars. DeLay’s attorney has said the lawmaker believed the trip had been paid for by a conservative think tank and not by lobbyists.

House ethics rules prohibit lawmakers from allowing lobbyists to pay their expenses.

When Dean was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in late 2003, he refused to say whether Bin Laden should be tried in the United States and executed as a terrorist. He said Bin Laden was “very likely to be found guilty,” but added, “we should do our best to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.”

Dean and the Democrats have made no secret of their intent to exploit the political and ethical controversies surrounding DeLay in the 2006 midterm elections.

But Dean said Sunday that DeLay’s actions reflected a broader pattern in the nation’s capital.

“This is a culture of corruption and abuse of power in Washington,” Dean said. “This is what happens when one party is in charge of everything. We need a change here.”

Dean was unanimously elected to a four-year term as Democratic chairman despite concerns by some party activists about his temperament and judgment. He vowed Sunday to continue his outspoken ways.

Dean recalled that when Harry S. Truman was campaigning for reelection in 1948, “a guy went up and said, ‘Give ‘em hell, Harry!’ And Harry Truman said: ‘I don’t give ‘em hell. I just tell the truth and the Republicans think it’s hell.’ ”