Wright Expected to Resign From Office Next Week

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) is likely to resign from the House next week, even though he has ruled out further efforts to persuade the House Ethics Committee to drop charges against him, a House leadership source said Thursday.

Wright, who has been charged by the committee with 69 violations of House rules, signaled the end of his behind-the-scenes negotiations with the committee by issuing a statement ruling out any plea-bargaining over the charges pending against him.

“There is no deal now. There will be no deal in the future,” he said.

But a knowledgeable source said that Wright is still seriously considering tendering his resignation as Speaker and, simultaneously, ending his 35-year House career next week after most of the chamber’s 435 members return from a Memorial Day recess.

He indicated that the Speaker, despite a strong desire to defend himself against the charges, is fully aware of the growing sentiment among House Democrats that his legal troubles are causing embarrassment to the party and to Congress.

“He is a proud man,” the source said. “He is torn between his desire to be heard and his respect for the institution . . . . I believe the Speaker will ultimately do what he wants to do when he wants to do it.”

If Wright resigns, the Ethics Committee case against him would be dropped, but he still would face a broad investigation of his finances undertaken recently by the Internal Revenue Service as well as a possible Justice Department inquiry.

Many House Democrats are convinced that Wright will step down, perhaps as soon as next Wednesday. They noted that it would be very difficult for him to withdraw the offer to resign that was implied in his negotiations with the Ethics Committee.

“I think it’s all over for him,” said a prominent House Democrat, who declined to be identified. “He can’t un-ring the bell.”

A Democratic aide added: “If Wright indicates he’s willing to quit, he’ll be pushed out the door. A lot of support he’s had up to now might go fast. People are tired of being dragged down by leaders who can’t keep their affairs straight. They are taking a very hard line, saying: ‘Enough’s enough. Let’s get on with it.’ ”

If he resigns, Wright is virtually certain to be replaced as Speaker by House Majority Leader Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.). House Democrats said the chances that Assistant Majority Leader Tony Coelho (D-Merced) would succeed Foley have been diminished somewhat by news that Coelho and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley are the subjects of preliminary investigations by the public integrity section of the Justice Department in connection with their financial dealings with Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

Knowledgeable sources said that Rep. Ed Jenkins (D-Ga.) is considering challenging Coelho for the position of majority leader, if it becomes available. Jenkins declined to confirm or deny the report.

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri was also reportedly considering seeking a top Democratic leadership position.

The Speaker and other Democratic leaders are chosen by a vote of the party caucus.

Common Cause, the citizens lobby, and House Republicans also are considering filing a complaint with the House Ethics Committee against Coelho in connection with his purchase of a $100,000 “junk bond” from Thomas Spiegel, chairman of Columbia Savings & Loan in Los Angeles, and his failure to report a $50,000 loan from Columbia to help purchase the bond. It was complaints from Common Cause and GOP congressmen that led to the Ethics Committee’s investigation of Wright.

In his statement, Wright said that he had not initiated the negotiations between his lawyers and committee members that took place Wednesday. He said that the talks began, instead, at the request of unnamed friends in both camps who wanted “to save the House from what they saw as a harsh and divisive confrontation.”

A House leadership source said that the settlement talks were initiated earlier this week by Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the Ethics Committee, who enlisted Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio) to make the initial contact with Wright’s principal defender in the House, Rep. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.). He said that the Speaker then agreed to permit Torricelli to carry on talks on his behalf with Richard J. Phelan, special counsel for the committee.

The committee was anxious to settle the Wright case, according to this source, because the members want to avoid a precedent-setting vote on the issue of what constitutes “direct interest in legislation” under House rules.

“The committee wants out,” the source said. “The committee suggested something that was rejected out of hand. The Speaker from the very beginning was unwilling to cut a deal.” Wright is accused of violating the rule that prohibits House members from accepting gifts in excess of $100 from persons with direct interest in legislation. The charge stems from lucrative benefits that Wright and his wife, Betty, received from their friendship and business partnership with George A. Mallick Jr., a Ft. Worth real estate developer.

According to the source, the committee offered to clear Wright of violating this rule before 1986 in exchange for his resignation from the House. It was not until 1986 that Wright called upon Mallick to prepare a report aimed at influencing legislation to recapitalize the beleaguered savings and loan industry.

The committee never offered to forgive Wright on the charge of violating the rules governing outside income by selling his book, “Reflections of a Public Man,” to special interest groups in lieu of honorariums. House rules limit honorariums but not book royalties.

A leadership source said that Wright dismissed the offer not because he objected to these terms but because members of the committee were insisting that he resign immediately, a demand that he saw as unreasonable. He indicated that Wright would rather wait until next week to tender his resignation so that he can do it in a speech before the full House.

“The Speaker wants to do what he wants according to his timing,” the source said.

Seen as Against Talks

In fact, the source said, Wright never felt comfortable about the negotiations and viewed them only as a necessary step in the legal process of defending himself. “He did not like the smell of a negotiated arrangement,” he said.

A close associate reported that Wright and his wife--acting on the advice of friends--are expected to leave town to spend a long, quiet Memorial Day weekend together at an undisclosed location to ponder their future.

If he decides to resign, this associate noted, Wright, 66, would receive a generous House pension and would be in a position to write a lucrative book about his experiences in his 2 1/2 years as Speaker. Wright’s predecessor as Speaker, Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.), received a $1-million publisher’s advance for his memoirs.