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DeLay was among the first members of Congress to call for the President's resignation after the Lewinsky scandal broke. But until the Nov. 3 midterm elections, he was seen as an outspoken conservative, not a spokesman for the whole party. Then came the post-Gingrich leadership shuffle. DeLay not only survived, he prospered. Facing no challenge for his job as majority whip, he was able to deploy his vote-counting network (the 64 lawmakers who serve as his assistant whips) behind three of the party's new leaders. One of them was Bob Livingston, who owed him a favor but who also did him one inadvertently by choosing not to step into the impeachment management. DeLay was only too happy to step in himself. "With Newt out and Livingston not sworn in yet, Tom is the de facto Speaker," says one of DeLay's deputies, Representative Mark Foley of Florida.
So last week DeLay organized four separate conference calls on Wednesday with his lieutenants and dozens of one-on-one calls with other Republicans scattered across the country. In them, the 14-year House veteran sampled opinion and, not so subtly, made his case. "What am I supposed to do, crawl into a hole and not do my job?" he asked TIME. To those worried that the party would be flouting the will of the public by voting to impeach, DeLay gave assurances. The G.O.P. has paid its price at the ballot box, he said, and lost in part because disaffected conservative voters stayed home. Those same voters would interpret backing down from impeachment now as the ultimate capitulation. "The 35% that is our hard-core base wants the process to go forward," insists a G.O.P. leadership aide. "We can't substitute censure for impeachment. They'd kill us."
Besides, the DeLay camp says, a vote to impeach the President is the perfect inoculation for moderate Republicans under assault from conservatives in their districts. Assuming, as almost everyone in Washington does, that Clinton would survive a Senate trial, moderates who voted to impeach wouldn't have to worry about a backlash. "What DeLay's been saying is, 'This vote isn't going to hurt you; it will mean conservatives won't bother you anymore,'" says a source close to the Texan. For some moderates, that could be an important consideration. Marge Roukema, a New Jersey Republican known for her willingness to break with her more conservative colleagues, came close to losing her seat this year in a primary battle with a right-wing challenger. Last Tuesday she declared that she opposed censure--which she later called a "cop-out"--and was leaning toward impeachment. On Thursday, DeLay informed Livingston with near certainty that rumors that 15 to 20 Republicans are defecting to the anti-impeachment camp were "misinformation."