Tom DeLay Blasts Newt Gingrich

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says Newt Gingrich was an ineffective leader who didn't even now how to run a meeting.

In a new book, DeLay also criticizes President Bush and former GOP House leaders Dennis Hastert and Dick Armey. DeLay's remarks were reported by syndicated political columnist Robert Novak.

DeLay was one of the new Republican House leaders who ushered in the Gingrich-inspired "Contract With America" in 1994. He complains that Gingrich's lack of leadership skills hampered GOP efforts to change the nation.

"He knew nothing about running meetings and nothing about driving an agenda," DeLay wrote. "Nearly every other day he had a new agenda, a new direction he wanted us to take. It was impossible to follow him."

DeLay also said the GOP leadership was in "no moral shape" to press impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, noting that then-House Speaker Gingrich was having an extra-martial affair with a staffer while the proceedings were under way.

Gingrich recently acknowledged the affair in an interview with a conservative Christian group. Some political observers said Gingrich wanted to publicly deal with the affair before possibly jumping into the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

DeLay relinquished his House leadership post and left Congress in 2006, following his indictment in Texas. Prosecutors accuse DeLay of violating state law by funneling $190,000 in illegal corporate money to the Republican National Committee, which then donated the same amount to Texas candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can't be directly used for political campaigns.

DeLay denies the transaction was illegal.

In the book, "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight," DeLay said of Mr. Bush: "He has expanded government to suit his purpose, especially in the area of education. He may be compassionate, but he is certainly no conservative in the classic sense."

Columnist Novak had this to say about the book: "DeLay was the most conservative congressional leader I have witnessed in 50 years covering Capitol Hill. I rate him with Lyndon B. Johnson as a dominant legislator. But his revelation that GOP leaders did not constitute a band of brothers helps explain why 12 years of control produced much less than was anticipated."