I Can Make You A Star!
This sounds unsubstantiated, but I found it when performing a search on Dreier and the NRCC. This is from The Hill, and is dated October 5, 2004:
The new House ethics-panel report that admonishes Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) for offering political support in exchange for a yes vote on the Medicare drug bill provides an unusual amount of detail on the deal-making during the nearly three hour floor vote last November.
DeLay told retiring Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) that he would endorse Smith’s son Brad — who at that time was running to succeed his father — if Smith would vote for the Medicare legislation....
The four-member House ethics investigative subcommittee — led by Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) — compiled 1,400 pages of sworn testimony, which portray frantic and fatigued GOP lawmakers scrambling for votes on a focal piece of President Bush’s domestic agenda.
The report includes some stinging rebukes, most buried within footnotes, of House leaders and aides....
The logrolling began Friday, Nov. 21, when Jason Roe, chief of staff to Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) and a former Smith aide, called Smith several times to discuss his vote. In those conversations, Roe intimated that House leaders and perhaps the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) would be willing to endorse Smith’s son in exchange for his vote. However, the NRCC was cleared of any wrongdoing....
On Nov. 22, Saturday morning, the House started voting at 3 a.m. Smith cast his vote against the bill early in the vote but stuck around, saying he “decided if I was voting against the conference I should stay there and take my licks.”
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Thompson and a slew of lawmakers queried Smith about his vote....
Roe also said Smith called him from Michigan later that day and told him that Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) offered to help Smith’s daughter find a job as an actress in Hollywood. Dreier denied making such an offer, and Smith did not recall the phone conversation....
[OE UPDATE 11/1/2004]
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