DeLay Bids the House a Torrid Goodbye

Representative Tom DeLay personifies the word "unapologetic."

Leaving Congress on Friday under indictment in Texas and under a cloud in Washington for his relationships with a lobbyist and two former senior aides who have pleaded guilty to felony corruption, Mr. DeLay, the combative former Republican majority leader, was not about to distance himself from himself.

"I did a good job," said Mr. DeLay, the linchpin of the House Republican majority for the last decade and the mastermind of a formidable political operation that melded legislating, fund-raising, conservatism and business advocacy as never before. "I helped build the largest political coalition in the last 50 years. The K Street project and the K Street strategy I am very proud of."

To the Republicans he kept in power in defiance of the odds and a torrent of criticism, Mr. DeLay was a brilliant tactician, one they rewarded with standing ovations on Thursday as he took the floor one last time to deliver an ode to the bare-knuckles partisanship that has been his trademark.

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