The DeLay Factor

"Seated Figure" by Francis Bacon 1978, Private Collection

 

O.K. so by now we all know

Rep. Tom DeLay, whose iron hold on the House Republicans melted as a lobbying corruption scandal engulfed the Capitol, told TIME that he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months. Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

The vultures are already circling.

Ed Morrissey adequately sums up what I feel about the issue, and I too am sorry to see him go under the circumstances:

DeLay coldly calculated that in a strong Republican district, a GOP candidate unencumbered by the kind of baggage he carries could win easily, while his candidacy would likely require a lot of help from the national organization. In this election, that money and energy should go elsewhere to help the Republicans hang onto their majority in the lower chamber. Losing control in the House makes it more likely that the Democrats will pursue impeachment of George Bush, and DeLay may have taken one for the team here

Standing firm:

Asked if he had done anything illegal or immoral in public office, DeLay replied curtly, "No." Asked if he'd done anything immoral, he said with a laugh, "We're all sinners." Asked what he would do differently, he said, "Nothing." He denied having failed to adequately supervise members of his staff, even though two of his former aides have pleaded guilty to committing crimes while on his staff. "Two people violated my trust over 21 years," he said. "I guarantee you if other offices were under the scrutiny I've been under in the last 10 years, with the Democrat Party announcing that they're going to destroy me, destroy my reputation, and that's how they're going to get rid of me, I guarantee you you're going to find, out of hundreds of people, somebody that's probably done something wrong."

It's a subject I simply cannot raise much enthusiasm over, and almost did not write about it at all. He really had to go, it's disappointing, but the right thing to do.

I have no regrets today and no doubts," Mr. Delay said. "I am proud of the past, I am at peace with the present and I'm excited about the future, which holds as always America's brightest days and mine, too."

Not much of a surprise for a seasoned old fox like DeLay who knows when his time is up.

I'm a realist. I've been around awhile," he added. "I can evaluate political situations."

It certainly marks the end of an era for a well respected and loyal Republican spanning some twenty one odd years, and marks the fall of "yet another victim of the Democrats' politics of personal destruction--the only politics they know."

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Comments

[Gang of One]

"I have a little private test that I use, beyond political opinions, to evaluate the qualities of our leaders. It consists of a simple question: Based on their public pronouncements and conduct, you like to have them as next door neighbors?"

I'm not at all sure that this would be a very effective test -- for me -- seeing as how neighbors don't always socialize, at least not in my neck of the woods here in suburban New Jersey, unless they belong to the same synagogue or church or have children in the same schools.
An associate of mine had a more personalized version of this test: who would you rather have a beer [or five] with?
Depending on whether or not you drink maybe that might not work for you, but I think it would provide a better opportunity to get to know a politician or public figure. It has been my experience that alcohol tends to loosen the tongue and let the true character of a person shine forth.

[Joseph Marshall]

Well, I don't know about nuanced, but I have vivid and extensive living memories of "well respected and loyal Republicans" like Dwight Eisenhower, Claire Booth Luce, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush, and no one with these would find Alexandra's application of these terms to Tom DeLay as anything but screamingly funny.

I hate to say it since I belong to the same generation, but the current crop of political luminaries are barely men and women in comparison to those folks above, and the specific group of them who have been Republican leaders in Congress for the past ten years--the Gingriches, the Lotts, the Hasterts, the Frists, and the DeLays--have been a particularly odious set of poison dwarves.

I have a little private test that I use, beyond political opinions, to evaluate the qualities of our leaders. It consists of a simple question: Based on their public pronouncements and conduct, you like to have them as next door neighbors?

It's served me well over the years to confine "well respected" to the individuals, of either party, who truly deserve it.

[Michael van der Galien]

Hmm now I remember from Glenn's blog: Mich threatened Alexandra there already "next blog to troll: ATB" he/she/it said. Well, you at least stand by your word.

However; maybe you should just go away from this blog; nobody appreciates your biased, idiotic, and paranoid remarks here.

You are probably not used to this, but on this blog people from different political idealogues talk and debate with one another. Here we don't just nodd and praise the blog owner; we are actually allowed to disagree. Strange huh?

[Michael van der Galien]

Joseph Marshall,

I would have worded my opinion slightly more nuanced, but in essence I agree with your view on DeLay.

Mich: I always find it funny how people who disagree with Alexandra think she's 'narrow-minded' and bans people without a second thought.
Instead of that she has proven that she allows different opinions, even embraces them, as long as people behave in a respectable manner. One of those would be not insulting eachother, especially not the blog owner.

[Alexandra]

Mich, Incontrolados, whoever the heck you are,

Your first comment above is perfectly fine, no one has a problem with that. You are in Houston therefore it affects you, and you made your point clearly contributing to the discussion. Nothing wrong with that.

But then the little pip-squeak in you called Incontrolados was dying to get out and let loose, and you had to start bitching again. You got deleted, because you threatened me on Glenn's blog: "I will come and troll on your site" then you indeed came. Secondly you post under different names with fake emails, we don't play those sort of games here, that is what you can do on your leftie blogs. You are now threatening me again about you and your cowardly friends coming to visit. And? I am shaking in my boots. Don't get creepy.

As for engaging my commenters, you have not done anything of the kind on your previous visits, as Incontrolados or any of your other names, other than being obstructive and rude. I don't need to put up with that as well as I do not need to be threatened by pip-squeaks like you. So bugger off and do your so called 'business' elsewhere. Are you obsessed, or what? Why are you and your "friends" reading me anyway? Nothing better to do in Houston for two hours, not to mention the times before?

You wanna debate, do it like all the other liberals on this blog, you wanna play, go to your own back yard. But if you want to threaten me, you will not just get deleted you will get banned, as your alter self did.

[mich]

BTW, I was the one who pointed out your error on the Washinton Times/Washington Post Fisa post of yours. If you decide to delete this, as you did all the other posts, then you will prove my point. Sadly, you will show that you allow a commenter who engages your commenters and delete someone who simply pointed out your errors -- and on Glenn Greenwald's comment thread, your narrow-mindedness.

I have read your blog as have my friends (we visit!).

[mich]

Your remark about "vultures circling" is actually almost sad, given that, but for you, I would not have learned of the posts and comments about Jill Carroll. I might have missed that entire sliver of "the right" exposing itself. No matter.

As for DeLay, you may not care so much, but politics is local. Had the man affected your district in a negative way because of his actions (legal ones, but not necessary) you might feel like I do. I find it odd that you don't have a very strong opinion about someone who has made such a difference in our country. Perhaps you are detached and only think of your party or area. DeLay made transit in the fourth largest city in the U.S. progressively worse over a twenty year period. So you (nor he, since he's moving away) truly care about the long term transit issues that we, his constituiency faces -- he is moving. It was his position in Congress that allowed him that ability.

All I can think of is the waste, on transit and so many other issues, that his party loyalty has caused.

He is leaving his state and his district after they have contributed to him, as recently as a few days ago at a fund raiser -- where he promised to run. I'd like to see the ledger sheet of what he has done for his district and what he hopes to do for his new district. I'd also like to see what he has taken in as campaign contributions and how much of that goes to his defense. (No Clinton comparisons need apply -- he raised the money for the race that he has now abandoned -- quite different.)

For those on this side, meaning those who are staying in this city, he has done all of us a disservice.

[Joseph Marshall]

Not much of a surprise for a seasoned old fox like DeLay who knows when his time is up.

ROFLMAO!

You better believe that your time is up when your former Chief Of Staff cops a plea on an incucement to bribery charge. They don't let you do that unless you can provide serious testimony against someone else. And I somehow don't think he's going to be testifying against the House pages, the House chaplain, or the Sergeant At Arms.

of the Democrats' politics of personal destruction

ROFLMAO even louder!

You would too if you could take an objective vantage point on the unbelievable amount of personal invective [both in words and in pictures] that graces this block of bandwidth, or its counterparts in the Noise Machine.

[North by Northwest]

Hard to pin DeLay down. Certainly the right move for him to have made at this point in time. I personally have no dog in this hunt or fight, as they say. Never liked the guy. Will he go to prison. Hard to tell at right now.

What I hate though, is yet again the whiff of a witch hunt. True, DeLay ruffled feathers; big time. But that's the American way. That's not partisan. Don't tell me that the Democrats haven't got their own 'Hammer'; there are plenty. So, the difference is that Texan law prohibits what is common practice in other states. Sure, the law must be observed and upheld; no question about the either. But the criminalization of DeLay is what doesn't sit well with me here.

Tom Delay got things done for his party. Every party needs guys like this. They may have bent the rules; we'll hear more about that in the not so distant future. But that doesn't equate DeLay to a money laundering drug lord, does it. So, let's keep things in perspective and give the guy a break.