What CAN'T we do?: "Without DeLay"

[Rose Siding]

The Hammer's consolidation of control was complete; his pink fists clutched tightly to the stings of the purse through which all power flowed. When he said "I am the government" he wasn't just high on expensive cigars.

So first of all, we should all take a bow. If you wrote a letter or signed a petition or sent along an article to a friend, take a bow. Then an encore. Then another. Because in Texas Monthly, Paul Burka reminds us -

A feeding frenzy engulfed DeLay with such intensity that the public came to regard him as a cartoon character: a one-dimensional caricature of the corrupt, devil-may-care pol. They saw him as a crook. A cheat. A right-wing fanatic whose motivation never changed. Like Elmer Fudd, he wanted only to kill the wascally wabbit (who pwesumably was a Democrat). An entire industry sprang up—manned not just by leftist operatives but also bloggers, investigative reporters, and watchdog groups—for the purpose of shining a light on his and his associates’ every move....

There's some very good news here. Wonderful news, really. Ronnie Earle, Texan and able nemesis, says things like this to a room full lobbyists:

“Corporations are not people. They are things that exist solely for profit with, in the words of Judge Learned Hand, ‘neither an arse to kick nor a soul to damn.’

“I submit to you today that the problem is the corruption of representative democracy by large amounts of money, both corporate and private. It would surprise no one that the root of all evil of our political system is money. Large moneyed interests pay $10,000, $25,000, and up for ‘face time’ with a powerful politician so that big corporations and rich individuals can get special deals. But there’s no face time for John and Jane Citizen, who are raising three kids, holding down two jobs apiece, and they have no health insurance. Something is wrong with this picture. It is corrupt. It is a corruption made possible by corporate money. We must do something about corporate money in politics… . It is our job—our fight—to rescue democracy from the money that has captured it.”

Tingly? Me too :blush:

That's the kind of thing that makes you think maybe this might still be America.

But even now, in this expansive epitaph that recounts Bugboy's multitude of sins, both large and larger, there's a whiff of profit for him as he preens for his New Life-

“When I was elected to Congress, I was a self-centered jerk,” DeLay told Time in the April 3 interview in which he revealed his intention to give up his seat. He went on to relate the tale of his religious conversion, of how a Republican colleague went door-to-door to visit each freshman, invite him to Bible study, and show a James Dobson video called Where’s Daddy? “And every bad thing he was talking about was me,” DeLay said. “That’s when I came back to Christ....”

Then, without the first reference to the theological paradox, the very next paragraph begins:

He had acquired a taste for power and position, and his timing was perfect....

Now I don't want to be too judgemental here. People of faith can be leaders and some of the effects of leadership could be tagged as "power and position". Those may be naturally occuring results. However, who can square a thirst for power with any part of the religion that Tommy So Over is ramping up to exploit? The first shall be the last, baby.

Wherever he goes next, his influence can still be controlled. No matter how many times Blitzer embraces Falwell or Robertson as the voices of American religion, the public doesn't see them that way. Less than half of evangelicals have a favorable opinion of the pair. Among non-evangelicals they're in Crashcart territory.
In Tom DeLay territory!

So Over

http://www.portcommodore.com.nyud.net:8090/pics/petrock.jpg

[0007]

1. Where is Tom going from here.....

Make no mistake about it: Texas will suffer from the departure of Tom DeLay. But America won’t. His legacy includes many actions that have been bad for the country and bad for the political system. He was a man given to excess. He was that way in the Texas House, when his excess was partying. He was that way as overseer of the K Street Project, when his excess was doing favors for lobbyists. He was that way during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when many Republicans and most Democrats wanted to put the unseemly episode behind them with a censure of Bill Clinton but DeLay insisted on putting the country through the ordeal of impeachment, saying words that may come back to haunt him: “No man is above the law, and no man is below the law.” He was that way when, in order to increase his Republican majority in Congress, he resorted to a midcensus redistricting plan that will surely be a precedent in any state where majority control changes hands. He was that way when he disagreed with judges’ decisions, such as in the Terri Schiavo case, when his excess was, again, to hint at impeachment. He was that way when he wanted to elect a Republican majority in the Texas House in 2002 and his excess was to run afoul of campaign finance laws. The machinations with TRMPAC that led to his indictments were totally unnecessary; a solid Republican majority in the House had already been ensured by the map drawn in 2001 by the GOP-dominated Legislative Redistricting Board.

Call it lack of self-restraint. Call it delusions of grandeur. Call it an unslakable thirst for power. No political system can allow it to rage unchecked. More than the Democrats, more than the media, more than any ethics committee, excess is what brought Tom DeLay down. And it could bring him down further still.

[AtomicKitten]

2. he has left a snail slime trail with the redistricting