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Jewish World Review May 2, 2005 / 23 Nissan, 5765 Can ‘The Hammer’ handle the heat? By Clarence Page
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Everywhere I turn in this town I hear the same question:
"So, when do you think Tom DeLay is going down?"
And I answer, alas, that I do not know. The House majority leader has been beating back a swarm of ethical questions about his fundraising, his ties with lobbyists and the indictment by a Texas grand jury of three of his associates for alleged campaign-finance violations in a political committee that DeLay founded to influence redistricting in that state.
But who knows? He's fighting back. He could survive in the way that various political kingfishes have in the past: by politicizing the allegations into a partisan squabble for media windbags to argue about and partisans to raise money around.
"What?" I hear next. "Are you not a Washington pundit who therefore knows what's going to happen before it happens?"
Alas, despite working in the nation's capital, I feel obliged to tell the truth. The mighty leader of the House Republican majority, friend to the powerful, dispenser of great favors, big wheeler among big dealers, and self-anointed model of Bible-clutching virtue and former mogul of Sugarland, Texas, pest extermination just might weather this storm and continue his legislative wizardry in relatively undisturbed peace and lobbyist-assisted prosperity.
"How can this be? Is the drip, drip, drip of revelations not bringing him down?"
DeLay's stock went up, along with his formidable ego, I'm sure, when President Bush decided to include him on the White House's Social Security road tour this week.
But then, Bush needs the help that DeLay can deliver. Bush's proposal to add private investment accounts to Social Security has not gone over well with the public. That's probably because it fails to address the program's predicted shortfalls or the more immediate shortfalls in Medicare and Medicaid. Bush needs DeLay's help to get his plans through Congress. House Republicans need DeLay's help to keep their majority. That's why "House ethics" ranks with "sports scholarship" and "gourmet cat food" as a great oxymoron of our time.
"Are you depressed about this turn of events?"
No, as a longtime Chicagoan, I am accustomed to living under corrupt regimes.
"Would you compare Washington today to the old days of the late Democratic Mayor Richard J. Daley?"
There are similarities. Daley's political machine was better organized, but these Republicans show promise. Give them time. Even the Wall Street Journal's editorial page says DeLay's leadership reeks of the corruption that House Republican revolutionaries of a decade ago promised to clean out.
"DeLay says his political foes and the liberal media have manufactured controversies to discredit him."
The Wall Street Journal's editorial page? The Pravda of the right? The tireless tormentor of Bill and Hillary Clinton? The vast liberal conspiracy must be more vast than anyone thought. I guess DeLay wants to put a "liberal" tag on all media, even on Bush-endorsing newspapers like the Chicago Tribune that have called for him to step down, but it defies reality.
Nothing stops the mighty Picasso of the Texas redistricting map who shrugs off his critics as a carping chorus of liberal Democrats, even if they do include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, wizard of the Republican Contract with America.
"DeLay points out that he has `never been found in violation of any law by anyone.'"
So far, that's true, and that means something only in places like Washington, where subpoenas sometimes fly like confetti. But "Never Indicted" does not make the most flattering campaign bumper sticker.
"So, do you really think DeLay's dust storm could blow away?"
Oh, there's still some unfinished business. The Texas grand jury probe continues. Maybe the U.S. Justice Department might decide to pick up the cases that led to DeLay's three rebukes from the House ethics committee in the last Congress, if it hasn't already. That was before House leaders crippled the committee by changing its rules and its makeup on a party-line vote. Democrats fumed that Republicans were simply trying to protect DeLay. Gee, do you think?
"DeLay's backers say he's under fire simply for being an effective conservative."
He is effective. Very effective. That's why his associates, with a mixture of shock and awe, call him "The Hammer," while liberals ridicule him as "The Scammer." But DeLay also blunts the ability of Republicans to hold themselves up as the party of high morals. That's why it sometimes seems as though both Republicans and Democrats actually want DeLay to stick around— for different reasons.
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Comment on Clarence Page's column by clicking here. © 2005, TMS |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
