Tom DeLay bites back
A thoughtful man at the eye of the storm
Plain speaking from the former US Republican majority leader
‘[And] they are making up laws. Like my indictment laws that don’t even exist in Texas [where DeLay was elected]. Yet they get a grand jury to indict the majority leader of the House of Representatives on laws that don’t exist in Texas.’
The effect of this (and the Republican rule that an indicted representative must stand down) is that the people now seeking nominations for the party are far from the pick of the crop. ‘I mean, look who is running for president,’ he says. ‘Rich guys.’
‘You can look at my own district. There are some great guys and I like them. But I talk to several elected officials, state reps, state senators and others who tell me quite frankly, “I’m not going to put my family through what you went through. I’m just not going to do it so I’m not running.” So we have two former mayors, one of them defeated in his re-election, a chief of staff to a sitting senator, a former city council woman. Good people but probably not the best candidates. It is happening all over the country.’
DeLay is no more enthused by the cast of presidential hopefuls than he is by his district’s hopefuls.
‘I haven’t heard one visionary speech,’ he complains. ‘It used to be order, justice and freedom, the first principles of the conservative movement. Nobody is articulating any of that. It is “I am for healthcare”, “I am against healthcare”, “I am for global warming”, “I am against global warming”. Where are the visionaries?’
Surveying the current slate of Republican presidential candidates, DeLay uncharacteristically admits defeat. ‘I’ve got problems with them all,’ he says, adding, ‘I don’t think we have a frontrunner.’ Even the one candidate who is fiscally and morally conservative enough for DeLay has let him down on one big issue. ‘Even Mike Huckabee is talking about this carbon tax thing. Why? Why play to a concocted political issue which is global warming? It is a religion.’
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Hal from NY
November 10th, 2007 3:11amTom Delay's nickname in Washington was "the Hammer." He saw the GOP as the true American party and his opponents and unpatriotic and disloyal. His medium-sized intellect seems to have no room for the idea of a loyal opposition, or of disagreement in good faith. And he was corrupt in office. He was a blight on the U.S. Congress, and not even particularly liked by his fellow conservatives. He is not missed in the slightest, as far as I can tell.