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Tuesday, April 04, 2006
DeLay Scurries
Hell just froze over. Former Speaker of the House and pest control expert Tom DeLay is scurrying away at last, withdrawing from his race to keep his Texas Congressional seat. Mounting legal problems and an expanding probe into corruption within his office have made a fleeing cockroach out of the once powerful Hammer. Once again, Howard Dean was way ahead of the pack on this. Last May he said:
“Tom DeLay is corrupt. No question about it. This is a guy who shouldn’t be in Congress and maybe ought to be serving in jail.”
Despite DeLay's claim he's pulling out of the race because the poll numbers aren't good, it may well be a sign of the seriousness of his mounting legal problems. He announced his withdrawal about a week after a second close aide pleaded guilty on a corruption charge. According to ABC News:
Last week, former DeLay aide Tony Rudy pleaded guilty to conspiring with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others to corrupt public officials, and he promised to help the broad federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that already has resulted in three convictions.
It seems clear that Rudy will be telling what he knows about the DeLay pay-to-play machine in order to obtain a lighter sentence. Also on the way is the much anticipated squealing expected to come from Abramoff himself, who pled guilty in a recent Florida corruption trial and will face grave charges in another upcoming trial in DC. Pigs squeal. Cockroaches scurry to escape the light. The chickens come home to roost. The Exterminator gets hammered! (Sorry, I can't help myself!)
April 4, 2006 at 09:54 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
Anyone care to guess who in New Mexico had close ties with Delay, as in receiving money from, and voting in alignment with, Ummm, could it be someone named Heather???
Posted by: | Apr 4, 2006 10:19:50 AM
Delay is headed to K-street after taking a hiatus to write a Christian book. Predicted here by the "Q".
Posted by: qofdisks | Apr 4, 2006 2:46:49 PM
I heard he's gonna take Jerry Falwell's place!
Posted by: JJ | Apr 4, 2006 3:50:47 PM
I like to picture him in jail.
And being some guys biotch.
Posted by: mary ellen | Apr 4, 2006 4:02:03 PM
It is time to clean house from the Governors Office in Santa Fe to both Houses in Washington, D.C. Corruption is driving our Country in the Wrong Way. It is time to standup and tell it like it is and assume nothing. Eli Chavez, Independent.
Posted by: Eli Chavez | Apr 5, 2006 8:59:13 AM
Sadly hilarious that he is claiming he made the decision to withdraw based on messages he got from god while praying. He is such a spiritual man, isn't he? About as spiritual as the other pseudo-Christians who are using religion to perpetrate injustice, war, hate and other horrors.
Posted by: barb | Apr 5, 2006 10:43:15 AM
I think what's really interesting about tom delay's cut and run is what does it mean for the conservative movement and coalition with christianity political ideologists.
These people ARE being led down the garden path by GOP hucksters who are stealing their money.
Their political activism is based on a false premise that this is a "Christian nation" that can enforce biblical rule.
That is not a realistic or constitutional goal. There is no crime in highlighting the fact that they have been sold a bill of goods by Republicans.
It's the truth. If they stay home because their dream of theocracy is dead, that's up to them.
There are obviously other ways to see the world, although I have grave doubts that these folks will care to look at them.
If they do, it's all available for them like any other citizen.
Posted by: joaquin | Apr 5, 2006 12:01:11 PM
I agree, Joaquin.
Now get this. DeLay is saying he will "fashion a role for himself as a grass-roots leader of social conservatives ... I look forward to traveling the country and listening to conservatives, helping grass-roots leaders to develop a unifying agenda and a strategy to enact it, to learn from past setbacks and build on our successes"
You can read more on this here:
LA Times Article
Some "social conservatives" aren't that pleased about it, according to the article.
Also, good to have Joaquin's Soy Blue back in business: https://soyblue.typepad.com/
And I note that there's a new post up there now talking about how DeLay plans to "concentrate on corruption in the private sector." Oh yeah...
Posted by: barb | Apr 5, 2006 1:26:35 PM
"These people ARE being led down the garden path by GOP hucksters who are stealing their money." Wonder how they are going to like it when they wake up to the fact that Delay stayed in the race for his seat just long enough to collect enough contributions to pay his legal fees.
Posted by: VP | Apr 5, 2006 1:59:38 PM
