What's Good for Tom Delay is Bad for America

From the local newspaper here in VT (the Times Argus):

Tom DeLay, the House Majority Leader from Texas who regularly rides roughshod over his opponents, regularly undermines the concept of public service as an honorable endeavor.

Idealism has no place on DeLay's agenda. Rather, his personal and political philosophy is "if it's good for Tom DeLay and the Republican Party, it's good for the United States." Compared to him, Newt Gingrich was a marshmallow.

But the shabby world of Tom DeLay is under attack, and it will be interesting to see how his colleagues in Washington respond. Will they bend to his will in an acknowledgement of his tremendous power (and control over campaign funds), or will they remember that they were elected to serve all their constituents and not the agenda of one man?

The bipartisan House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, better known as the ethics committee, has chastised DeLay three times for violating House rules. Democrats, smelling blood, want their Republican colleagues to boot DeLay from his leadership post, but the GOP managed to defeat a proposal to hire an outside counsel to investigate DeLay's behavior.

Interestingly, the reliably conservative organization Judicial Watch last week demanded that DeLay lose not only his post as majority leader but also his seat in Congress. That's a measure of how unpopular the powerful Texan has become in Washington, even among right wing ideologues.

Last week, the ethics panel voted unanimously – remember, it's a bipartisan committee – to rebuke DeLay for summoning the Federal Aviation Administration to interfere in a Texas political dispute and for hosting a fund-raiser attended by corporate executives who had a strong interest in the formulation of the Bush administration's federal energy bill.

Earlier, the same panel chastised DeLay for allegedly trying to persuade another Congressman to vote his way on the Medicare bill. DeLay was accused of promising to endorse the other man's son in a pending election provided the father voted for the controversial bill.

Separately, three of DeLay's closest associates have been indicted in a criminal investigation into alleged laundering of corporate money to Texas legislative campaigns through a committee DeLay founded. If Delay were to be indicted, house rules would dictate that he resign as majority leader.

"He's always survived incidents that have been spread out one at a time," Lou Dubose, the coauthor of "The Hammer: Tom DeLay — God, Money, and the Rise of the Republican Congress," told a reporter last week. But, Dubose added, "I think he's in real trouble down here."

His Democratic counterpart, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, said DeLay "will go to all lengths to abuse power and to undermine even a bipartisan, unanimous decision of the ethics committee." Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, predicted House Republicans sooner or later will send DeLay packing.

Predictably, DeLay loyalists say he looks after "his team" and that he helps in their campaigns. Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican, described DeLay as "the classic country-club manager. He's always making sure members' needs are cared for." What about the public's needs? Foley never mentioned them.

DeLay's critics say he uses his position to punish, financially, any colleagues who don't support him on issues important to him. But those who do dance to DeLay's tune know their powerful leader will help raise lots of money in campaign donations.

Don't expect politics to ever be as pristine as they are described in high school civics texts, but if the Republicans in the House would stand up to Delay, it would do wonders to burnish the image of an essentially decent profession.