More trouble for DeLay

i don't so much have a problem with republicans so much as i really have a problem with the current rep leadership and a lot of the star players.

i still believe wholeheartedly in the multi-party system. that in itself is part of the whole checks and balances thing. no one party should control everything.

but he whole svengali or pied piper thing with bush (made president by god ?!?!? how freakin' arrogant is that ? ) drives me to distraction.

and yeah... delay is scum. and very slimey scum at that. it's okay though, his days in congress are numbered.

IN RARE PUBLIC APPEARANCE, GOD BLASTS TOM DELAY

'Enough is Enough,' Says Almighty

In a rare public appearance that leading theologians called "extraordinary," God held a press conference in Washington on Sunday to disavow the recent words and deeds of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

The normally reclusive Ruler of the Universe took the unusual step of speaking to reporters to blast Rep. DeLay for repeatedly invoking His name in political fundraising appeals.

"I usually don't like to shoot my mouth off about every little thing that bugs me," the surprisingly outspoken Supreme Being said. "But enough is enough."

After complaining about Rep. DeLay's unauthorized use of His name in fundraising pitches, God warned the Texas congressman to discontinue the practice at once "or else."

When asked if He intended to strike Rep. DeLay with a lightning bolt, God replied with a terse "no comment," but later said, "I've been known to smite people in the past, and I'm not prepared to take smiting off the table."

Hours after God's press briefing concluded, a spokesperson for Rep. DeLay issued a one-sentence statement saying that the congressman and the Almighty remain on good terms and that he hoped to have God's support in the 2006 midterm elections.

But Dr. Harland Minter of the University of Minnesota's School of Divinity said that Rep. DeLay would be well advised to heed God's words of warning: "It means a lot that God took the trouble to hold a press conference, especially on His day off."

Elsewhere, a new poll shows that a majority of Americans favor disconnecting Pat O'Brien's telephone.

You guys are fooling yourselves. As long as there is a republican congress Delay can do anything he wants to.

"If you've seen a chicken in the barnyard get a peck on his head so a little blood is showing, then the other chickens all rush in and peck him to death, that is the danger for Tom DeLay right now," said Charlie Wilson, a former Democratic member of Congress from Lufkin. "He's got a little blood on his head, and sometimes that is enough to get you killed."

-- The Houston Chronic

By Howard Fineman

MSNBC contributor

Updated: 4:29 p.m. ET March 30, 2005

WASHINGTON - A new drama of survival has begun here - political, not physical; legal, not spiritual. The central character isn't a woman in a hospital bed but a controversial Republican leader in the House of Representatives. Rep. Tom DeLay may not want to admit it to himself, but he's fighting for his political life.

I wouldn't have said so two weeks ago. But I've seen enough of these dramas unfold to know when I'm watching a new one, and now I am. You know the story line, which dates back to the Greeks: a powerful, hubristic leader is brought low by his own flaws. Think Jim Wright, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton.

A key but cautious leader of the Republican leadership put it to me this way in private recently: "Members want us spend our time protecting them. They don't like having to spend their time protecting us." Meaning: their idea of fun and productive use of time in the capital is not "DeFending DeLay."

By melodramatically linking his own destiny with that of Terri Schiavo, DeLay didn't help himself. He made himself look vulnerable and scared - which is all his enemies needed to convince themselves to step up their attacks. If you want to watch a passion play, fine. But don't cast yourself in the lead.

This is a city dedicated to ambition, but also to the occasional ritual (and largely ineffective) cleansing. The goal of the truly power-hungry is to find new routes to the top without antagonizing a critical mass of the trampled and the angry. DeLay succeeded for quite some time; that time might be about to end. True, Republicans control both chambers of Congress. But just because DeLay won't be subpoenaed to testify on the Hill doesn't mean he is safe.

Why? First, a federal grand jury, which is deep into an investigation of fundraising and influence peddling by DeLay's friends and former staffers in town. The probe may never reach DeLay himself; indeed, he's not the focus of the probe. But in the court of politics, guilt by association can add up to … guilt. The roster of people close to him has gotten long and, therefore, conspicuous.

The dynamics of disassembly

DeLay built a state-of-the-art machine to raise money, win elections and wield legislative influence. Now the question is whether that machine overran the bounds of law. And, as DeLay will find to his chagrin, that question can't always be answered by saying that each action was arguably legal at the time. It's the big picture - if it can be clearly assembled - that can do the damage.

Media dynamics are another factor. Let's accept for a moment that there are, in fact, TWO "media," Red and Blue. You know where the Blue are coming from: they're going to go after DeLay with everything they've got. But there comes a point when even the Red media will want to focus on the DeLay story - and even if their basic instinct is to defend him, they will be doing precisely what the Majority Leader desperately doesn't want: raising his profile.

Plus, not all of the Red Media is so friendly anymore. Say what you want about The Wall Street Journal editorial page, but they are consistent in their minimum regard for ethical mores in Washington. And ominously for DeLay, the page has begun to view him as an example of what's wrong with the capital. If that machine produces an "odor," as the Journal editorial writers put it, it doesn't absolve DeLay that "he smells just like the Beltway itself."

Turning the tough into a target

Washington has a way of getting even with tough guys who are too blatant about it, and DeLay is feared and hated in much of the "downtown" lobbying community. DeLay is right to decry the hypocrisy of "K Street," which has been run by Democratic fixers since the days of Franklin Roosevelt. The majority leader, with a determination that even Gingrich didn't muster, has been the lead player in an effort to root out Democratic influence peddlers and replace them with Bush-era Republicans. All's fair, right? No it's not.

Leaderless and intellectually rudderless, the Democrats are desperate for issues, and they have decided (to the extent there is a "they") to make a piñata of DeLay. The old argument against doing so was that no one knew who he was. Then people like Jim Jordan, a tough and media-savvy advisor to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, essentially said, what the heck, let's go for it - and he and others have convinced some of the party's big money types to have at it.

There's a certain logic to the enterprise: don't take on the Texas president, who remains popular, especially as commander-in-chief. Take on another Texas, who comes from Houston, who is close to the Oil Boys, and who can be made to stand for the GOP's never-ending vulnerability, which is that they are too close to corporate power, especially the kind that sells gas for $2.50 a gallon.

Inside the GOP leadership on the Hill, DeLay is not beloved. He is admired for his fundraising skill and political daring, but at least some of the top figures are wary of him. Speaker Denny Hastert, once thought of as a creation and tool of the DeLay, has risen in esteem - and real and perceived independence. Majority Whip Roy Blunt, widely respected and much liked at the White House, is waiting in the wings should the need arise to move up in the ranks.

Relations between the president and DeLay have never been particularly warm - Texas isn't quite big enough for the both of them. Bush and Karl Rove have been careful to cultivate him over the years, of course, and they have made common cause since Bush first started running for governor in 1993. Bush likes to delegate the tough stuff - to people like DeLay and Rove - but they are still hired help.

And you can always fire the help.

Sen. Frank Launtenberg (D-NJ) has sent a letter to Tom Delay advising him that his threat may have violated federal law:

You should be aware that your comments yesterday may violate a Federal criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. 115 (a)(1)(B). That law states:

"Whoever threatens to assault…. or murder, a United States judge… with intent to retaliate against such… judge…. on account of the performance of official duties, shall be punished [by up to six years in prison]"

Threats against specific Federal judges are not only a serious crime, but also beneath a Member of Congress. In my view, the true measure of democracy is how it dispenses justice. Your attempt to intimidate judges in America not only threatens our courts, but our fundamental democracy as well.

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/lautenberg_letter_delay_schiavo_401.htm

Control of House rules prevents critical debate
By DOUGLAS TURNER

4/4/2005

WASHINGTON - The link between the cute rules of the House of Representatives and violent crime, broken streets and higher taxes at home seems obscure. But it is very real all the same.
The way the House Republican majority runs the place helps explain why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in urban America, according to a research paper put out by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport.

Tight-fisted control by "the most abusive and unethical" leadership "in modern history," says Slaughter, is the way more financial burdens get shifted from Washington to hard-pressed states and local governments.

This dumping of national problems on localities seems unfair because federal policies on trade and currency have much to do with the loss of industry and jobs and local tax base.

Slaughter has House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, in mind when she calls the GOP leadership "abusive and unethical."

A case in point was the vote the House took just before Easter recess to gut spending for a decades-old program called Community Development Block Grants.

Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls and cities and their suburbs all over the country will lose billions over the next few years as a result of the House budget vote, if the Senate goes along.

The federal money is used by Erie County to fix streets, sewers and other infrastructure. Buffalo uses it to encourage private business construction.

Almost all of these repairs and projects are going to be built anyway, or abandoned. If completed, local and state government will have to pay for them with higher taxes.

The same with community police services once used by local governments to add 100,000 police to the streets. Loss of this money translates into more drug markets, murder and addiction.

The block grant cuts never would have passed were it not for the way DeLay manipulates House rules through the House Rules Committee. Slaughter is now the top Democrat on that committee.

In a way that is not possible under the Senate's more collegial procedures, the House Rules Committee wields absolute control over legislation bound for the House floor.

So before the 2006 budget went to the House floor, the Republican-dominated Rules Committee barred any amendments from anyone, Republican or Democrat, to allow a separate vote on the cuts to the block grant program.

The "closed rule" became standard fare when DeLay took control of the House leadership from House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., seven years ago. Gingrich promised two-thirds of the bills would be considered under an "open rule" that allowed amendments and plenty of debate.

Now only a handful of bills reach the floor under the "open rule," sometimes as low as 7 percent, the report says.

As a result, almost no meaningful business gets done on the House floor these days. The real work is done in secret. Sometimes the bills that are rammed through are written within the walls of the Capitol itself by lobbyists representing big Republican contributors.

Because floor fireworks are so rare, less of what Congress does gets into the news these days. This explains why Congress can get so self-righteous about baseball and football players using banned substances.

This is legislating the people's interests in the dark, literally.

Under DeLay, when the Rules Committee has a controversial bill to consider it meets with little advance notice to Democrats, in the evening, sometimes in the wee hours of the night when few, if any media representatives are around.

This is more like the Politburo than an American Congress.


e-mail: [email protected]

Oralloy, here are the rules of your logic as I've been able to understand them:

a) All charges of wrong doing against Republicans are false.

b) All false allegations come from Democrats,