Last year I sent a few bucks to Richard Morrison, who was running against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, The Most Corrupt Man in Congress. (Many of those links require registration… you can surely find your own.)
I don’t think of Tom DeLay as being some inevitable product of a thoroughly corrupt system. He actually forces Congress to be a lot more rotten than it would be without him. He has no consistent political philosophy. He understands power, power only, and power for its own sake. (For example, the arm-twisting and probable bribery surrounding the Medicare prescription drug benefit: That’s not conservative, just a sheer payout to drug companies and a power grab.)
If DeLay were to be defeated, the center of gravity in the House would likely shift to more honest, if not more moderate, Republicans. No, that’s not saying much. But it’s still a net plus for the country, even if it’s not accompanied by total victory for Democrats. One of the things we’re seeing with the Social Security Great Thud of Non-Event is a little bit of Republican disunity: That’s good for Democrats, of course, and it’s good for the country. In the long run, a little disunity may be even good for the Republicans: they have to show that they can govern to stay in power long-term, and governing is more than just marching in lock-step with corrupt crackpots. Actions have consequences.
All the talk about growing our party from the grassroots, growing liberalism, taking back our party from special interests is a little like trying to cure cancer by eating more greens. Of course it’s good for you, but the cancer is still there.
I cannot imagine that even the most rock-ribbed conservatives fromSugarland, TX are that thrilled about having a crook represent them. Ilived in Chicago just after Dan Rostenkowski finally was ousted.Rosty’s heavily Democratic district elected an honest, affableRepublican named MIke Flanagan, and disposed of him the next term infavor of Rod Blagojevic, now governor of IL. Even if Richard Morrisonjust did that much, it would be a great accomplishment.
Tom DeLay got something right in linking himself to the Schiavo case: he is target #1. He has to be. Richard Morrison is doing his work tenaciously and courageously, by making his run for Congress a 36-month project. Progressives everywhere need to give Mr. Morrison every chance to help us all. We simply must treat this race as a national priority. It affects all of us.
It will be interesting to see if the Dems can manage to bring down Delay, as the GOP did to Daschle. They are certainly trying hard, a google search of Delay’s name brings up mostly anti-Delay entries.A combination of significant inflows of money, direct marketing campaigning, plus an ace candidate (Thune) did in Daschle – I don’t know enough about Texas politics to know if they can find someone of Thune’s strength. I think that’s the key.It’s obvious they have the money, but I’m not sure the corruption (You’ve got to love the hackery in this piece) angle is going to fly, given that it’s all based on sprurious charges of a seriously partisan democrat DA, especially since they couldn’t come close to even a grand jury indictment when it mattered most to them: just before the 2004 elections. As the article references: a good DA can indict a ham sandwich (it’s an unchallenged procedure).
This idea that Ronnie Earle, the Texas DA investigating Tom DeLay, is a “seriously partisan Democrat” is ridiculous. As has been widely reported, Earle has prosecuted far more Democrats than Republicans for political corruption in the many years he’s been in his job. Earle is indeed a Democrat, but almost every elected DA in the country belongs to either the Democratic or the Republican party, so there’s nothing surprising (and certainly nothing sinister) about that. DeLay has been trying very hard to paint Earle as a partisan witch-hunter, but it’s just not true. (Earle’s own letter to the NYT responding to DeLay’s charges is reprinted here.)It’s also worth noting that it’s no longer just Democrats that are putting pressure on DeLay. Recently both the NYT’s David Brooks and, more amazingly, the Wall St. Journal’s editorial page, blasted DeLay for his ethical transgressions. This guy is bad for America, and more and more Republicans as well as Democrats are finally realizing it.
Delay’s district is shaped ugly in a way only a mother or a gerrymanderer could love. He simply isn’t going down.However, running against him will force him back in Tejas to deal with it. It would be nice if a moderate Republican would run against him in the primary, and then a Dem in the election. He’d have to actually show up in Tejas now and again to work on his own campaign, instead of being out galavanting across the Red States raising money for other congresscritters.We may not be able to eliminiate him, but we can certainly put some effort into neutralizing him.
I think DeLay is bringing himself down. About the most we can credit our Dems with is that they are cheering on the sidelines! Ronnie Earle is an honorable DA. David is quite right!This might interest you.
http://starevents.biz/wwwboard/messages/1858.html complimentwhosewondered