"Tom DeLay is Bleeding," David Brooks, NYT

OP-ED COLUMNIST
A Scandal Waiting to Happen
By DAVID BROOKS, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/opinion/20brooks.html?oref=login&hp



Tom DeLay is bleeding and he doesn't even know it.

This week, House Republicans bent their accountability rules to protect their majority leader from what they feel is a partisan Texas prosecutor. But they hated the whole exercise. They sat in a conference room hour after hour wringing their hands. Only a few members were brave enough to stand up and say they shouldn't bend the rule. But afterward, many House Republicans came up to those members and said that secretly they agreed with them.

Somewhere in the psychology of the caucus something shifted. That ineffable thing called political capital began seeping away from DeLay. Someday people will look back and say this could be the moment when his power begins to ebb. . . .

But there's also the fact that most House Republicans like DeLay. It's always important to remember that most of the mythology that surrounds the Hammer is total nonsense. He is not the behind-the-scenes power who controls the House. Speaker Dennis Hastert controls the House and feels free to overrule DeLay. "

My question for Brooks:
If Delay isn't the Hammer Democrats think he is, why are the House Republicans so afraid to stand up to him?

checking to make sure we're all safe?

:shrug:

> Where's a Great White when you need one?

as he takes himself. He's always dismissive and condescending and doesn't seem to value anyone's opinion but his own.

Christopher Hutchins. However he rarely gravitates to any palatable political philosophy ... well save for his OWN ego enhancements coupled with situational "attitude checks."

What MAROON! <snicker>

BTW when are they gonna replace Mark Shields permanently with a true Democrat vice a wannabe DLC mouthpiece?

I've had enough of the Nazi Party.

I want out!

shown the country, actually the world, exactly what a lack of anything resembling character and honesty they have.

NOT a smart move on their part. Not at all.

And what's it made of?

its squirts acid

DeLay is bleeding, that does mean the sharks are circling the waters. Brooks is a right wing shill after all.

DeLay is like that mafia boss that keeps all his thugs in line with threats of violence, so they do as he says. Anything to please the boss because it means your life after all. When you keep your thugs in line with violence however, at the first sign of weakness that your territory is going to fall your thugs will abandon you - big time. There has been so much scandal surrounding the bug-man that one of his back stabbings is going to come back and bite him in the ass. His own little blow-back.

I can't wait till it happens. It will be a happy day when DeLay is behind bars.


Sonia

and the ones who "secretly" agreed with the cowards, well there were Nazis who later said they were too afraid to stand up and stop what was happening at the beginning and then it was too late.

So all the rethugs in the house are too blame for protecting delay.

and DePlane-Deplane DELAY as being a HUMAN, which I don't buy. Plus, the last sentence sez Repukes will return to their CORE VALUES, as though these are something HONEST and POSITIVE. I submit that at the CORE of every Repuke is SCOUNDRELISM.

I can't for the life of me understand why they print his dribble are have him as an "analyst" on PBS.
Delay, the word that pops into my mind is Disgusting.

Someone who's threatened will pull a Fouche and get the others to pull him down; when challenged, he will have a vicious spurt of defensiveness, and be hounded from power by those he dominated for so long.

I don't believe the characterizations of the four Republicans in this NYT article; it smacks of extreme pandering and a bit of an attempt at helping an inside job. Regardless, the man is cornered, although he may well last for years, and a cornered asshole is a very dangerous person.

This guy has got to go. He is dangerous
for our country. Do I and 5 million of
my friends need to move to Texas to vote
the bastard out? Or maybe I'll start my
own vote-stealing EVM company and produce
my own electronic coup d'etat.

Most people haven't noticed this one yet, but it's potentially even bigger than DeLay's Texas problems.

http://www.mollyivins.com/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1800

On May 9, 2001, Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff did President George W. Bush a small favor by directing a modest sum of money to Grover Norquist. Norquist was bringing a group of Republican state legislators to the White House to sell them Bush’s proposed tax cuts. He decided to use the event to make a little money for his organization, Americans for Tax Reform. So he had Abramoff ask two of his American Indian clients for $25,000 each for the privilege of meeting the president. This money ATR raised at the White House three years ago is a small part of a big scandal involving Abramoff, his partner Mike Scanlon, six Indian tribes, $66 million in questionable lobbying fees, and millions of dollars in political contributions.

Also entangled in the scandal is House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, whose Washington “network” was offered to Indian casino clients by Abramoff and Scanlon, if the tribes would hire them. DeLay is the only member of Congress associated with Abramoff and Scanlon’s extensive casino tribe dealings. After DeLay used his leadership position to kill a bill that would have taxed Indian casinos, Abramoff and Scanlon used their access to “the Leader” to attract Indian casino clients. (Neither of the two men seemed to have any interest in Indian tribes that did not have casinos.) The Louisiana tribe that paid almost half of the lobbying fees collected by Abramoff and Scanlon contributed more to DeLay’s political action committee than they did to any other member of Congress in 2002. Because of his close ties with the two men, DeLay is the only member of Congress whose conduct has been questioned in an ongoing Senate committee investigation of the lobbying scandal. Other federal and state agencies are investigating the two men as well.

Abramoff is someone I've been keeping an eye on since his name came up when I was trying to find out who was really behind "Stolen Honor." He may be the most important right-winger you never heard of -- going back to the early 80's when he, Norquist, and Reed were running the College National Republic Committee together. But this Indian casino scandal finally seems to be bringing him down -- and just possibly DeLay along with him.

veee can keell it

like there is any angst involved when republicans are acting in unethical ways