With luck, Tom Delay could be the anchor

that sinks the current Republican cabal in the Congress.

"...I'm glad conservatives are rallying behind DeLay, the scandal-struck Republican House majority leader. These conservatives are sticking to rather dangerous talking points. They keep insisting that the attacks on DeLay are nothing more than the dark work of the nasty liberal media that has been plotting with Democrats to destroy the entire conservative movement. If only. And?no coincidence?this is precisely how DeLay sees his current predicament. When The New York Times reported that he and his daughter received half a million dollars in fees from his campaign and political action committee, DeLay called the story, "Another seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me." (Did he dismiss the Times ' articles on Whitewater in such a fashion?)

"When a shifty politician starts to blame media conspiracies for his own misdeeds, that's a good indication he senses real trouble is looming. But DeLay's ethics problems?taking overseas junkets arranged and paid for by corrupt lobbyists and foreign agents; putting family members on the payroll; setting up a political action committee that engages in shady (perhaps illegal) contributions laundering; virtually extorting another member to vote for a piece of legislation; among other questionable activities?have nothing to do with his right-wing views. Even the always-ready-for-a-fight conservative editorialists of The Wall Street Journal recently observed that DeLay has "odor issues," "smells just like the Beltway itself," and is "betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office." "

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/bringing_down_the_house.php?dateid=20050414

Rob Boyter