Marble Composition

Just Who Is "The Hammer"?

Few Americans know just who the House Majority Leader is. Well, maybe it's about time they did. His name is Tom DeLay, and he represents the 22nd Congressional district in Texas. His name has popped into the national headlines of late because of his activism in the Terri Schiavo case, but for political junkies he's very well known as "The Hammer" because of his ruthless brand of power politics. He's been content for years to operate under the radar, but since he's thrown in with the religious right and used the Schiavo case as a political cudgel to isolate his perceived enemies, we'll all be hearing a lot more about the former bug exterminator from Sugar Land. If you'll stick with me for a bit, I promise it'll be more fun than watching some crappy Paris sighting on Extra! Besides, who's more of a party than Tom himself:


I'm all for anyone entering any line of work they choose, but as we shall see, being the owner of Albo Pest Control from 1973 to 1984 seems to have added to Tom's, well, flair. Not to mention his ability to stomp out piss-ant Democrats he finds disgusting.

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts nationwide population surveys every ten years, and that can be some fun, because they even look under bridges for homeless people. And then they count them. Digressing already, these counts always land at the end of any decade, after which they pass their findings along to all of the states, and then the states redistrict their Congressional districts according to population movement and growth. Theoretically, districts either gain or lose constituents. Tom, being very industrious, and acting through his Texas surrogtes, found that it would be much more beneficial for Texas Republicans to redistrict not only in 2000, but in 2002 as well. And, being the smart guys that he is, calculated that the GOP could pick up five more seats from the Texas delegation to the House just by ramming through an unprecedented redistricting law through the Texas legislature. Given that the Texas legislature is under Republican control, it should've been a cakewalk. Texas Democrats, smelling something fishy, resisted, much to their credit. Not only did they resist, they literally flew the coop. They chartered a plane and flew to Ardmore, OK. All of them:

A group of Democratic lawmakers who threw the Legislature into turmoil when they went into hiding to block a Republican congressional redistricting plan turned up Monday evening in Ardmore, Okla.

Tom doesn't politely ask these runaway Dems to come back to form a quorum, he enlists the The Department of Homeland Security:

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said today that a "potentially criminal investigation" is under way into efforts to involve his agency in last week's search for Democrats who shut down the state House of Representatives.

Whoopsie! Using DHS to track down terrorists makes a lot of sense. Using the Department to hunt down errant Dems is a whole other kettle of fish, and might just be illegal. Alas, in the end, Tom got his way, and in the 2004 elections five Democrats were ousted from the Texas House delegation. But wait! Not so fast:

The Supreme Court kept alive a Democratic constitutional challenge to a Republican redistricting plan in Texas yesterday, ordering a three-judge district court to reexamine its January decision upholding the plan.

The court's action will not affect the 2004 elections in Texas. Voting for the state's 32 seats in the House of Representatives will go forward under the contested plan, which was approved in 2003.

We'll have to see how the district court rules, but for now, the GOP was able to increase its number of seats in the House in the 2004 elections.

If you were admonished three times by an ethics committee, you might think, "hey, self, you better clean up your act a little". But not if you're Tom. If you're The Hammer, the problem can't be you, it's got to be the ethics committee, so being the big shot Majority Leader, you just change the ethics committee's rules:

House Republicans pushed through a significant change in the handling of ethics complaints over strong Democratic objections Tuesday as the 109th Congress convened with a burst of pomp and partisanship.

The House, on a vote of 220 to 195, enacted a change that would effectively dismiss a complaint in the event of a deadlock in the ethics committee, which is equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. Its approval came after a retreat by Republicans on Monday on other proposed ethics revisions.

At the heart of both actions were calculations about how far Republicans should go to protect the House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay. Many party members were unhappy with the ethics committee for the three admonishments it delivered to Mr. DeLay last year.

At the same time, some Republicans were uncomfortable retaining a party rule adopted in November that was intended to shield Mr. DeLay from having to step down from his leadership post if he was indicted in a campaign finance investigation in Texas. Republicans said the new approach to handling a deadlock on the ethics panel would protect lawmakers from purely partisan attacks.

I could go on:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay often plays defense in public in his fight against allegations of ethical misconduct, saying he didn't know about specific fund-raising practices under investigation in Texas or groups in Washington that paid for his travel.

Behind the scenes, though, the House majority leader has gone on offense like few public figures before him. With his blessing, Republican leaders remade House ethics rules and the committee that reprimanded him last year, inserting allies and policies more favorable to his circumstances.

He also has devised a blame-the-Democrats strategy, portraying his accusers as politically motivated while saying, "I have yet to be found breaking any House rules."

"All they can do is try to tear down the House and burn it down in order to gain power," DeLay said recently of the Democrats.

(Careful Tom, make sure when YOU burn the House down you're pants aren't down around your ankles while you try and escape the falling beams)
and on:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) yesterday downplayed a recent article linking him to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is being investigated by a federal grand jury and the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.

and, Oooo!!! What's this we have here Tom?:

The FBI is trying to trace what happened to $2.5 million in payments to a conservative Washington think tank that were routed to accounts controlled by two lobbyists with close ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, NEWSWEEK has learned.

I think you get the picture. I'll leave you with Tom in his own words, blubbering like a big baby about how those damned Liberals are trying to tear him and his whole conservative movement down. Coming from arguably the most corrupt member of the House of Representatives in America's history, this crybaby routine is nothing short of breathtaking. Boo Hoo...

And so it’s bigger than any one of us, and we have to do everything that is in our power to save Terri Schiavo and anybody else that may be in this kind of position.

And let me just finish with this: This is exactly the issue that’s going on in America. That attacks against the conservative movement, against me, and against many others. The point is, it’s, the other side has figured out how to win and defeat the conservative movement. And that is to go after people, personally charge them with frivolous charges, and link that up with all these do-gooder organizations funded by George Soros, and then, and then get the national media on their side. That whole syndicate that they have going on right now is for one purpose and one purpose only and that’s to destroy the conservative movement.

Update: From Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo: (Sorry TPM'ers, I'm sniping the whole damn post)

Don't go! Don't go!

With news now breaking that Rep. Tom DeLay had a 1997 trip to Russia paid for by lobbyists who were, in some fashion or another, working on behalf of the Russian government, there must be a few Democrats out there who worry that he might actually be taken out by these burgeoning scandals. After all, he's great for the Dems. Heck, we're even planning on having a section of the new site we're launching devoted to tracking the DeLay/Abramaff scandal. So it might even require some site redesign on our end.

But, really, I wouldn't worry.

Even if the White House tries to get rid of DeLay (which would not surprise me) I doubt he'll go that easily. And even if he goes, actually make that when he goes, the truth is (and anybody who covers the Hill knows this) that his corruption has seeped all through the House GOP caucus.

There's a reason they call it the DeLay machine. It's not just DeLay. It's a system of organized corruption that many, many Republican members of the House have benefited from. Not all corruption is illegal or even against congressional ethics rules, mind you. But enough of it is, as we're now seeing with DeLay. And he's splashed his mud all over the House.

Late Update: Two other points about DeLay, or rather one question with possibly two answers. Who's turning on the bug man? Call me cynical: but Drudge is playing this story awfully prominently. That makes me wonder whether a thumb at the White House that used to be turned up just turned down. More concretely, a lot of DeLay's lieutenants are now under indictment or on their way there. Eventually, you've got to figure one of them starts to squeal. You've seen Deliverance, right?

-- Josh Marshall

posted by FuzzFinger @ 4/03/2005 08:27:00 PM