Going Down?

Is Tom "The Hammer" DeLay on the fast track to the ground floor? The evidence continues to mount. New evidence emerged last week on several fronts, merging into a pattern of ethical misconduct by the House Majority Leader distinct enough for even the commercial media to notice. Pundit Mark Shields noted that DeLay's misbehavior had become a reporting "beat", just like covering city hall. Now, Newsweek is reporting that one of DeLay's inside buddies, Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is making canary-like noises. Reporter Michael Isakoff quotes Abramoff saying "DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details." Sounds like someone who is not anxious to go down with the ship.

Even Republicans, who last week were only grousing in private, are coming out in the open to separate themselves from the once-feared House leader. Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT), who faces a tough reelection battle next year, has openly called for DeLay to step down, while Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), a member of the Senate leadership, called on DeLay Sunday to make all the details of his behavior public. Even the Amarillo Globe-Republican ran an abbreviated version of the same story. Clearly, there are no Republican incumbents in swing states or districts who want to be associated with Mr. DeLay.

A strange piece in the Austin American-Statesman notes that since the House Ethics Committee is tied up by partisan wrangling, there is currently no venue for the House to investigate DeLay. They fail to note that it was DeLay himself who tied the committee up by trying to change the rules for committee decision making and by packing it with loyalists, some of whom had contributed money to his legal defense fund. Meanwhile, the grand jury in Austin continues to investigate the laundering of corporate money to Texas state legislative races, through a political action committee with very close association to DeLay.

"So what?" you may ask. "We knew he was sleazy all along." Sure, and he's only one Congressman. The Democrats will need a net gain of 12 to retake the majority next year. That's exactly the reason that other Republicans are running away from him. But the fact is that he's not the only one with the stench of corruption. This figures to be the campaign issue of 2006 all over the country. And the more widely DeLay becomes known as corrupt, the easier it will be to use him as a surrogate to make a similar case against other Republicans. Have a look at what the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has put together on several House Republicans who said one thing before the election in 2004, and another afterward, regarding Social Security. Imagine an ad that displays this contrast, adds another ethical punch or two, and then concludes with an image of the Representative morphing into Tom DeLay. There's a long way to go before the '06 elections, but I'm gonna step out on a limb here and predict that there's a lot o' sleeze yet to reveal.

DEMOPHOENIX