Wednesday, September 28, 2005

The Hammer Gets Hammered

It couldn't have happened to a better guy. I was delighted to hear the news today about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay being forced to step down (at least temporarily) from his leadership position due to a Texas grand jury indictment on conspiracy to violate political fundraising laws. While DeLay is probably right in claiming that the Texas District Attorney has political motivations, that doesn't mean that the charge is baseless. (I'm hoping DA Earle has the goods to make it stick.) While I can't know whether this particular charge is true, I certainly share Congressman Henry Waxman's feeling that "where there's smoke, there's fire", and there's sure been a lot of smoke around DeLay for years. I've had a whiff of that since at least two years ago when DeLay hammered through the shamelessly partisan, dubiously ethical Texas "re-redistricting". (Note to California voters: that Texas travesty is a great example of why we should vote Yes on Prop 77.) I'm sure there's been a lot of dirt that just hasn't been pinned to Congressman DeLay, so anything they can make stick is fine by me. With the sort of leadership that Tom "no more fat" DeLay has been exhibiting lately, even some conservatives won't be too sorry to see him go.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If I'm not mistaken I think the Texas DA has prosecuted as many if not more Democrats for improprieties, so I'm not so certain that it is political motives that are behind the charges. Although I'm sure that any Texan who felt they were being rode roughshod by Delay and his group over the years aren't having any qualms about sticking it to him as much as possible either. I get the feeling that DeLay knew early on that he was more than likely going to be indicted, hence the rule change in the House to allow himself to carry on regardless of indictment.
Great blogging by the way. I always enjoy the thoughts, stories, reviews, etc. you put up here. - Jason