Novak Criticizes Tom DeLay

Tom Delay's Paradox

Robert Novak, a noted conservative commentator, has offered some ciriticism of Tom DeLay's departure from congress, and the flotsam and jetsam he left behind.

Before Tom DeLay suddenly let it be known Monday night that he would resign from Congress, the word in Republican circles had been that he envisioned a post-leadership career in the House as an Appropriations subcommittee and perhaps eventually full committee chairman. Such a role as a dispenser of federal pork would seem paradoxical for the congressional embodiment of the conservative movement.

It only seems paradoxical if we understand that the entire traditional of pork barrel projects has been that those with the control over congress also get to control the pork projects.

DeLay's 11-term House career now coming to a close was filled with paradoxes. He must be ranked with the great legislative leaders of all time, such as Thomas Brackett Reed, Robert A. Taft and Lyndon B. Johnson. Nobody has been as effective in enacting the conservative agenda into law, which explains the intense opposition to him. The House has been a different place since he stepped down as majority leader six months ago, easier to go along and get along for members of both parties.

Evidently Novak has forgotten the reason for DeLay's departure. His greed and reprehensible conduct involving lobbyists and redisticting to his advantage and dishonest approach to government. The paradoxes that Novak speaks about are only symptoms of the hypocritical behaviors exhibited by the GOP and ultra-conservative leadership. While we must admit that the Dems are not much better, it is the GOP--with its ultra-conservative Christian Right power base--that has been preaching the word of good government and then sellign access, influence and power at every turn.

The proximate cause of DeLay's fall was Ronnie Earle, the highly partisan Democratic district attorney in Austin who unleashed prosecutions in reprisal for DeLay's campaign of redistricting the previously gerrymandered Texas congressional seats. However, the fact that DeLay may have become unelectable in his safe Republican Houston-area district may be partially attributed to his occasional performance in the mode of an old-fashioned politician.

Bovine excrement! The fall of Tom DeLay stems from his own conduct. He has been an ungiving, uncharitable and unrelenting prophet of doom for anything the Dems had to offer. He refused to lead toward a bipartisan, open and working relationship with the Democrats. His partisanship, hypocrisy and failure to adhere to the rule of law did him in... and what irks me the most is that he remains unapologetic, entrenched and claims he is in a state of grace with God for his part.

DeLay hardly seemed an exemplar of conservative reform when he arrived in Washington in 1984 as one of six newly elected Texas Republican House members. He was known as the favorite new Texan of House Republican Leader Bob Michel -- the best hope to maintain the institutional status quo. In 1989, DeLay managed the campaign of Michel's candidate for party whip, the staid Rep. Edward Madigan, against the flamboyant Newt Gingrich. In one of the most decisive party elections ever held on Capitol Hill, DeLay opposed the forces of change.

DeLay has opposed the forces of change at every step. He has opposed election finance reform, ethics reform and has been an exemplar of what is inherently wrong with the conservative movement in its current form.

After Gingrich defeated Madigan by two votes, DeLay started to move toward the reformers -- but not entirely. When he was running for majority whip following the Republican takeover in the 1994 elections, I was surprised to hear from him how adamantly he opposed any kind of congressional term limits (then enshrined by Gingrich's Contract for America). DeLay defeated Robert Walker, Gingrich's lieutenant, less on principle than on his prowess in raising and distributing funds.

Proving only that DeLay, like most politicians, does not stand on principles, but is an opportunist.

Beginning in 1995, DeLay put together by far the most effective whip's operation I have seen in my 49 years of watching Congress. At the same time, he joined the vanguard of what came to be called the New Right and became an ally of its leader, Paul Weyrich. Each Wednesday at noon, DeLay would preside over the meeting of right-wing pressure groups put together by Weyrich. He had become a leader of the national conservative movement.

He had become a leader of an ultra-conservative movement dominated by un-Christian and un-American ideals of conquest by way of political influence peddling... first the United States, then the world. The words of Novak's fellow columnist, Ann Coulter, gives us some insight into this approach:

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war." Ann Coulter

And in a total disregard for the provisions of the Constitution, Coulter offered the following bit of ultra-conservative tripe:

Fortunately, Congress has no role in prosecuting this war either abroad or domestically. They are relieved of duty, free to "get back to normal," as the president has recommended – which in their case means enacting massive spending bills to fund comically useless government programs. That should make them happy. -- Ann Coulter

Did she forget that only congress can authorize the use of our military forces? That there are laws that require Bush and his gang to report back to congress when military force is being used? Anyway, back to the downfall of Tom DeLay.

Thus, DeLay emerged a contradiction in terms: a whip and an appropriator who was committed to a conservative agenda. He pressed for free trade, tax cuts, Social Security personal accounts and private health care accounts, as well as social conservative issues. As a Christian (Baptist), he participated in private Bible study groups.

And forced his ultra-conservative Baptist style of Christianity upon us all, claiming that such was his right, the right of the GOP and the right of all ultra-conservative Christians... right along the lines of Coulter-think.

There is no sign of extravagant living on DeLay's part -- only bad judgment. DeLay told me last year that he accepted lobbyist-arranged golf abroad because that was his only chance ever to play a game he dearly loved. The shrewd congressional leader did not perceive the dangers facing him when he took that course.

Obviously, from the details coming out regarding his staffers, that wasn't his only area of bad judgement. His crew of staffers took their lead from their boss. It seems that DeLay was not as shrewd as Novak indicates, but is worse in judgment than Novak thinks.

DeLay's greatest peril is the federal investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff that now has moved into the heart of the former majority leader's office, with two former aides pleading guilty. This has cut into DeLay's formerly solid base of support in his home district and led him to decide this week that any other Republican would have a better chance of retaining the congressional seat.

No, DeLay's greatest peril is in failing to live up to the committment to be honest, support the Constitution and follow the teachings of Christ. Perhaps it is not in Tom DeLay's version of the Bible, but my version speaks extensively to the issue of the fate of hypocrits... Something like "Woe unto ye Pharisees and Saduccees... Woe unto ye hypocrits!" Then there is the issue of following the letter of the law and not the Spirit of Love... which is the spirit of the law.

But what about the greed and mendacity of some of the bright young people who worked for Tom DeLay? The suspicion is that the power politics he practiced for the public good was transmuted by those aides into their private gain. It is a stain on what the legacy should be for the most effective legislator of his time.

But his workers took their cues from DeLay. If the boss can traffic in greed, taking lucrative and attractive incentives from lobbyists and others, why would his staff think differently? DeLay may have been a golden boy from Texas for a while, but notice that almost all of the GOP has publicly divorced themselves from anything to do with DeLay.

It is not DeLay's political ideology alone that gets him into trouble. It is his double standard approach to honest government, his preaching about others while he is busy doing the same or worse, and his invocation of the will of God as his own personal guide to our government... God doesn't only speak to conservatives, ultra-conservatives and those that attend a certain type of worship. And God doesn't call upon us to be vindictive, exclusionary, unscrupulous or even stingy with our public funds, preferring to spend money on war and spying on citizens rather than on education, health care and domestic well being.