Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX), the Republican majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been spending plenty of time in the past few weeks deflecting criticism about questionable ethics. Many of the questions raised stem from DeLay's dealings with a political action committee (PAC) that allegedly accepted money from corporations in violation of Texas election law. Further questions have recently emerged about the GOP leader's ties to lobbyists and certain overseas junkets taken at the expense of special interest groups.
Unfortunately, DeLay seems more intent on finding new and creative ways to escape responsibility for his actions than owning up to his own wrongdoing. In response to an ongoing investigation in Texas by the Travis County DA, the Texas legislature, led by Republicans, has proposed changing state electoral finance laws retroactively so that DeLay would be shielded from prosecution. At the same time GOP leaders have concentrated on slandering the local DA, Ronnie Earle, as a partisan Democrat with an agenda against DeLay. Perhaps DeLay and the GOP could learn a bit from dropping their own agenda.
Each of the several clearly defined ethics complaints that DeLay now faces, taken alone, might not be significant for the majority leader. All of them taken together, however, spell a very real problem for a man whose party seized power over 10 years ago pledging to end the power abuses of the beltway. In a bit of irony, however, a decade later the Republicans find themselves in the same messy situation.
The GOP, after solidifying its hold on power in the last election (though not by the margins that party leaders would have Americans believe), have moved to completely disregard the wishes of the any American who decided to vote for a Democrat. They have swiftly moved to control the entire agenda of the capital, even going so far as to propose that lifetime judicial appointments need the approval of only a simple majority of senators.
Such hubris, however, will come at a price. Even Americans who voted for Republicans did not do so in order to exclude any opposition from the policy debate; many are certain to be disappointed at the lack of responsiveness of the current Congress. We are already seeing Americans thoroughly repudiate several core GOP priorities for this congressional session, including Social Security reform.
DeLay's case is especially tragic: the former pest exterminator from the Houston area who has prided himself on biblical piety now is running from his own mistakes. The Texan who would lecture the whole of America on our lack of morality now finds himself hurting badly from his own moral missteps. Let us hope that DeLay finds the humility to admit wrongdoing and face the consequences; perhaps this will lead to a more humble GOP majority overall.
In all likelihood, however, this will not be the case. If so, voters will be eagerly awaiting DeLay and his colleagues in 2006.
