No Delay. I feel I must get this bloglet up right away, because it looks like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will soon lose his job. Or am I too hopeful? If, as I expect, he is forced out even as soon as later today, I want credit for being prescient. I've seen this kind of thing before, with regard to another Texan, Jim Wright, who was ousted as Speaker of the House in 1989; Newt Gingrich, ousted from the same post in 1999; and Trent Lott, ousted as Senate Majority Leader in 2003. The reasons for these various ousters were varied, but none more serious than those that seem to doom DeLay.
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In researching this issue, I came across a mention that Gingrich's Contract with America's "princip[al] goal, a balanced budget, was achieved in 1997". How quaint! A balanced budget. Demanded by Republicans! So adamant were they that a balanced budget was a bedrock principle of conservatism that they wanted to pass a constitutional amendment to require it! But let's see, wasn't 1997 a Clinton year? And wasn't Clinton a Democrat? And didn't the Republican who replaced him turn the largest budget surplus in the history of the world into the largest deficit instead? And what ever happened to the idea of term limits for members of Congress, another key feature of the Contract with America? Maybe somebody should remind the Republicans of their Contract.
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I also discovered, to my horror, that Tom DeLay is my brother's Congressman! No wonder that that sib is thinking of moving out of the Houston area, despite its mild weather, when he retires sometime soon.
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A good summary of the several threads leading to deep trouble for DeLay appears at the MSN Group "Here in Santa Clarita." I won't repeat it here but only say that I will be amazed if a year from now Tom DeLay is still House Majority Leader.
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If urging DeLay's ouster 'aloud' (well, in public print) can hasten the event, let me shout (as block caps are regarded in Internet typographical convention), "DeLAY AWAY, WITH NO DELAY!"
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 1,547.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 4:00 AM