The epitome of conservative corruption

Editorial

By:

Posted: 4/7/05

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay finds himself in increasingly hot water lately as the Texas Republican, who was admonished three times last year by the typically listless House ethics committee, has been criticized three times in the past two months for relationships with lobbyists. And currently under investigation are junkets to Russia, South Korea, England and Scotland that were paid for by lobbyists and foreign agents who stood to benefit financially from the visits.

The water gets higher; Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has alleged that DeLay might have violated a federal statute that prohibits threatening members of the federal judiciary when he said, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," in response to judges ruling repeatedly that 11th hour congressional interference did not require doctors to reinsert Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.

After composing himself a bit, DeLay said he plans to ask the Judiciary Committee to "look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president."

Rep. DeLay would benefit from a closer reading of the U.S. Constitution, which provides a framework for each of the three branches of the federal government to check and balance the power of the others, and the Marbury v. Madison (1803) decision, which established the essential power of judicial review of congressional and executive action.

DeLay's obvious ignorance of the fundamental workings of the government in which he plays such a prominent part is frightening; he called the actions of state and federal courts in the Schiavo case a "failure," but even the owner of the most rudimentary knowledge of the functions of the judiciary would recognize the resounding success of the judicial branch in fighting off a conservative Congress drunk on its own power.

But DeLay's shocking ignorance pales in comparison to his blatant disregard of House ethics rules and his apparent inability to learn from the mistakes of his superiors. Delay's challenge to critics who question the propriety of his conduct as a congressional representative: "Bring it on."

Maybe the use of this particular phrase is common among fundamentalist conservatives; President Bush told terrorists to "bring it on," but was forced to apologize sheepishly for the challenge after four years of Osama bin Laden on the lam and two years of U.S. occupation in Iraq have failed to give Americans the security that was promised.

Of the "leftist organizations" - including labor groups and civil rights leaders - that have pledged $100,000 to a television campaign highlighting DeLay's corrupt actions and ties, the majority leader said the advertisements "say more about the critics than it does about me." Of course they do. The ads only tell the truth about DeLay and the shady funding of several of his trips in the past 10 years, but they speak volumes to how much more those critics care about the morals of moralistic Congressmen than those Congressmen themselves.

This situation illustrates well the infiltration of hypocrisy in the surging GOP establishment. As the more moderate Republicans paled at legislative interference in the Schiavo drama - a matter that should have been reserved for the Florida courts - the hard-line base, led by the president, plowed right ahead, dropping momentarily the usually ravenous Republican preoccupation with states' rights. And though Russian investment lobbyists paid for DeLay's Russian trip, South Korean investment lobbyists paid for DeLay's South Korean trip and Native American gambling officials paid for DeLay's United Kingdom trip, Republicans still rally behind their poster boy. Republicans are convinced that women cannot be trusted with control of their bodies, but DeLay is perfectly trustworthy as regards the unethical funding of $100,000 vacations abroad.