Representative Tom DeLay (R-Tx) confirmed today what Chris Matthews reported yesterday: DeLay has resigned his seat and will not seek reelection.

WASHINGTON - Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader Tom Delay said Tuesday he is resigning from Congress, a move that closes out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style.

"I think I could have won this seat but it would have been nasty. It would have cost a fortune to do it," DeLay said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

DeLay blamed "liberal Democrats" for making his re-election campaign largely a negative one.

"The voters of the 22nd district of Texas deserve a campaign about the vital national issues that they care most about and that affect their lives every day and not a campaign focused solely as a referendum on me," he said.

"I know that the left has used it to try to brand me with guilt by association, but I have always served honorably and ethically," DeLay said. "I've never broken the law or the spirit of the law or even a House rule."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12141276/

The question for debate is:

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

Tom Delay is the poster child for what’s wrong in American politics. Quickly, what has he done that benefited the American people? Lay off the Google button and my guess is you’d be hard pressed to recall anything.

Here was a lost opportunity, a Republican controlled congress with a Republican president and he was the all mighty leader who could have ushered in real change. But no, he was busy gerrymandering congressional districts in Texas and was apparently more interested in skirting the edge of the law with PAC/lobbyist money and fund raisers.

He took his eye off of the needs of America and focused on his party and his power.

The hypocrisy in which he operated is astounding, to turn around and blame the liberals for his demise is certainly not taking personal responsibility for his own actions.

I also think his resignation is an indictment of his innocence in his ethics trial. If he were innocent why would he resign? Because the campaign is too costly? From the man who has helped raised millions and millions, who shared this money with fellow congress members and suddenly he can’t scrape enough money together for a campaign?

Nice job Tom, go down swinging at the other side. We’d expect nothing less.

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

I guess it depends on your point of view. If you’re a conservative Republican, Tom DeLay was the best thing that ever happened to politics. His heavy-handed tactics created terms like “activist judiciary” while threatening and intimidating said judiciary, laid low a president, redrew voting districts in favor of Republicans, raised millions of dollars for his party by whatever means necessary, strong-armed chosen candidates into power and pretty much successfully manhandled religion into politics. He is ruthless and amoral, involved in illegal shenanigans with Jack Abramoff, estranged from his entire family while piously proclaiming his “conservative Christian values”. In the current political climate, all of these things are considered virtues.

As far as my opinion, as dirty as politics is, and always has been, DeLay has left a wretched stench that will take decades to dissipate.

And his whiny excuses show the true face of DeLay. Oh, boo hoo hoo and neener neener neener.

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

Bad to the bone.

The biggest disservice DeLay did to the state of Texas was when he cajoled the Governor of Texas to call three special sessions to redistrict the state's congressional delegation. The nets results--five new Republican congresspersons from Texas. The cure for the current Republican malaise isn't more Republicans, but fewer. One down as many as possible to go.

About your subtitle. Exterminating fits DeLay to a Texas size "T." In fact, whenever I've seen DeLay on talk shows, my first impulse was to spray the TV set with Raid.

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

Neither.

Delay certainly advanced the conservative agenda in his more than two decades of service. Although he was not wholly successful as he might have been in recent years, that does not diminish his role in pushing the Congress to the right which is either cause or effect with America as a whole moving right concurrently.

Personally, the man's tactics were not those of the great compromisers in history. He didn't get the nickname The Hammer by sweet talking anyone .

As far as politics in general are concerned, I don't think Delay's personality nor his tactics have had much influence. He has not been a recognizable spokesman for Republicans or conservatives. In fact, were it not for his indictments, I doubt anyone with only a casual interest in politics would even know who he is. He's known in Houston, I'm sure, but elsewhere...

He has been scapegoated (perhaps justifiably) and I think he is making the right move for Republicans in general by resigning and not running for re-election. His district is conservative, but rank and file conservatives tend to frown upon personal misdeeds. His resignation does take some ammunition out of the Democrats arsenal in Texas and nationally. I do find it odd that some people seemed dismayed at this news now when many were clamoring for him to resign months ago.

Who might that be? I'm certainly not "dismayed" (relieved, happy, maybe even jubilant, somewhat disgusted by his whiny way of leaving, but definitely not dismayed), and none of the previous posters seem the least bit dismayed, either.

Delay was the worst of the worst! His tactics were undemocratic in the extreme. His goons were instrumental in stopping the recount in Florida in 2000 and providing the opportunity for Bush's political operatives to lock in the vote. His mid decade gerrymandering of congressional seats in Texas was woven of the same authoritarian cloth. This John Nichols Article summarizes his legacy.

And here I thought the Republicans were the party of "personal responsibility". Oh, perhaps that only applies to working stiffs Given the loads of evidence against DeLay I'd say you are completely ignorning the facts by suggesting that he was scapegoated.


Really? How so Amlord? What changed? The people in the highest positions of power are still corrupt and they are still going to be tarnished by some combination of the fallout from the Abramoff investigation and Fitzgerald's investigation into Plame. People like Duke Cunnigham are already out on these charges. Top Republicans like Bob Ney are just poised to fall as well.

The new House majority leader, Boehner, isn't fundamentally different than DeLay, even though picking someone "clean" would have been the "smart" thing for the GOP to do. See this article for more (and that's just a sample).

DeLay has essentially been "out" since he was first indicted, the only question remaining was whether he'd resign, be taken out kicking and screaming to jail or whether he'd be booted out by voters. That question seems to have been answered.


You have to be kidding, you believe that he hasn't had influence because he has stayed away from the limelight and the public eye? I'd submit that is the best way to have a lot of influence and use dirty tactics and people were most certainly talking about him long before the indictment.



In response to this I'll simply echo what Fife and Drum so nicely stated in the first post: "Tom Delay is the poster child for what’s wrong in American politics. Quickly, what has he done that benefited the American people? Lay off the Google button and my guess is you’d be hard pressed to recall anything."

So which is it Amlord, make up your mind. Either he is "the hammer" and he's had a lot of influence on the conservative agenda for the past 20 years or his "personality nor his tactics" have had much influence. You can't have both.

SAY WHAT???

Tom DeLay was the most powerful elected official in Washington D.C. of the last ten years. More powerful than George W. Bush. More powerful than William J. Clinton. More powerful than any Senate Majority Leader and certainly more powerful than the Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert, whom DeLay selected for the post.

The Texas congressman, beloved by the right and despised by the left, has been a pivotal figure in the Republican Party for a dozen years, outlasting every other member of the original leadership team that rode into office after the GOP seized control of Congress in the historic midterm elections of 1994.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/...ack=1&cset=true

And if every window in the House of Representatives is left open for the next ten years it will take longer than that to get DeLay's stink off American politics.

Normally, you would be right Amlord that one outgoing congressman from Texas isn't all that important. However, when you're talking about a Texas Congressman whose brand of uncompromising, bruising, take-no-prisoners style of leadership such as DeLay, you're minimizing his significance to the political process to a ridiculous extreme.

Let's put it this way. While many others in the Republican leadership wanted merely to censure Bill Clinton for his transgressions in office it was DeLay whom demanded nothing less than impeachment of the President. So, you'll have to excuse me if I don't consider DeLay just another right-winger with an agenda.

DeLay was behind the K Street Project, a major effort to pressure lobbying firms to hire those with Republican ties. In one well known case, he was privately reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee in 1999 after he pulled an important intellectual-property rights bill off the House floor when the Electronics Industries Alliance hired a former Democratic Congressman, Dave McCurdy.

He also was the driving force behind President Clinton's impeachment in late 1999, and is credited for getting the House to march in lock step, and in support of President Bush's agenda.

If you're happy with the way lobbyists write the bills that the rest of us have to live under you can thank Tom DeLay. If you think one party should rule the House while it shuts the other out of the legislative process then you can thank Tom DeLay. If you are glad there is so much rancor, division and a unwillingness to work with the other guy because he's a Democrat and you're a Republican, thank Tom DeLay.

If you think making Jack Abramoff a wealthy and powerful fixer in Washington was just swell, then you can thank Tom DeLay.

If you think politics should be a bloodsport thank Tom DeLay for perfecting it.

Now, let me add the sincere hope that prosecutor Ronnie Earle is successful in sending the Hammer to the slammer.

Tom DeLay’s legal problems with Ronnie Earle in Texas may be miniscule compared to what could come from the feds. I’m proud to say that on December, 27--on the thread below--I predicted a federal indictment for DeLay. Note item number two on my list of predictions. As the old saying goes, if it looks like a ____, sounds like a ____, smells like a ____, acts like a____, then it must be a ____.

Note: feel free to insert your own noun in the blank spaces.There are any number of words (nouns and adjectives) that define DeLay without circumventing the profanity filter.

http://www.americasdebate.com/forums/index...ndpost&p=176703

Ron Hutcheson of Knight Ridder wrote this today:



Ron Hutcheson, 4-4-06



Hopefully, DeLay will spend the 10 years it takes to remove his stench from the House chamber in either a Texas or U. S. lock-up.



When one doesn’t have much ammunition for an argument, minimizing the issue seems to be the tactic of choice. It's like looking at a multiple fatality, head-on auto wreck and saying, "but the trunk wasn't damaged."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: Before someone tells me DeLay is innocent until found guilty, forget it. I know how the legal system works. I am not predicting that DeLay will be convicted. However, federal prosecutors seem to have a better conviction rate that the state people.

Even a federal indictment against DeLay will more than neutralize any gain the G.O.P. gets from his demise in Congress.



http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=702901

And this is the real reason that I think he resigned and decided not to run for re-election. It wasn't because he thought he was beat or because he thought he'd done wrong, or anything like that. I'm willing to bet that his lawyers told him he was about to be in serious hot water and he ought to start thinking about that.

There happens to be a Federal Election law which allows you to take anything you've raised during a campaign and use it in a legal defense. In fact that is exactly what Randy Cunnigham did recently - link.


According to the FEC as of 2/15/2006 DeLay had $1,295,350 on hand for his election PAC. The final first quarter numbers won't be out for a few weeks so we won't know what he really has in the bank till then.

Say whaaaaaaaaa??????? I read that and reread it and RE-reread it, and still couldn't believe my eyes. Using election funds for a legal defense is LEGAL? Call me naive, I had no idea. If I were one of the donators to that fund (it'd be a cold day in hell, but...) I'd be ticked that the money I donated for an election campaign was being used for the crooked politician's legal fees. I mean, isn't that like rewarding someone for malfeasance???

No wonder DeLay wanted to hang in there as long as possible; he had to fill the coffers with enough dough to buy the best legal defense.

What a country.

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

In an editorial entitled “DeLay’s Arrogance, Avarice Won’t Be Missed”. Fort Worth Star Telegram writer and personal friend Bob Ray Sanders has some interesting words on the question for debate.



http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/columnists...rs/14268074.htm

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?
The only thing a rotten apple is good for is the compost heap. Yes, Democrats “owned” K-Street prior to Contract With America, but the line between legislating for citizens and legislation for the interests of a bogus concept called personhood and consequently, government giveaways in the form of no-bid contracts worth billions, was nowhere near as blurred as it is today thanks to DeLay’s ambitions.


DeLay epitomizes the worst that politics has to offer; the intrepid diehard who mistakenly believes his party and his ideology are so perfect, so complete, they cannot harm the government or the people. With that “manly” conviction DeLay need not apologize for his lapses and mistakes.

I can’t perform the search at this moment but I heard Tom’s moving to Virginia to become a preacher, or something along those lines. In truth that’s where he should have been all along. I’m less uncomfortable with a conservative preacher lightly suggesting judges must be impeached every other day than a conservative congressman.

Chris Matthews did an extended interview with Tom DeLay on last night's Hardball. It seems from DeLay’s pious blabbering that he may already be a preacher--just one looking for a pulpit and hoping it isn’t from within a correctional facility.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12156468/

Edited to add:

If things don’t work out on the outside, DeLay might find a symbiotic relationship with former felon and ol' friend Chuck Colson appealing. I don’t know if Colson has ever had an inside salesman, but...



http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2...13/130354.shtml

Yes, Virginia Tom DeLay is supposed to move to Virginia. As the Kansas City Star pointed out this morning, it’s hard to get off the ballot in Texas once you have won a primary.



http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascityst...cs/14264380.htm

Getting off the ballot in Texas will free up those funds CJ mentioned for a possible legal defense.

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

I don't think he's changed politics that much. He's a product of the times, not an author of the times. It's good he has been exposed, but I guess this was the Left's introduction to how a majority bent self preservation operates. Since Democrats controlled the house for so long they’ve been blind to all those shenanigans. Now that he’s gone there’s really no figure head for them to beat up on anymore, but they’ll eventually focus on someone else. It always works that way. Yesterday’s Newt is today’s Delay is tomorrow’s Pelosi?

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

I would only characterize him as "bad" instead of "typical" because of the degree to which his misbehavior was tolerated. Those who would seek to minimize his considerable impact on Washington's "business as usual" are in denial.

I was intrigued by the toothy, used-car salesman grin DeLay flashed on his mug shot, especially since Jon Stewart quoted him on The Daily Show, so I looked this up:

Q & A: Tom DeLay Explains His Decision
The entire interview is interesting. Actually, I am almost (but not quite) relieved that DeLay smiled for a reason other than considering the whole process to be a joke. DeLay is very clearly distancing himself from the unlawful activities of his two former staff members.

The interview shows that Tom DeLay feels no remorse for anything he did while a member of Congress. (We'll see if he changes his mind should the court(s) find him guilty.) This distinguishes Mr. DeLay from Jimmy Swaggart and his tearful "I have sinned" confession on TV, or Jim Bakker and his similarly contrite performance when confronted with proof of his malfeasance with contributions from the faithful. If it is his plan, DeLay will make an interesting preacher, I'm sure. But judging from his comments, it's anybody's guess as to whether he will consider liberals and Democrats capable of being saved from perdition.

I wanted to share this news tidbit I ran across about DeLay. It would seem that cockroaches really ARE tough to eradicate!!

Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse!

But it's hardly surprising that, even with his shady past, he will find another lucrative post somewhere in government.

And, to show politicians' egos truly have no bounds, this is a fun read:

I bought the May 4, 2006 edition of Rolling Stone for the cartoon of George W. Bush sitting in a corner wearing a dunce cap. Inside was an article by Princeton historian Sean Wilentz suggesting that even among conservative historians, Bush appears headed to the lowest rung history provides--perhaps the worst ever.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/s...ion=6.0.12.1040

Note: The cover could easily go in the political joke thread.

Also in the May 4 issue was an editorial by Matt Taibbi entitled Thank You, Tom DeLay.

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

According to Taibbi, DeLay was utterly bad for American politics.



"Bad" does not begin to describe Tom DeLay!

Tom DeLay left the U. S. House of Representatives Friday. He granted MSNBC's Chis Matthews an exit interview.

It is not surprising that his exit interview contained much the harsh, divisive, destructive rhetoric we've heard from him for the better part of two decades—rhetoric almost synonymous with the name "DeLay".



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13277103/

Part of the good news is that DeLay has moved to Virginia. You might call this a first step in the Texas Clean Air act.

DeLay tried to be upbeat about his future. I don’t think so. He may beat the charges Ronnie Earle has brought in Texas. I think, however, federal charges will be brought against him in federal court in connection with the Amramoff mess. The feds won’t be as easy to shake.

I know, I'm kicking the poor fellow while he's down, but ...

DeLay left Washington with the same brutish, classless, arrogance as he ruled it. I'm not surprised he refused to be gracious in his farewell speech.

"In preparing for today, I found that it is customary in speeches such as these to reminisce about the good old days of political harmony and across-the-aisle camaraderie, and to lament the bitter, divisive partisan rancor that supposedly now weakens our democracy," DeLay said.

"Well, I can't do that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle



But, BoF, the sad truth is I don't entirely disagree with The Hammer. It's the Republicans, not the Democrats that do a far better job of saying what they believe in. Democrats are too willing to bargain away their principles (when they can figure out what they are) and compromise with the same folks that hold them in contempt.

When the Democrats stand for something and take on the Republicans head-on, they can win because they don't have to appeal to division and fear. But when they don't they allow the GOP to define them and they always define Dems as weak, soft, confused and incapable of making the hard decisions.

Good riddance to Tom DeLay. He made Washington and politics a worse place than he found it. He fouled the air with his vicious tactics and venomous rhetoric. I don't think Republicans realize how low this corrupt thug brought them. If winning is all that matters, then DeLay was effective. But if being committed to the good of the people, building bridges between reasonable people with policy differences and making government a honorable profession is what matters, then DeLay was a miserable failure.

Was Tom DeLay good or bad for American politics?

Here's an update.

We now have some official word about Tom Delay’s bad-to-the-bone politics. His PAC organization is shutting down.



http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/15090621.htm