Jesse at the Stakeholder has everything below the line (it's from his latest e-mail):
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Tom DeLay is a man who best operates in the shadows.
If nobody knows your name, you can hardly be at the center of a national scandal. And as it happens, despite DeLay's near-total control over the agenda of the US House of Representatives, facilitated by years of blind loyalty from his fellow Republicans, less than half of America even knew his name when they heard it. It was for this reason that there was little electoral fall out when he was admonished three times by the Ethics Committee, when two of his associates came under Senate and federal investigation for an $80 million lobbying scam, or when three people, including two of his closest aides, were indicted in connection with his PAC in Texas.
But Tom DeLay will no longer toil in anonymity. TIME Magazine reports:
"At first, it was easy to believe that the storm clouds gathering around House Majority Leader Tom DeLay signaled little more than another Washington tempest. After all, most Republicans reassured themselves, hardly anybody outside the Beltway or DeLay's district in Sugar Land, Texas, had even heard of the Congressman, much less cared about his inflammatory comments about judges or his overseas junkets that might have been paid for by lobbyists. But not any more. Letters and phone calls to congressional offices about DeLay have picked up sharply of late, an aide to the House GOP leadership says. The Majority Leader has become a punchline for late-night comedians; two weeks ago, he was the subject of the lead skit on Saturday Night Live. And one national poll, by Democrat Stan Greenberg, shows DeLay's name recognition at 77% - making him more famous than any other House member in modern history, except Newt Gingrich."
That is pretty famous, congratulations!
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post writes on some of DeLay's new problems...
"Tom DeLay sneaks around the Capitol like a fugitive these days, using back doors and basement passages to avoid television cameras. He skips meetings where reporters might get a chance to film his answers to their questions. He makes unscheduled appearances so he won't attract a media mob and disrupt colleagues' events."
And it still doesn't work."
Of course Tom DeLay will never come up for election across the country - that honor will fall to the rest of his loyal Republican rubberstamps. The Associated Press brings it home for him, however...
"A new poll shows 51 percent of voters in DeLay's district disapprove of the job DeLay is doing in Congress. The poll of 548 registered voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points."
And the Houston Chronicle brings word that Democracy For America has taken the fight right into his district:
"Think the sniping over U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's ethics might fade away anytime soon?
Read the signs.
A left-leaning political action committee brought the simmering D.C. Beltway battle to the U.S. House majority leader's home turf this week, posting two billboards criticizing him near area roadways."The signs, erected south of downtown Houston and in La Marque, read: 'Lobbyists sent Tom DeLay golfing; all you got was this billboard.'"
But of course it wouldn't be any fun without Democrats filing to run against him. Nick Lampson, a former Democratic Rep. who was redistricted out of his seat by DeLay's gerrymandering scheme, is coming full circle to challenge DeLay is his own district, which just so happens to include about 120,000 of Lampson's former constituents.
Some folks say fame and fortune have a downside...
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Scroll down for a picture of the billboard.
