Dear Friend and Reader,
If you want to find an equivalent political animal inВ modern politicsВ who could match Obama’s new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s intensity,В it would probably beВ former Texas Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land, TX). Yes, THAT Tom Delay. That ruthless, backdoor-dealing, trouble-making Congressman who single-handedly wielded control over House Republicans and brought new meaning to the words “party discipline.”
DeLay helpedВ commandeer the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 and cheerlead President George W. Bush throughout his term until indicted for corruption in 2005, resigning from his House seat in 2006. In his heyday during the 104th Congress (1995–1997), DeLay described the Republican leadership as a “triumvirate” of Newt Gingrich, “the visionary;” Dick Armey, “the “Policy wonk;” and himself, “the ditch digger who makes it all happen.”
Known for usingВ heavy-handed measures to insure party loyalty to the President by his house peers, DeLay’s was the hand from whom other Republicans fed. First, by helping them raise money for their election campaigns, and second by wielding, through the power of tit-for-tat, bonuses for their cooperation to get legislation through for the party and the White House — which was one and the same during W’s term.
Help in fundraising is the key to any modern-day politician’s heart. How else are you going to pay for all that air time, staff time and postage to get you elected in your district? Delay was mighty successful in getting big-check donors to support the small district candidates needed to make a “permanent Republican majority” in the House and Senate. No wonder House Republicans heeled at his beck and call. If they didn’t, they’d have to be running bake sales to finance their campaigns. If you buckled and didn’t go Delay’s way in the House, your upstairs office with a view would be boxed up and your desk moved downstairs to the darkest part of the basement of the Capitol Building. Next to the janitor’s closet.