![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/tom_delay_blogger.jpg?resize=300%2C283&ssl=1\" "\\"tom_delay_blogger\\"")
<\/a>DeLay helped\u0412\u00a0commandeer 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\u0432\u0402\u201c1997), 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.”<\/p>\n
Known for using\u0412\u00a0heavy-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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In terms of intensity and ruthlessness, we’ve been told from our sources under condition of anonymity\u0412\u00a0 (they didn’t want their house burned down) that Delay wishes he could be <\/strong>Emanuel. It seems that Rahm is very comfortable, as my anonymous source said, “in fitting an enemy for their concrete shoes.”<\/p>\n As fundraiser, few could match Emanuel’s capacity for audacity: Just ask any big-ticket donor on the other end of the phone when the Jennifer Flowers scandal first threatened to drown the nascent but popular Clinton campaign in 1992. It was Rahm Emanuel raising money for his candidate when all but the Clinton inner circle thought Bill’s campaign was dead in the water. Emanuel’s work gathering money helped vault Bill and Hillary safely through that rough patch, and on to the nomination.<\/p>\n From the time of his election as Congressman for Illionois 5th District (North Chicago), Emanuel made himself indispensible to fellow Democrats, helping to raise millions of dollars for the DCCC, (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, also\u0412\u00a0called “D-Trip” by insiders), which provided the central source for campaign funds for congressional Democrats. You could see Emanuel’s career trajectory in the House — if he stayed on and fundraised as chair of D-Trip, he could have eventually made himself Speaker of the House, with the eager support of all those Congresspeople whose careers\u0412\u00a0made through his fundraising.<\/p>\n So what could have been going on in Emanuel’s head when Obama tapped him in the end of October, a time considered to be a bit early\u0412\u00a0to be announcing a WH COS pick? What went on in Emanuel’s mind, after the election results for those 18 hours before announcing he would accept? More importantly — what was Obama thinking? During the campaign, Emanuel had a win-win situation on his hands. During the primaries he could bank on either his former relationship with the Clintons and work in Congress on his Speakership trajectory if Hillary were the nominee.<\/p>\n Representing Illinois, he is already hovering\u0412\u00a0near the edges of the first rung of Obama’s power circle: Michelle, David Axelrod, David Plouffe. So an Obama win would position him perfectly in any direction. Rahm’s choice to come on board may be a good bellweather of what floats his boat, and having the ear and being the gatekeeper to the leader of the Free World probably suits Rahm just fine.<\/p>\n But what’s more important is the situation and the placement of Rahm Emanuel in the machinery under construction by Obama and his team. Even as Obama’s gatekeeper, Rahm will still be UNDER Obama, and taking his lead. Axelrod will be a few doors down to manage and keep his finger held high for the political winds at Obama’s back or in his face. Robert Gibbs as White House Communications Director is already prize real estate by the Democrats for his deft handling<\/a> of wingnut pundits (remember his drubbing of Sean Hannity during the William Ayers flak in October?).<\/p>\n Obama isn’t playing around with the serious issues the country faces, nor with the hackneyed media, or recalcitrant Congresspeople. There’s years, decades of corruption, cynicism, and addiction to old ways of doing things in Washington, and this unlikely group of players, already coming close in team temperment to Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals” for Abraham Lincoln, is this time,\u0412\u00a0poised to act as homeopathy on the gangrenous patient, which is Washington and America. It could very well be that Obama is using the very tactics and tacticians nurtured on the toxicity of Washington itself to clean it up.<\/p>\n Yours & truly,<\/p>\n Fe Bongolan from San Francisco<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friend and Reader, If you want to find an equivalent political animal in\u0412\u00a0modern politics\u0412\u00a0who could match Obama’s new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s intensity,\u0412\u00a0it would probably be\u0412\u00a0former 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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[533],"tags":[154,36,52,544,537,543],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Rahm](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/rahmemanuel.jpg?resize=333%2C191&ssl=1\" "\\"rahmemanuel\\"")
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