It’s nice to see Rep. Tom DeLay remember that he actually has constituents back home in Texas who are responsible for allowing him to continue as the most powerful demagogue in Washington. For too long now, DeLay has acted as if the voters back home are mere inconveniences to be dealt with only every two years when he goes through the motions of running for re-election. Frankly, there hasn’t been any reason for him to do anything else, because our district, District 22, has been one of the safest seats in the House of Representatives. Now, it appears that the smirking fool may finally be meeting his match in 2006, and he has suddently rediscovered his roots. How convenient, eh?
The interesting side-effect of the redistricting that DeLay demanded from the Texas Legislature is that his once-safe seat is now not nearly as ironclad as it used to be. District 22 picked up a number of heavily Democratic areas, particularly in Galveston County, which is home to large numbers of unionized refinery and chemical plant workers. DeLay lost a number of these new precincts decisively last November, and he may well be looking at a repeat next year unless he can convince Democrats in District 22 that he is on their side.
Yeah…like THAT’S going to happen….
Of course, in the interest of honesty, I do have to applaud DeLay for finally recognizing that the people of his District deserve more than cursory glances every two years. Then again, when you’re as corrupt as DeLay and as bent on ruling your burgeoning political empire, who has time for the folks back home- except the ones with deep pockets who keep sending him the big checks?
WASHINGTON - Tom DeLay at a senior citizens’ sock hop that featured a DJ dressed as Elvis? You betcha.
And he wasn’t roped into attending, either.
His office called the Sugar Land Parks & Recreation Department and said the House majority leader wanted to attend the event at the Sugar Land Community Center earlier this month.
“I was a little shocked,” said officer Todd Zettlemoyer of the Sugar Land Police Department, which helped organize the dance as part of a neighborhood crime-awareness program.
“This was the first year that we had the congressman there,” he said. “He no sooner walked in the door than he had a crowd around him.”
That was the whole point.
In recent weeks, DeLay has worked his constituency harder than he has in years. He popped up at more than 20 local gigs, from speeches to the La Marque Rotary Club and the Texas Chiropractic College in Pasadena to high-profile ceremonies at NASA and Ellington Field.
On one day alone, DeLay held an ice cream social in Pearland, a barbecue luncheon in Sugar Land and an hors d’oeuvres hour in Pasadena.
Credit DeLay for at least recognizing that he is likely going to have a fight on his hands in 2006. Nick Lampson is nobody’s fool, and few can raise money like he can. If the threat posed by Lampson can finally get DeLay to finally pay attention to District 22, that can only be a good thing.
Of course, DeLay, being an arrogant bastard, probably has a difficult time imagining the possibility of actually losing. While he has been all about his own political empire-building and self-aggrandizement over the past few years, he has neglected those he was elected to represent. Well, that’s not quite accurate- he’s paid plenty of attention to those well-heeled constituents willing to write him the fat checks. After all, it takes a LOT of money to run an empire based on greed, corruption, and self-interest.
It will be interesting to see if Nick Lampson can take DeLay out. It’s about time someone did.
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