January 6, 2006 6:09 AM

Karma can be a real b***h, eh? Yes, it can....

Lobbyist ties could keep DeLay out of leadership: GOP aides say his links to the scandal-ridden Abramoff make him a liability

Many are the times I’ve wondered what kind of world this would be without Tom DeLay around to keep the wheels of corruption greased in Washington. Of course, he’s been so well entrenched that dreaming of a world (or, hell, just Texas politics) without DeLay has seemed a mere pipe dream. Now, though, we may be on the verge of watching Tom DeLay being forced out of his beloved House leadership position because of his corruption and his ties to Jack Abramoff. (Live by the sword, die by the sword, eh??)

Republicans in Texas are furious, crying “political witchhunt” at the slightest provocation, but the reality is that Tom DeLay has been acting as if rules and laws are meant for lesser mortals since he was first elected in 1984. If ever there was a poltician deserving of being hoisted on his own petard, it’s DeLay, who has become the most powerful and (previously) untouchable man in Washington by the judicious application of money and political assistance over the years.

Given that Ronnie Earle is a Democrat, his indictment of DeLay lends itself to accusations of political warfare, but DeLay is the one who created this environment. Live by the sword, die by the sword. This is the game that Tom Delay created; for him to now decry the political nature of Earle’s indictment is disingenuous at best and craven at worst. DeLay came to power with the intention of playing politics as Machiavellian hardball. That his strategy is now coming back to bite him is simply poetic justice at it’s sweetest.

Oh…and that sound you hear is the scurrying of rats off the Good Ship DeLay. Music to the ears, isn’t it??

WASHINGTON - The burgeoning Jack Abramoff corruption scandal has made it all but certain that Rep. Tom DeLay will not return as House majority leader, aides to the Republican House leadership said Wednesday.

Ding Dong, the witch is dead….

It’s just too bad you can’t see me as I’m writing this, because I have just about the widest big-ass grin imaginable plastered on my mug. Ah, ‘tis wonderful to be alive, ain’t it? After 22 years of venal, mean-spirited, self-serving corruption, karma has finally caught up with Tom DeLay…and you just know that it’s got to be tearing him up. I wonder if it’s possible for anyone to enjoy this any more than I am?

With DeLay having been closely associated with the fallen Washington power broker and former DeLay aides implicated in the scandal, Republicans are worried that DeLay could become the poster boy for the “culture of corruption” that Democrats cite as they rally for the 2006 elections, according to aides to several top GOP lawmakers.

DeLay, R-Sugar Land, stepped aside as House majority leader, the No. 2 position in the House, after he was indicted on unrelated campaign-finance charges in Travis County last fall. Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri took his place on an interim basis, with DeLay hoping for a quick acquittal in Texas and then a return to the congressional leadership.

“Under the current circumstances, with the (Texas) indictment and the now ballooning Abramoff scandal, there are very few members eager to see DeLay back in the leadership post,” said a top aide to a House GOP leader.

Ah, music to the ears isn’t it? It’s taken long that I might have wanted, but it’s good to know that karma still means that what goes around comes around. And few politicians deserve to reap what he has sown more than Tom DeLay.

Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, among the Republicans who have been calling for elections for weeks for a permanent replacement of DeLay, said the Abramoff case will increase the pressure for new leadership.

“Unfairly or not, DeLay has become a symbol of a culture gone bad in Washington,” Flake said.

DeLay has denied wrongdoing in each case.

Many Republicans thought the case brought by Ronnie Earle, the Democratic district attorney of Travis County, was motivated by partisan politics, Flake said, but with Abramoff “it is too difficult to point fingers at the Democrats. This is a symptom of a much larger problem.”

Right; now DeLay and his fellow Democrats can no longer accuse Earle, a Democrat, of cravenly trying to bring down a partisan Republican. With Abramoff’s plea, it’s now clear that DeLay’s problems run much deeper, and while it still remains to be seen if DeLay will be held criminally culpable, in politics perception is often just as good as reality…and the perception is that Tom DeLay is damaged goods.

So, how does it feel being on the receiving end, Tom? What’s it like being on the business end of the same sword you’ve used over the years to skewer so many of your political enemies with? Not so much fun, is it?

If there’s any justice in this world, before long DeLay will be wearing an uncomfortable, ill-fitting orange prison jumpsuit, and worrying about being claimed as someone’s girlfriend. Ah, good times…good times….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on January 6, 2006 6:09 AM.

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