Tom DeLay's Empire of Favors

[struggle4progress]

WASHINGTON — <snip>

Since then, Mr. DeLay's leadership campaign committee - Americans for a Republican Majority PAC - has delivered millions to Republican candidates, a prowess that would score points in any environment. All five Republican members of the ethics committee have gotten a boost from Armpac in the past; Representative Melissa Hart of Pennsylvania, tapped to run the DeLay ethics inquiry, has received $15,000 over the years. <snip>

In fact, the Texas redistricting may prove invaluable to Mr. DeLay if he needs to call in old debts. Speaker Hastert owes him for the lasting majority; the Bush administration owes him for a net expansion of seats, giving it greater ability to have legislation passed along party lines; the five new Texas members themselves owe him their jobs. <snip>

... His most clever move, said Norman Ornstein, of the American Enterprise Institute, "is to make sure people are convinced this is not an attack on Tom DeLay, it's an attack on what Tom DeLay stands for." <snip>

But as the House ethics panel began the process of examining Mr. DeLay's activities last week, two of its Republican members, Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma, reluctantly recused themselves because they had donated money to the DeLay legal defense fund. The recusals serve as a reminder that although his allies are scattered everywhere, they may not always work to his advantage and may not be strong enough to weather all storms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/weekinreview/08korn.html?hp&ex=1115524800&en=208a0606ef4a123a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[gumby]

1. That was one big pile of a stinking article.

The NYT comes through again for the Axis of Evil. That was like a human-interest puff piece. It was all "Favors" and little "Hammer" (except to point out that "Hammer" is Democratic demagoguery).

DeLay is a Christo-fascist that personally wants to control every aspect of everyone's life. He thinks he is anointed to use his hammer to decide who works, who gets medical attention and why, who gets government money based on his "world view;" in other words, DeLay thinks he is omnipotent.

The NYT writes a story on his "Favors" as if he is some benevolent dictator. The NYT helped create the phony Whitewater "scandal" and helped push every other "scandal" about Clinton and Gore. Now they are puffing DeLay.

Where's the Liberal Media?

[ixion]

2. what liberal media?

the new frontier for investigative journalism is the internet. I'm afraid we've lost our sister outlets: newsprint and broadcast. These jaded beasts are now so entwined with the status quo it's impossible for them to distinguish reality from fantasy, even when it bites them on the a**.