Political reporter for the Houston Chronicle Rick Casey wrote a thought provoking piece about the recent trial of a convicted felon, none other than Tom Delay.
I guess a Texas jury possessed the courage and integrity to pose honest questions.
Who would have thought?
Farce and Pathos at its very finest.
Justice partnered with farce and pathos last week when a jury, after 19 hours of earnest deliberation, found Tom DeLay guilty of felony money laundering.
When Delay was indicted a little more than five years ago, he was one of the most powerful men in the world.
Now DeLay is a fading symbol of the excesses of power, more famous for his game but embarrassing performance on Dancing with the Star(let)s than for his former role as Chief Enforcer of the Republican power structure, a man so powerful and ruthless that he could require large lobbying firms to purge themselves of Democratic partners.
DeLay responded to the jury's verdict by arguing, farcically and pathetically, that he was an innocent victim of forces so big that they threaten the Republic.
"The criminalization of politics undermines our very system, and I'm very disappointed in the outcome," he said.
Here we have yet another prime example of a Republican pot calling a Republican kettle black. An arrogant and power crazed Tom Delay is the one who embodied and practiced the criminalizing politics as a blood sport.
The GOP mantra: Feed the rich. Starve the poor. This is especially true of Texas Republicans.
Cross posted at Texas Kaos
Tom Delay thumbed his nose at the few laws and restrictions that bind Texas politicians.
Politics has been criminalized, but it's not exactly a recent phenomenon and he is not exactly a victim.
Mark Twain remarked on it five score and 13 years ago in Following the Equator.
"It could probably be shown by facts and figures," Twain wrote, "that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."
Twain and the jury put the blame for the criminalization of politics where it belongs: on the political leaders who sell their favors.
Politicians do their best to skirt what few anti-corruption laws they or their predecessors have passed in response to the public pressure that occasionally erupts in response to history's perpetual parade of political scandals. There are plenty of generous loopholes through which they can find cover.
According to Tom Delay, the law is meant for Democrats only. Apparently Delay and his colleagues reside above all laws and cannot be held accountable for breaking any of them.
Republican hypocrisy.
While Tom Delay runs off at the mouth about his saintly conservative "values" his track record reveals he is anything but conservative when it comes to serving himself.
Yet DeLay considered these bedrock rules to be a mere inconvenience, showing the same spirit that famously inspired his response to being told at the height of his power that he couldn't smoke in a Washington restaurant because of federal law.
"I am the federal government," he said.
So he used his position as majority leader to rake in big bucks from corporations all over the country who wanted his help on federal bills.
Then he and a few cohorts took $190,000 of that corporate money, gave it to the Republican National Committee, which then sent exactly $190,000 to a list of candidates for the Texas House of Representatives that DeLay's people provided.
The money was targeted to candidates who agreed to support Rep. Tom Craddick to become the first Republican speaker of the Texas House. Craddick, in turn, committed to DeLay's plan of re-drawing the state's congressional districts to design more of them for Republicans — just two years after their normal once-a-decade redrawing.
Like most Republicans who lie about their value system Tom Delay served deep pocketed special interest groups over the needs of his district. His supporters seemed to have no problem with Tom's behavior as a power crazed bully of a U.S. House Speaker. Delay fondly called himself The Hammer because he would crush anyone who dared to disagree with his royal majesty.
Worse, the Republican bully in D.C. stuck us with yet another lovely bully in Austin known as Tom Craddick the Dictator.
I can see how social skills, communication and compromise loom large with self-serving Republicans like Delay and Craddick.
What is truly laughable about Tom Delay is his delusional thinking that liberals on the jury would feel sorry for the calloused creep and would therefore let him off. Apparently we liberals are supposed to be more empathetic. I'll tell you what Mr. Hammer. We might be more empathetic but we are not idiots. You may have been able to fool some of your constituents who tend to vote for politicians just because there is a R behind their names. But you will never fool those of us who know a crook when we see one.
The jurors haven't spoken publicly yet, but I believe they voted their empathy - empathy for those who would like to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
And who don't agree with the U.S. Supreme Court that corporations are people.
A government for by and of the people? Who would have thought?
The recent Supreme Court decision on Citizen's United has wielded a major blow to democracy as we know it. If powerful interests can secretly donate unlimited amounts of money to particular politicians in order to elect them, why should we bother with elections at all? We the people who vote have suddenly become marginalized if not completely disenfranchised. Why not set up a politician auction instead that allows the fat cats to openly buy their pimps outright? The way things stand now that would certainly be a far more honest way in which to conduct what we call "elections."
I look forward to seeing just how these newly purchased pimps behave once they descend upon our nation's Capital in January. The same holds true for those Republicans who will sweep into Austin. There is already a Tom Craddick clone lurking in the wings, Rep. Warren Chisum, who is preparing to knock out a less extremist House Speaker, Joe Strauss. Just watch how Perry and Chisum will throw everyday people into the streets in order to avoid any tax increases in dealing with the deficit. Just watch how tuition at UT and A&M sky rockets. Be prepared for classroom sizes in K-12 schools to climb. Special needs teachers will no doubt get fired. Rick Perry will be more interested in building prisons and toll roads than he is with salvaging schools and education. And he won't have a problem whatsoever with cutting health care coverage for economically disadvantaged children. These same thugs will also likely shut down our ability to participate in more competitive health care coverage for ourselves now that HCR reform has passed in Washington. Pretty soon we'll see and hear hissy fits, farce theatrics and temper tantrums coming out Austin about state's rights and the "unconstitutionality" of the health care reform bill.
What a sorry group of self promoting jackasses.
Yes indeed, the Texas Republican Party is of for and by powerful fat cats. And given the extremist conservative views held by folks like Chisum why not rename th Texas GOP the Texas Taliban?
As far as national politics are concerned I would not hold my breath for any new job creation bills anytime soon. Instead we'll see the same old usual witch hunts about a bunch of nothing and distracting hearings. Let's see. Where will they start? Will it be undocumented workers, gay marriage, gays in the military or abortion? Will Sarah Palin tweet her extremist and wacky instructions to the newly elected Republicans everyday? Palin the Grifter must be very angry and bored right now since her daughter Bristol lost the Dancing with the Stars award. Well, there is always American Idol for Bristol. That and her mother's reality show.
Will the solutions free Republicans waste all of our time by pretending to repeal the health care reform bill? I kind of don't think that will happen especially since the industry is looking forward to millions of new customers. And the Republicans know it. Just because these politicians rely on uninformed and low information people to get elected does not mean the lawmakers are stupid themselves. All are razor sharp and laser focused when it comes to serving their and their sugar daddies best interests.
When Republicans talk about repealing the legislation, they keep the argument abstract. It's about freedom. About American values. About Nancy Pelosi not reading the bill. When they actually try to repeal the legislation, things are going to get concrete in a hurry. It's going to be about this child with that condition being rejected by insurers. And she's going to be adorable, and her parents are going to tearful, and voters will be able to relate.
Already, Republicans are running from that argument, trying to pretend that they'll somehow preserve the protections for preexisting conditions while repealing everything that makes those protections possible. But the bill's unpopular parts are inextricably intertwined with its popular parts. Remove the unpopular ones and you're asking firefighters to sell insurance for homes that are already engulfed in flames.
Here's my prediction for health-care repeal: The GOP will either never really try it, lose on it, or, most likely, cut a deal to add some more conservative pieces to the bill (think malpractice reform, more consumer-driven plans and other things they could've gotten by just negotiating in the first place). But Republicans who think this is going to be easy because public opinion is against the Democrats should remember that before Democrats got a specific bill, public opinion was overwhelmingly on their side. When Republicans are forced to get specific about repeal, they're going to find themselves just as -- if not more -- unpopular. If you're not comfortable explaining why you let someone's house burn down, you're really not going to like explaining why you let insurers turn their sick child away.
Yes indeed, the Republicans will continue to run away from themselves and their policies. This is what happens when an ethically challenged Party is all about abstractions, idealism, attack ads and manufactured catch phrases. None of the above puts food on the table or creates new jobs. The fact of the matter is, the GOP is totally clueless and completely bankrupt of viable or realistic solutions for the enormous challenges that we must grapple with everyday.
Instead these sorry group of human beings will howl about shutting down the federal government in order to stop the spending that the GOP created during the W. years. I guess it never would occur to these boys and girls that shutting the government means federal employees don't get a paycheck. Military spending comes to a screeching halt as well. Old folks don't get their Social Security checks in the mail. Disabled veteran's do not receive their disability checks. How's that for sound policy in further compromising our national security and making the economic recovery even more difficult for so many.
Way to go GOP.
Will they privatize Social Security? Not on your life but Republicans will shriek about it all of the time anyway. Other than screaming and attacking the Republicans are essentially bereft of constructive or helpful ideas. Will they try to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich? You betcha they will. But they won't be able to simply because neither the Senate or President would go for that. As we all should know by now extending the tax cuts would further increase the mind numbing deficit about which the Republicans rant and rave. While the Republicans will routinely propose agendas that would increase the deficit at the very same time. After all, wasn't it former Vice President Dick Cheney who said:
Deficits don't matter.
You betcha he did.
Get ready for the worst of the worst all over again. The W. Bush Administration will look like innocent puppies when this new crop of Republicans take over.
We Americans seem to have a very high threshold for self-imposed pain and suffering. We either vote for politicians that have no intention of serving us or our districts, or we fail to vote at all.