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April 23, 2005
A Gift From the Chronicle
Today offers U.S. House Majority Leader Tom Delay a brief respite from his recent media freefall, and he can thank his hometown paper. The Chron's Gebe Martinez throws Delay a lifeline in today's edition.
The piece (correctly) points out that Delay has built up more party loyalty than two former House Speakers -- Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich and Texas Democrat Jim Wright -- had when they succumbed to ethics violations. Through his aggressive fundraising and hardball politicking, Delay has been indispensable to increasing the GOP majority and advancing its legislative agenda. So far, few GOP Members have been willing to publicly criticize Delay.
But Martinez' analysis that Delay is likely to survive his current troubles hinges on a rather huge "if":
"Barring an indictment by a Texas grand jury investigating a political action committee he created, or some other major scandal, DeLay's allies contend that the tenacious lawmaker can survive."
It's far from certain that Travis County DA Ronnie Earle will indict good Brother Delay, and we cannot foresee whether or not future public scandals await him. But given the litany of questionable and perhaps illegal behavior we have seen so far, predicting Delay's political survival strikes us as more than a tad premature.
But the Chronicle doesn't stop there. Anne Marie Kilday is only too happy to fill her short piece on NASA with visionary quotes from Brother Tom, and describe him as a "strong supporter of the space program..." who "helped defeat Congressional attempts to trim funding." Unqualified praise for such a deserving man.
Finally, the Chron sees fit to run the outcome (or lack thereof) of a Democratic pow-wow on next year's race for District 22. Subtext: The Dems don't have their act together.
Today Tom Delay, that victim of "Democrat persecution", can thank the hometown "liberal media" for singing his tune.
Posted by houtopia at April 23, 2005 11:23 AM