Is DeLay going down?

[squeegee]

@Jonathan Chance

Yeah, but for all political intents and purposes he’s done. He lost his leadership post and now this has cost him his seat in Congress. Stick a fork in him, he’s done.

I’m just speculating, but I bet he knows where a lot of bodies are buried around the hill. If he cops a felony plea, he’d be one to take some enemies with him.

[tomndebb]

@Jonathan Chance

Yeah, but for all political intents and purposes he’s done. He lost his leadership post and now this has cost him his seat in Congress. Stick a fork in him, he’s done.

That is distinctly possible, and mayu be the most probable scenario.

Consider one other, however: Facing a potential loss of Republican control of the senate, the various buddies from Texas who are now in Washington decide they want Delay in some pivotal post where confirmation would be unlikely (read “impossible”) if the Democrats happen to get a slim majority in the next election, so Delay steps down this year (after the significant legislation has been handled but soon enough to be out of the public eye before the heavy campaigning starts), and gets appointed and confirmed by the Republican Senate to spend the next 2 1/2 years helping GWB carry out their favored programs in that arena.

[BrainGlutton]

@tomndebb

Consider one other, however: Facing a potential loss of Republican control of the senate, the various buddies from Texas who are now in Washington decide they want Delay in some pivotal post where confirmation would be unlikely (read “impossible”) if the Democrats happen to get a slim majority in the next election, so Delay steps down this year (after the significant legislation has been handled but soon enough to be out of the public eye before the heavy campaigning starts), and gets appointed and confirmed by the Republican Senate to spend the next 2 1/2 years helping GWB carry out their favored programs in that arena.

Do you think even Bush and the Pubs would be brazen enough to give DeLay an executive post at this point? While he’s still under indictment?

[PatriotX]

@BrainGlutton

Do you think even Bush and the Pubs would be brazen enough to give DeLay an executive post at this point? While he’s still under indictment?

Why wouldn’t one?

[jayjay]

@tomndebb

gets appointed and confirmed by the Republican Senate to spend the next 2 1/2 years helping GWB carry out their favored programs in that arena.

Does the President appoint people to the FEC? Because, judging from some of Bush’s past appointments, he’s likely to think DeLay would be a perfect fit for the chairmanship…

[E-Sabbath]

Contrawise, he could still be indicted for, you know, any of a number of other things.
I won’t count him as over until he goes behind bars. And when he comes out, he may be able to restart.

[Squink]

DeLay also is entitled under federal election rules to convert any or all of the remaining funds from his reelection campaign to his legal expenses, whether or not he resigns, is indicted or loses the election. Election lawyers say one advantage of bowing out of the election now is that the campaign cash can be converted to pay legal bills immediately, instead of being drained in the course of a bid to stay in office.

Federal Probe Has Edged Closer to Texan

[rjung]

@jayjay

Does the President appoint people to the FEC? Because, judging from some of Bush’s past appointments, he’s likely to think DeLay would be a perfect fit for the chairmanship…

Well, if a scandal breaks out because it’s revealed that Cheney and Rove outed Valerie Plame’s covert status, maybe DeLay could end up in the Veep’s chair… Shudder

I also found this rather telling:

TIME: Do you think you did anything that made you more of a target for your critics? Do you think you made it easier for the opponents to —

DeLay: No. The opponents HATE what we do—what we have done in the last 11 years in the majority. We have built the largest political coalition of my adult lifetime. They hate that. We have been effective for 11 years going now, doing some pretty amazing things. They hate that. The reason we’ve been effective is we’ve tried to change the culture of Washington, D.C. And do it legally and ethically. The Democrats hate the fact that their culture of K Street has been changed from a totally dominated Democrat K Street [lobbying community] to a totally dominated Republican K Street. Nothing illegal about that at all. And we built that. When we took over in 1995, the K Street contributions to elections was 70/30—70 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican. Today it’s 60/40—60 percent Republican and 40 percent Republican. That’s a change in culture. Democrats and the left hate that, and they have worked very hard to destroy it.

It takes a special kind of idiot to boast about building a cesspool of corruption…

[BrainGlutton]

Today on the radio I heard DeLay say he looks forward to being out of Congress so he can concentrate on “uniting the conservative movement.”

Like he thinks that, even now, he still has credibility, as least among conservatives.

Is he right, I wonder?

[RTFirefly]

In post #2 in this thread, I said:

I’m thinking that he’s about where Nixon was in March 1973. So I’m hoping the analogy will hold, and DeLay won’t go down until late summer or early fall of 2006.

I was in the ballpark, anyway.

[John_Mace]

@BrainGlutton

Today on the radio I heard DeLay say he looks forward to being out of Congress so he can concentrate on “uniting the conservative movement.”

Like he thinks that, even now, he still has credibility, as least among conservatives.

Is he right, I wonder?

I watched his interviews on MSNBC and FOX today, and man does that guy have some white teeth! I don’t know what he’s like when he’s browbeating other politicians, but he sure comes off as an engaging, smart, friendly guy. Still, it would seem that he’d only be useful on the campaign trail in those districts that were solidlly Republcan already. Maybe he’ll be able to work behind the scenes on strategy and tactics for shoring up the Republican majority in Congress. I’m farily certain the Pubs will maintain control of the Senate, and although I think they’ll do so in the House as well, that is looking more and more ripe for the picking for the Dems.

[Fear_Itself]

@John Mace

I watched his interviews on MSNBC and FOX today, and man does that guy have some white teeth! I don’t know what he’s like when he’s browbeating other politicians, but he sure comes off as an engaging, smart, friendly guy.

Till you look at his eyes. I am reminded of what Quint said in Jaws:

And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ‘til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’.

But DeLay has that scuba tank clenched in his pearly whites now, and Ronnie Earle has his finger on the trigger…

[Frostillicus]

I smell a Medal of Freedom!

[samclem]

@Frostillicus

I smell a Medal of Freedom!

Hey! Ronnie Earl’s doing the world a service, but a medal?

[John_Mace]

@Frostillicus

I smell a Medal of Freedom!

Nah. Bush is already distancing himself from DeLay. Next thing you know, we’ll be hearing: DeLay? Sounds French.

[Agent_Foxtrot]

What a fascinating thread. Yes, Tom DeLay wielded quite a bit of power in the House, but if we’ve learned anything from history, absolutely no one in the Government is untouchable. We see the same thing happening now that happened to other disgraced politicians of the past: one-time allies distancing themselves, loss of public support, not seeking re-election. He’ll fade into obscurity like Gary Condit.

Yes, he won the primaries with 60% of the vote. I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that 60% of Texans in his district are ignorant of his politics, or just don’t care.

Adam

[Loopydude]

@John Mace

Maybe he’ll be able to work behind the scenes on strategy and tactics for shoring up the Republican majority in Congress.

Talented strategizing is by far DeLay’s most valuable contribution, and perhaps the only quality the Republicans will find too difficult to find in another to divorce themselves from him. So long as he stays out of jail (and maybe even after he serves his time if he is convicted), he’ll be doing the back-room dealing, out of the public eye. A shadowy Rove.

[BrainGlutton]

@Agent Foxtrot

Yes, he won the primaries with 60% of the vote. I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that 60% of Texans in his district are ignorant of his politics, or just don’t care.

Or agree with his politics, and don’t care about his ethics.

Meaning, they’re likely to replace him with someone not much different in either respect.

[jayjay]

@Loopydude

A shadowy Rove.

While I was going to post that Rove is hardly non-shadowy, I suppose he’s done enough public work for the Administration to not exactly be a behind-the-scenes-dealer. I guess you could call him a sliming beacon of blight at that…

[Loopydude]

Well, Rove does mostly preach to the choir in his more public duties, but I think his influence on Bush administration stragegy is sufficiently evident that he’s far transcended the faceless think tank set. He could retreat from the limelight, I’m sure, but the admin. seems pretty happy to have him far enough out in front that his public utterances are generally understood to reflect policy.