The Lilliput Congress
This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.
Here's what will be important about the saga of Tom DeLay in 25 years: this turn of the century will be seen as period when the power of Congress to legislate and provide political leaders was vastly diminished and the repeated take-downs of party leaders in Congress was a key element in that decline.
And that is all that will be important about Tom DeLay in 25 years.
Regardless of whether DeLay - GOP congressman from Texas since 1984, and House Majority Leader since 2003 - gets to keep some or all of his jobs, he is but the latest in a long line of Speakers and Leaders leeched to death, or near death, by the suckers of scandal and perquisites.
The costs of this for Congress and for the country have been serious. While politicians do each other in, little else gets done.
In the modern era, this began in 1989. In June, petty pilfery forced the Democratic Speaker of the House, Jim Wright to resign with words of melodramatic sacrifice, "Let me give you back this job you gave to me as a propitiation for all of this season of bad will that has grown among us."
Well, there ain't been no propitiating going on at the Capitol in the 16 years since and there's been a Texas torrent of bad will.
Two weeks before Wright resigned in a huff, his whip, Tony Coelho, quit in a cloud of his own scandal. The next whip, William Gray, resigned two years later.
In 1998, Republican Newton Leroy
, who led the pack against Wright, resigned as Speaker of the House - devoured by forces he helped unleash. Republicans then chose Louisiana's Bob Livingston to succeed Gingrich, but he was forced out of Congress before he could even assume the position. In 2002, the leader of the Senate Republicans, Trent Lott, was forced out of his leadership post. Sort of a Gilded Age for Congressional graft, isn't it?Maybe. Maybe the pols of this turn of the century are worse than their Congressional ancestors. But I doubt that today's PAC-addicts quite compare to the rogues of Tammany Hall and Cook County from times past.
Maybe it's just that today's partisans find it too often in their short-term interests to practice Congressional cannibalism and they can't stop. They keep eating their own. In public.
Admittedly, the media is a ferocious enabler and the main vehicle for the destruction of an officeholder. But American journalism has always loved scandal; the pamphleteers of the early republic make even today's tabloids look like tepid porridge. In the end, it's the pols who sign the death certificates. Still, there's no denying that the press, and especially the explosion of media outlets from cable to blogs, is a huge factor; there are probably other factors I also ignore.
The Wright resignation was a turning point. It was bracketed by three hideous nomination battles (John Tower, Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas). Together, these slander-fests left a bitter taste in Congress' mouth that hasn't been gargled away. The Club of Congress closed.
I would argue that since 1989, there have been four bad mega-trends in Congress:
1. Congress has been less able to produce national political figures of stature - politicians with countrywide name identification, long careers, a perception that they might be of "presidential timber" and legislative success in their resume. I can think of one in the post-Jim Wright era: John McCain.
2. Congress has been less able to address widely acknowledged problems by passing legislation and has found it more difficult to pass "landmark" legislation. Quick: name a bill that has passed since 1989 that you'll remember ten years from now? Family and Medical Leave? Welfare Reform? Bush tax cuts? Yes, the votes on the Iraq Wars were important, but they were statements of permission for executive action.
3. Congress has been less able to produce veteran members who have both expertise and clout in special jurisdictions like foreign policy or defense. This used to be how Congress was run: Senators and Representatives would pile up the years of seniority and institutional wisdom on committees they someday would dominate. The Richard Russells and Henry Jacksons would be anachronisms today in the same way that, to some, Robert Byrd now appears to be.
Party rebels could be deprived of position and thus of power. Now, all members have equal access to the levers of power - raised funds and microphones - and there are no bosses with real power, even Tom DeLay, who has far more power among the lobbyists on K Street than he does on Pennsylvania Avenue.
More importantly, being a Congressional elder was prestigious and honored in and of itself. It wasn't a way to get a good lobbying job or a seat on a bunch of corporate boards.
4. Moderates have grown more scarce and bipartisanship harder to find. That's why there's less legislation. Neither war nor peace has brought American politicians together on substantial matters in the past decade and a half. Nor has prosperity. The self-identified moderate wing of the Republican Party has disappeared. But a lot of people have been forced to quit their seats in disgrace.
Put aside the minutia, the charges and counter-charges, your own likes and dislikes for a moment and look at the story of Tom DeLay through this lens. There's no good outcome.
Dick Meyer, a veteran political and investigative producer for CBS News, is the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com, based in Washington.
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By Dick Meyer