DeLay A Gift To Democrats

American Prospect: House Leader's Troubles A Boon For Democrats

(The American Prospect)  This column from The American Prospect was written by Terence Samuel.

---

It can't be good for Tom DeLay that the president of the United States is allowing the White House spokesman to begin qualifying the friendship between the two powerful Texans. It's not good for Tom DeLay that Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who was once upon a time something of a DeLay ideological clone, is saying that House majority leader has some explaining to do about the ethical issues that have enveloped him of late. And it has to be downright awful for Tom DeLay to have to go over to the other side of the Capitol to try to persuade Senate Republicans not to abandon him as he goes through whatever hell he has to endure.

But the worst of it for Tom DeLay must be his weekly "pen and pad" briefing, where he usually talks about the House schedule for the week and all the great things, large and small, that Republicans are doing for the country and the world.

This week, the line for the pen and pad began forming outside DeLay's Capitol office more than 45 minutes before the scheduled start. The first reporter in line was from the BBC, the third was from the Financial Times, and you have to guess that they weren't all that interested in the schedule. It may be too early to call it a deathwatch, but the long lines were not a result of the promised discussion about the repeal of the estate tax. The kind of attention that DeLay has attracted in recent days is some evidence that he has lost control of the story. His response this week, a refusal to discuss the ethics charges against him, is confirmation of that. Everything in his personal style and his political history tells us that DeLay would like to come out fighting, to blast away at the Democrats, the press, and other critics. He is good on the attack, and it has always been effective for him.

But this week, seemingly engulfed by the accusations, DeLay decided that it was time to go to ground just as former Speaker New Gingrich was publicly advising that DeLay was going to have to go public in a big way at some point in time. "I know that the left and the Democrats and some in the media would rather have me addressing other matters," DeLay said Wednesday. For answers to ethics questions, "I would direct them to my press staff," he offered.