Tom DeLay Blasts Newt Gingrich
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says Newt Gingrich was an ineffective leader who didn't even now how to run a meeting.
In a new book, DeLay also criticizes President Bush and former GOP House leaders Dennis Hastert and Dick Armey. DeLay's remarks were reported by syndicated political columnist Robert Novak.
DeLay was one of the new Republican House leaders who ushered in the Gingrich-inspired "Contract With America" in 1994. He complains that Gingrich's lack of leadership skills hampered GOP efforts to change the nation.
"He knew nothing about running meetings and nothing about driving an agenda," DeLay wrote. "Nearly every other day he had a new agenda, a new direction he wanted us to take. It was impossible to follow him."
DeLay also said the GOP leadership was in "no moral shape" to press impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, noting that then-House Speaker Gingrich was having an extra-martial affair with a staffer while the proceedings were under way.
Gingrich recently acknowledged the affair in an interview with a conservative Christian group. Some political observers said Gingrich wanted to publicly deal with the affair before possibly jumping into the race for the GOP presidential nomination.
DeLay relinquished his House leadership post and left Congress in 2006, following his indictment in Texas. Prosecutors accuse DeLay of violating state law by funneling $190,000 in illegal corporate money to the Republican National Committee, which then donated the same amount to Texas candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can't be directly used for political campaigns.
DeLay denies the transaction was illegal.
In the book, "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight," DeLay said of Mr. Bush: "He has expanded government to suit his purpose, especially in the area of education. He may be compassionate, but he is certainly no conservative in the classic sense."
Columnist Novak had this to say about the book: "DeLay was the most conservative congressional leader I have witnessed in 50 years covering Capitol Hill. I rate him with Lyndon B. Johnson as a dominant legislator. But his revelation that GOP leaders did not constitute a band of brothers helps explain why 12 years of control produced much less than was anticipated."
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. In a new book, DeLay also criticizes President Bush and former GOP House leaders Dennis Hastert and Dick Armey. DeLay's remarks were reported by syndicated political columnist Robert Novak.
DeLay was one of the new Republican House leaders who ushered in the Gingrich-inspired "Contract With America" in 1994. He complains that Gingrich's lack of leadership skills hampered GOP efforts to change the nation.
"He knew nothing about running meetings and nothing about driving an agenda," DeLay wrote. "Nearly every other day he had a new agenda, a new direction he wanted us to take. It was impossible to follow him."
DeLay also said the GOP leadership was in "no moral shape" to press impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, noting that then-House Speaker Gingrich was having an extra-martial affair with a staffer while the proceedings were under way.
Gingrich recently acknowledged the affair in an interview with a conservative Christian group. Some political observers said Gingrich wanted to publicly deal with the affair before possibly jumping into the race for the GOP presidential nomination.
DeLay relinquished his House leadership post and left Congress in 2006, following his indictment in Texas. Prosecutors accuse DeLay of violating state law by funneling $190,000 in illegal corporate money to the Republican National Committee, which then donated the same amount to Texas candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can't be directly used for political campaigns.
DeLay denies the transaction was illegal.
In the book, "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight," DeLay said of Mr. Bush: "He has expanded government to suit his purpose, especially in the area of education. He may be compassionate, but he is certainly no conservative in the classic sense."
Columnist Novak had this to say about the book: "DeLay was the most conservative congressional leader I have witnessed in 50 years covering Capitol Hill. I rate him with Lyndon B. Johnson as a dominant legislator. But his revelation that GOP leaders did not constitute a band of brothers helps explain why 12 years of control produced much less than was anticipated."
Popular in Politics
- Obama forgets to salute while boarding Marine One Play Video
- Petraeus biographer regrets affair
- IRS' Lerner was asked to resign, refused: GOP Sen. 188 Comments
- Obama prom pictures surface 131 Comments
- GOP Rep.: Obama elected because of Reagan's immigration reforms
- Palin Image: Confident, Secure Play Video
- Is President Obama ending the war on terror? 293 Comments
- Pelosi ties bridge collapse to sequester
Yet, CBS publishes 3 days worth of a DeLay book slamming Gingrich and other republicans. Not that there's anything wrong with slamming Newt....I think he's a sleezeball. At least I try to be fair.
Nope....no bias at CBS that I can see.
Ronald Reagan started it - with the help of this lying piece of human excrement from Georgia (Gingrich) and Captain Kangaroo Suit Henry Hyde from Illinois, my former Congressman.
All three - nay, ALL Republicans, deserve the hottest places in Hell - right next to Richard Nixon's Coffee Bar.
Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
--------------------------------
...did you just recently learn how to google? 'cause all you post is information anyone can look up themselves.
Posted by oleander8 at 03:42 PM : Mar 15, 2007
+ report this comment
For Democrats, the lesson is not to congratulate themselves on relative merit, but to redouble efforts at making sure they do not commit the same faults. None get a free pass in politics, and none should.
If political corruption were easy to resist and/or hide, we would not see that familiar, recurring story of rise and fall in Washington politics.
"DeLay also said the GOP leadership was in "no moral shape" to press impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, noting that then-House Speaker Gingrich was having an extra-martial affair with a staffer while the proceedings were under way. However, DeLay is not finished, charging the GOP with a failure of leadership."
Astonishingly, the GOP attempt to remove Clinton depended heavily on the single affair of Monica Lewinsky-- previous GOP fishing expeditions at taxpayer expense came up empty. More to the point, however, any attempt to tar and feather by the same brush used against Clinton could have rendered DeLay, Hastert, Gingrich and the rest unrecognizable.
To be sure, no Democrat was pleased by Clinton's affair, but most Americans-- Democrat or Republican-- can understand the difference between lying about a sexual affair, and a wholesale career of lies culminating in the biggest political fraud of all--Iraq and the regime of George Bush. And so it goes... in a Bush era marked by the foul, ever-present stench of corruption and greed, the shame of lies and demagoguery, and an incompetence rarely seen in history.