Tom DeLay Blasts Newt Gingrich
In New Book, Ex-GOP Powerhouse Also Criticizes President Bush And Other Republican Leaders
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Newt Gingrich's Confession
Newt Gingrich admitted he had an extramarital affair while he was in office, but he's not the only one who's been trying to off-load baggage during the campaign season. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich speaks at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference n Washington on March 3, 2007. He has admitted having an affair while leading the charge against President Bill Clinton concerning his affair with Monica Lewinsky. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
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Tom DeLay (CBS)
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DeLay's Dilemma
Here's a look at the career and the woes of the former House majority leader.
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Political Scandals
Politics can be a strange and dirty business. Check out some of the biggest missteps and mishaps in recent history.
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."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 58 CommentsI'm keeping count of all the negative republican vs negative democrat articles on this site. So far, it almost 10:1 against republicans. No bias here.
DeLay:
Shut your lying pie hole and go fleece some gullible bible thumpers.
Why is CBS bothering with this scheming power crazy troglydite? Didn't we learn enough about him and his brownshirt tactics already?
Makes me gag.
Posted by US_Infidel
THAT WOULD BE BECAUSE REPUBLICANS ARE TEN TIMES AS CORRUPT.
"Some political observers said Gingrich wanted to publicly deal with the affair before possibly jumping into the race for the GOP presidential nomination."
MORE LIKELY HE WANTED TO DEAL WITH IT BEFORE DELAY'S BOOK CAME OUT.
Posted by SHURCH4TRUTH at 12:39 PM : Mar 15, 2007
I wondered that myself!! I'm no fan of the (C)linton (B)roadcasting (S)ervice, but this blog ability is really very forward thinking of them. They don't have to do this, so it's really nice of them to have this service for us.
Same pig.. different lipstick!!
"So far, it almost 10:1 against republicans. No bias here."
Did you ever, for one moment, think that maybe the reich wing is doing 10 times the criminal activiy? And, they are the idiot's "in control", so they are under the microscope. So, get used to it.
Even when the nut-jobs spent all their time going after the Clintons, all they could get was his fooling around legally. Shame on you.
Posted by dallison7 at 01:15 PM : Mar 15, 2007
Come now, dalliwacker....we've been down this road before. Don't make me run down the litney of corrupt democrats. It takes 3 posts b/c of the 1500 word limit.
For starters, go look up William (cold cash) Jefferson (D-LA) "Yeah we movin' on up....to da east side" :)
You are right on target! I agree with you 100%. Clinton probably pulls the strings at CBS. I bet he owns it. If not then he probably gives them millions of dollars to post all these phony scandals about Republicans.
Posted by stevex47 at 01:24 PM : Mar 15, 2007
No, but thanks for your input. I'll stick with the facts of the "liberal media bias." It's really the only logical conclusion.
To even suggest that the dem's are even in the same league of criminals as the reich wing is, well, that doesn't make you look smart.
Your party has let the world down big time, face reality please.
Posted by US_Infidel
dalliwacker, I like that, do you mind if I call you US_Insane?
We're just looking at the tip of the iceberg of the criminal activity by the reich wing. There's lots to be revealed.
Attempting to portray the other side as equally criminal is simply not true. But nice try at spinning your woes into someone else's problem.
Posted by stevex47
THESE NEXT TWO YEARS PROMISE TO BE VERY INTERESTING. THE LAST THING THAT THE BUSH/CHENEY CRIME CARTEL EXPECTED WAS A CHANGE OF POWER IN CONGRESS.
LMAO!!
Columnist Robert Novak
Conservative?
How about that other C word -- corrupt.
Posted by ainttaken
I agree. He can't win because he, unfortunately, will still have the 'republican stigma' haunting him. But he can start a dialog aimed at purging the republican party of the neocon influence.
Maybe Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly will get into a big fight over who has groped their secretary the most times and gotten by with it.
Is that the same as.....DON'T THROW THE CONSTITION IN MY FACE IT'S JUST A GOD DAMMM PIECE OF PAPER
He must think nobody can remember what happened yesterday. ( got news for you newt people can remember from day to day )
What gaul!
Posted by ainttaken at 02:01 PM : Mar 15, 2007
Hagel ain't got a snowball's chance in HADES... NOONE in the REPUB camp can win the OVAL OFFICE FOR A VERY LOOONG TIME, thanks to those who elected the IDIOT who lives there now!
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um, I'm pretty sure he's resting his head on the end of his finger. Everyone's done that at one time or another, especially while thinking. Paranoid much, Mr. Conspiracy Theory?
Posted by tucson23 at 02:40 PM : Mar 15, 2007
+ report this comment
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um, I'm pretty sure he's resting his head on the end of his finger. Everyone's done that at one time or another, especially while thinking. Paranoid much, Mr. Conspiracy Theory?
Posted by tucson23 at 02:40 PM : Mar 15, 2007
+ report this comment
Newt Gingrich, 33rd Degree Freemason
Bob Dole, 33rd Degree Freemason
Jack Kemp, 33rd Degree Freemason
Storm Thurmond, 33rd Degree Freemason
Colin Powell, 33rd Degree Freemason, U.S. Secretary of State
Jesse Helms, 33rd Degree Freemason
Barry Goldwater, 33rd Degree Freemason
Al Gore, Freemason
President George Bush and his cousin John Kerry secret order of the skull and bones (knights templar) (Yale high ranking freemasons).
In a new book, DeLay also criticizes President Bush and former GOP House leaders Dennis Hastert and *** Armey."
..and like some poor sick and insane animal the neo.cons begin eating their own young.
, I'm pretty sure he's resting his head on the end of his finger. Everyone's done that at one time or another, especially while thinking. Paranoid much, Mr. Conspiracy Theory?
Posted by tucson23 at 02:40 PM : Mar 15, 2007
He's got his head tilted slightly to the right; MAYBE, he's just trying to keep all of the SH*IT from running out of his HEAD by inserting a finger into his right EAR!!!
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President, 1933 - 1945, made a Mason November 28, 1911, in Holland Lodge No. 8, F. & A.M., New York, New York, the same Lodge in which George Washington, the Nation's first President, held Honorary membership.
Harry S. Truman, 33rd President, 1945 - 1951, made a Mason March 18, 1909, in Belton Lodge No. 450, A.F. & A.M., Belton, Missouri. He served as the Grand Master of Masons of Missouri in 1940. Initiated: February 9, 1909, Belton Lodge No. 450, Belton, Missouri.
In 1911, several Members of Belton Lodge separated to establish Grandview Lodge No. 618, Grandview, Missouri, and Brother Truman served as its first Worshipful Master. President Truman was made a Sovereign Grand Inspector General, 33:, and Honorary Member, Supreme Council on October 19,1945 at the Supreme Council A.A.S.R. Southern Jurisdiction Headquarters in Washington D.C.
Gerald R. Ford, Jr. 38th President, 1974 - 1977. He was raised to the Sublime degree of Master Mason on May 18, 1951 in Columbia Lodge No. 3, F. &.A.M., of Washington, D.C., as a courtesy for Malta Lodge No. 465, F. & A.M. of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Lyndon Baines Johnson 1908-1973. 36th President, 1963 - 1969. Entered Apprentice degree Johnson City Lodge No. 561, Johnson City, Texas October 30, 1937. Did not advance.
Sweet.
...did you just recently learn how to google? 'cause all you post is information anyone can look up themselves.
"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.
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.
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