What Remains is ‘Delayism’
04 April 2006 8:24 am by Taylor Marsh
What Remains is “Delayism”
Tom's
Motto: “If you want to play in
our revolution, you have to live by our rules.”
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HOW THE K STREET PROJECT WORKED: In his
dealings with K Street lobbyists, DeLay explicitly stated he would operate by
“the old adage of punish your enemies and reward your friends.”
(To gain influence over legislation, trade associations and corporate lobbyists
were ordered to do three things: 1) refuse to hire Democrats, 2) hire only deserving
Republicans as identified by the congressional leadership, and 3) contribute
heavily to Republican coffers.) Despite being admonished by the House Ethics
Committee numerous times for his conduct, DeLay’s pay-to-play machine
continued to plow full-speed ahead. With federal benefits up for sale, corporations
quickly identified the need to need to hire more lobbyists, giving rise to one
of the greatest growth industries in America. Grover Norquist, head of Americans
for Tax Reform, proudly proclaimed in 2002 that [conservatives] “will
have 90-10 [percentage advantage in staffing] on K Street and 90-10 business
giving.” Think
Progress
The Hammer is history, but what he built stays behind. It's still
the K Street Republicans.
Yes, Tommy's fleeing
to Virginia, so he can avoid a loss he knows is coming. Puh-leaze. The man doesn't
even have the spine to resign honestly. The crook has collapsed and is crawling away.
But it's still the Republican Party that Tommy built and which backed him even
when indicted. Just read
David Dreier's letter. The Delay rule was meant to shield Tommy from having
to take responsibility, even after being indicted. That's the standard of the
Republican Party. Even if you're caught you're still one of Bush's boys.
But the House that Delay built, which put the Republican Party in power, while
Delay did the president's work, has yielded a huge change in Washington.
The realignment is no accident. Republican leaders
for years have been pressing corporate and trade groups to hire more GOP lobbyists
and to support more GOP candidates. They have emphasized the Republican issues
that favor the corporate world, such as regulatory relief, business tax cuts
and liability limits in civil cases (sometimes called tort reform).Their success could have far-reaching implications
for U.S. politics and elections. Democrats increasingly find themselves frozen
out by deep-pocket industries and political action committees, making them
more dependent than ever on a relatively small number of sources: organized
labor, trial lawyers, the entertainment industry, environmentalists, educators
and the high-tech industry. A recent change in campaign finance laws will
exacerbate the Democrats' problems, denying them the big checks they once
received from loyalists in Hollywood and elsewhere, while Republicans use
their corporate ties to collect hundreds of thousands of smaller checks from
management employees and association members who now play a huge role in federal
elections.
It's all a symptom of “Delayism,” which stems from the
House through the Senate and into the White House. It is the culture of Republican
corruption, from money to ethics to the lack of accountability on any issue
from Iraq to Medicare to deficits, you name it.
But Republicans need to do more than bump
DeLay. They need to put the entire leadership team up for a re-vote. That's
because the real problem wasn't DeLay, it was DeLayism, the whole culture
that merged K Street with the Hill, and held that raising money is the most
important way to contribute to the team. – David
Brooks
Donald Rumsfeld hasn't been made to take responsibility for his
ineptitude on Iraq, with George W. Bush's “stay the course” attitude
just another Delayism that ignores responsibility for what has happened throughout
the Iraq war, including the corporate malfeasance of KBR, Halliburton and the
outsourcing of security throughout Iraq.
George W. Bush's Delayism goes even further, extending to the
continual and secret base build up in Iraq that has massive amounts of concrete
being poured in a long-term strategy to have bases in Iraq replace our Persian
Gulf carrier strategy. At these bases, President Bush has amassed huge corporate
cities for the soldiers, while saying little to nothing to the American people
about the build up, except recently, when he slipped up and said the next president
would deal with withdrawal in 2009.
Bush's Delayism was tried down in New Orleans, when the Republicans
tried to do away with Davis-Bacon.
Bush's Delayism is the foundation for the Republican Party's immigration
ideas, which continues to allow cheap labor to corporations without the requisite
penalties to those corporation for breaking labor laws.
Delay is gone, but the House that Delay built and the Republican
Party that George W. Bush runs is still rife with Delayism. It's the legacy of today's Republican Party. Fueled by the corporate paymasters
who pony up to the president and his people and keep the Republicans in power, as Republicans do their bidding from Iraq to Medicare to immigration and beyond. Nothing has changed for the Republican Party because Delayism still rules the
day.
