DeLay under fire: What's at stake

[RedEarth]

In his 20-year rise from back-bencher to one of the most formidable Republican leaders in Congress, no one has understood the limits of Tom DeLay's effectiveness better than the House majority leader himself.


The outspoken Texas conservative, who displays the Ten Commandments in his office but admits he has a hard time loving his enemies, declined to run for House speaker in 1998 because he considered himself "too nuclear." He has kept his profile so low that 42% of those responding to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll this month said they never heard of him or knew too little to form opinions.


But that may be changing. And it could threaten the Republican House majority that DeLay helped create and the conservative agenda he helped advance. DeLay, 58, is getting the most intense scrutiny of his career. He's under fire for several ethics infractions, for his relationship with a lobbyist who is under federal investigation and for comments on judges that critics say could incite violence.


One Republican maverick, Rep. Christopher Shays (news, bio, voting record), R-Conn., over the weekend said DeLay "is hurting this Republican majority." Even conservatives are restive over the barrage of negative publicity: Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., said on national television that DeLay must answer the ethics charges, and the usually pro-Republican Wall Street Journal editorial page accused the majority leader of turning from big-government critic to an "exemplar of some of its worst habits."

The man known on Capitol Hill as "The Hammer" is getting hammered

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20050412/ts_usatoday/delayunderfirewhatsatstake

[coloradodem2005]

1. May he continue to get hammered.

[Horushawk]

2. Here! Here!

[rocktivity]

3. You flew too close to the sun, RoachBoy

when you said you'd pull the financial plug on any Repub that didn't support you. Carrying out your threat would cause a split in the GOP, which in turn would reduce Rove and Cheney's power. Come in for a landing you can walk away from before they finish melting the wax in your feathers!

:headbang:
rocknation