|
Does the Hammer Go To the Slammer?
Tom DeLay caught the attention of the Baptist Standard in Texas when he criticized Baylor, a Baptist school. Tom did not realize the tape was running when he offered advice to a Christian audience. He told them that true Christians would not send their children to Baylor or Texas A&M. Evidently these left leaning institutions would seduce their children with wicked world views. Tom made these comments while speaking at Rick Scarborough's old church, First Baptist Pearland. DeLay himself was booted out of Baylor during his student years for his robust lifestyle. Sources reveal this lifestyle continued at A&M and Tom never graduated there. 2 It was interesting that Tom's daughter attended Baylor. Her later saga of a hot tub and champagne with lobbyists reminds Texas journalists of her father's early lifestyle. Early on as a legislator, DeLay was known as "hot tub Tom." Tom gave up his riotous youthful living to eventually connect with the Christian organization Promise Keepers. He joined Second Baptist Church in Houston. However, ethical compromises continued to follow the leader of the House. Late Texas journalist Molly Ivins reported that born again Christian DeLay received tens of thousands of political action money from Bacardi, the liquor corporation. He also solicited donor money for foster children which ended up paying for golf tournaments, cruises and private dinners with him. After complaints to the IRS, DeLay canceled the effort. 3 DeLay became known as the king of campaign fundraising. He visited Caribbean resorts, golf courses and four star restaurants. The money for these trips came from donors who wanted to bankroll his political money empire. He made over 48 trips to golf clubs and resorts. Flew over 100 flights aboard corporation jets and stayed in 200 hotels. He often ate at restaurants that averaged $200 for a dinner of two. Since joining the House leadership as majority whip in 1995, DeLay raised at least $35 million for his campaign, PACs and legal defense fund. This was done even though he never faced any serious opposition to his candidacy. He is revered in his south Houston district. No other Congressman raised this amount of money and Tom carried huge amounts of influence on the hill with his ability to connect with big donors.4 Senator Al Franken found DeLay disgusting with the claims for a moral high ground with his abuse of power and influence. Franken claims DeLay was closer to the corrupt Jack Abramoff than anyone in Washington. Franken found it offensive that DeLay was connected to island resorts that encouraged prostitutes to have abortions to keep servicing clients. This while DeLay and company opposed abortion in Congress. 5 DeLay also sat idly by as Abramoff and Ralph Reed ripped off Texas Indians with the scandal of playing one tribe against another and profiting from both reservations. Tom's roots in politics seem to come from his anger at the EPA. Tom hated this environmental watchdog for not allowing him to kill Texas fire ants the way he wanted to. This led to his plan to run for Congress to allow pest control people a free reign in use of poisons. What started as a desire to open up stronger poison bottles, led to the biggest fund raiser in Congress by contacts with big industry.6 He would use some of this corporate money from Kansas to get Republicans elected in Texas. Donors and politicians learned like fire ants not to get on the wrong side of the hammer. Tom took a check of $100,000 from Corrections Corporation of America. This is a company that runs private prisons. The company track record is not that strong but Tom became their ally. Tom carried a big stick and corporations knew and feared him. According to Molly Ivins Tom was not only feared, but he was hated.7 With an ethical background and reputation Tom had, readers might find it strange that he had the blessing of the Religious Right; which seems to point to a more corporate blessing than Biblical for the group. Tom also wanted churches to get their government blessings. He championed causes against separation of church and state and promoted George Bush's faith based initiative. He felt as if the notion of refusing government funding of church programs was a misguided court decision imposed on the nation over the last forty of fifty years.8 Tom bills himself as a family values man. His own family appears close. Insiders claim his wife is more of a hammer than Tom. She does not appear by reports to be the submissive- passive type folks at Houston Second Baptist would desire. Tom was estranged to his own mother. Tom despised the Democratic Party and considered them socialist and moving away from a God centered nation. He saw Democrats as promoting secularism while he advocated family and faith values. His main mission was to "bring us back to the Constitution and to Absolute Truth that has been manipulated and destroyed by a liberal worldview." Tom was also known as the "Exterminator". Like his hated fire ants, Tom voiced his wrath on those who refused to fund his campaign to save the country. He told his followers, "If you want to play in our revolution, you have to live by our rules." This revolution includes destroying the Environmental Protection Agency which he calls the "Gestapo of government." The revolution also includes repealing clean air and water policies. It means holding down minimum wage and protecting corporations from lawsuits and liberating corporate America from Government. Tom wants this revolt to also include ending the separation of church and state and adopting the Ten Commandments as the guideline for public schools. He blamed school shootings because his policies were not in place in the nation. The hammer led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton for ethical conduct violations. One of Tom's allegations against the Clinton was that he cheated at golf. Tom's old company, Albo Pest Control, as well as other endeavors raises ethical violation issues in business ethics. He has had run ins with the IRS and business associates who claimed he cheated them.9 Texas Fort Bend county Republicans like Jacqueline Blankenship found the wrath of Tom by going against him. They claim they were victims of his wrath. Tom can speak at the Christian Coalition one week and the next travel to Vegas with a planeload of lobbyists. One trip was taken with his daughter as an aid earning $60,000 consulting fees. She supposedly partied with lobbyists while in town. Such events caused one local paper to say, "The hypocrisy, to me reeks." Of course Tom was on board to stop the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. Corporate secretive funding was Tom's life blood and disclosures of where money came from was too binding according to the Texan. 10 Tom DeLay came into national prominence with the Terri Schiavo incident. Tom hit the airways bashing the court decision to pull the plug on Terri. The L.A. Times promptly revealed an incident with Tom's father in 1988. Tom's father had been injured in a freak accident at his lake home. Delay agreed to the instructions to "Not Resuscitate". 11 Not only did DeLay go along with this, he later agreed to a family law suit against a ball bearing manufacturing company because his father had constructed a device to get him to the lake and it collapsed on him. This revelation was intriguing because DeLay has long championed industry against individual lawsuits. The Religious Right rose to the occasion to defend Tom on the charges brought against him in an Austin court. Tom was accused of money laundering and circumventing state law against corporate contributions. Salon News service ran an ironic comic of DeLay being crucified. One carton stated the Democratic judge prosecuting Delay did so because DeLay was a Christian. 12 Tom's pastor, Ed Young of Second Baptist said, "Tom, we believe in you, "A lie will run around the world four or five times before the truth can put on its tennis shoes,..." (Young also said he did not believe Ken Lay of Enron did anything wrong.) Jerry Falwell argued that DeLay "is the target of an ugly political witch hunt." Rick Scarborough called the prosecution of DeLay "a witch hunt brought on by a veteran democratic operative." 13 Tom is found guilty by a jury of his peers and at this time sentencing is left up to the judge. In response to the guilty verdict he replied, "This is an abuse of power, It's a miscarriage of justice. I still maintain my innocence. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system." Tom had used this corporate money to get GOP legislatures seated in Austin. This was the legislative body that drew the lines for redistricting. Critics claim this redistricting helped insure GOP elections for the future. According to many, Tom has left huge footprints across Texas.14 Of course DeLay is going to appeal. Government power is at stake in this one. There are no doubt deep pockets willing to take this decision to more than another level of the courts. For a man who got his start in politics being mad at people who kept him from killing ants, he has certainly come a long way to the court house in Austin. He still is not finished with his mission to restore the nation by his assault on the separation of church and state. Terri Schiavo's memory won't let him rest until he reaches his goal.
Endnotes:
Does the Hammer Go To the Slammer? | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
Does the Hammer Go To the Slammer? | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
|
||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
print page
