DeLay’s religious backers should see the corruption in his ethical lapses
During the dark days of the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson was fond of telling visitors that, “I’m the only president you’ve got.” Johnson subsequently chose not to run for re-election.
President Richard Nixon was thought to be inoculated against impeachment because his vice president was the hapless Spiro Agnew. Then the vice president cut a deal with the Internal Revenue Service and resigned. Gerald Ford became vice president, and articles of impeachment against Nixon were voted out of the House Judiciary Committee.
No government official is indispensable. The only pertinent question becomes: Who’s next in line?
One theme of last week’s debate in the House of Representatives was the indispensability of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. House Speaker Dennis Hastert had rewritten the House ethics investigation rules in order to protect DeLay. National uproar convinced members to revoke Hastert’s rules revision.
A ruthless player, DeLay has become symbolic of the religious right’s dominance of the congressional Republican Party.
For the cynical, it is easy to roll one’s eyes at the ethical allegations against DeLay and say that all congressmen play fast and loose with the rules. In the allegations against DeLay, there is an echo of the scandal that brought down Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas some 25 years ago. Speaker Hastert would do well to remember what became of Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley of Spokane when he ignored the furor over the House Bank. Foley and his majority were swept out of office.
The contradiction in Tom DeLay’s ethical lapses is that he advertises himself as a conservative Christian. He led a congressional attack on federal judges in the Terri Schiavo matter. That was a red meat issue for the right wing religious lobby, which made Schiavo’s life an emblem.
DeLay has set himself up as a quasi-religious symbol in a way that his predecessors, even Newt Gingrich, did not. How odd that this professional Christian doesn’t see the necessity for an ethical framework in the lives of congressmen. And how odd that the Christians who back DeLay don’t see the corruption at the heart of this matter.
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