GOP's troubles
Toolbox
Published: September 30, 2005
In fairness, it's too soon to write off the take-no-prisoners political career of Tom DeLay, the combative 11-term Texan who was forced to step aside as majority leader in the House of Representatives yesterday after a grand jury accused him of taking part in a criminal conspiracy.
Americans are correctly taught to believe that the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty, so for the time being it's reasonable to give DeLay the benefit of the doubt. When the case against him is resolved, perhaps his name will be cleared.
But that's small comfort to the nation's Republicans, who are so uncomfortably on the defensive on several fronts. DeLay's Senate counterpart, Bill Frist of Tennessee, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, President Bush's popularity has plunged in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina fiasco and the deplorable situation in Iraq, and there is the unresolved matter of who in the White House illegally leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press.
Frist and DeLay may yet be cleared, and there may be no indictments in the Plame case. But add DeLay's troubles to the falling support for the war in Iraq and what appears to be the general perception that the Republicans, under Bush's undisciplined leadership, are either inept or corrupt (or perhaps both), and the party's prospects appear to have taken a sharp dip since last year's elections.
Fortunately for them, the next Congressional elections are still a year off and by then the current scandals may largely be forgotten by the voters. If the elections were to be held this November, Republicans would still enjoy the advantage of the fund raising and redistricting successes DeLay has personally overseen. But increasingly American voters appear disillusioned with the performance of the majority party.
However, DeLay's Republican colleagues resolutely united behind their beleaguered leader, enthusiastically applauding his condemnation of the Texas district attorney, Ronnie Earle, as a "partisan fanatic."
Such a charge may resonate with Republican diehards – the Rev. Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition defended DeLay as "a Christian man" and he accused Earle of seeking "political retribution" – but it will be harder to sell to the general public. Earle, though a Democrat, has prosecuted many more of his own party than he has Republicans and, significantly, most folks know there is no more fiercely partisan politician than DeLay.
Also, Americans will be reminded – certainly by the Democrats and surely by political pundits – that when House Republicans began to fear DeLay might be in trouble, they outrageously voted to drop their own rule requiring a party leader to step down if indicted on a felony charge. Only after a cascade of criticism did they reluctantly reinstate the rule. And it was that rule that led to DeLay's "temporary" resignation yesterday.
The real problem that DeLay's indictment dramatizes is the dangerous role big money plays in America's elections, especially when combined with the hubris of entrenched power. So it is with hope that we note the Supreme Court's decision, announced this week, that it will review a Vermont law that challenges the court's 1976 ruling that, as long as the money is raised legally or comes from a candidate's personal wealth, campaign expenditures are actually a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment.
The idea that campaign spending represents an exercise in free speech is repugnant when it is clear that those with the deepest pockets gain such an unfair advantage over their less-wealthy political foes. That regrettable post-Watergate ruling opened the floodgates to the huge campaign fund accumulations that ever since have distorted America's political landscape.
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