Tom DeLay: It's Was All About Money and Power

America is a better place today with the news that Tom "The Hammer" DeLay is dropping out of politics.

As Kiko's House noted just yesterday, the noose is tightening around the once influential Texas Republican's neck as investigators close in on him. Five key aides and close associates, most recently his own deputy chief of staff, have copped guilty pleas to felonies stemming from investigations into illegal lobbying activities and money laundering.

DeLay's successor as House majority leader, John Boehner, praised The Hammer as a man of "integrity and honor."

That is bullsh*t, of course, as even an ethically impaired idiot like Boehner knows since it was DeLay's utter lack of both that got him his job.

Let's be real clear that this is not a partisan thing. DeLay just happened to be an immensely powerful Republican at a time when the GOP had an iron grip on Washington. That grip finally is diminishing because of the mess he and the right-wing zealots in his party have made of things. The Democrats are capable of being just as bad and may well be when they're back in control.

For his part, DeLay said he was "very much at peace" with his decision, which had followed "months of prayer and contemplation" and was based on is belief that the November election should be a referendum on Republican values and not himself.

Left unsaid was that the decision had more to do with:

* What DeLay's lawyers are telling him about his criminal culpability. Disgraced super lobbyist Jack Abramoff already has ratted out DeLay to a prosecutorial task force and his four other plea-copping pals are likely to do so, too. Meanwhile, he already faces trial on money laundering charges in a Texas court later this year.

* The likelihood that DeLay's once loyal constituents in Sugarland, a Houston suburb, would vote him out of office come November because of their disgust with his behavior and weariness over the embarrassment and ridicule that he has brought on their community. (DeLay, in fact, says he's changing his official residence to his second home in Virginia.)

* The Democrats losing a very big target in labeling the opposition as corrupt, which they will do early and often in mid-term election campaigning.

Apologies may come later, perhaps in a courtroom when that noose tightens further around DeLay's neck.

But for the time being, he is unrepentent and probably unaware of the destructiveness of the partisan money machine he so methodically built and ruthlessly ran like a Mafia don. Not to mention the harm that he has done to American politics, which certainly is a brake on the jubilation that I might otherwise feel.

To the very end, it was all about money and power.

THE END OF AN ERROR

The ubiquitous Glenn Reynolds had this to say about DeLay in The Guardian:

DeLay . . . is under investigation on charges of campaign finance violations, but I'm happy to see him leave for other reasons: He was the architect of the Republicans' "K Street strategy" - a program of incorporating lobbyists and interest groups into the process of governance - that has been disastrous for Republican ideals.

DeLay's defenders say that the K Street strategy is merely a reprise of what Democrats have been doing for decades, and they have a point. But Democrats are supposed to be the party of Big Government. Republicans are not, and the K Street strategy has led to a serious abandonment of their principles. (DeLay lost me back before the scandals broke, when he pronounced, inexplicably, that there was no fat left to cut in the federal budget.) I don't have much hope that DeLay's departure will do much tug the GOP back toward its principles, but it can't hurt.

EVIL OR ARROGANT?

DeLay has been accused of being evil, but as a guy who never played by the rules, isn't arrogant a better description?

I myself believe that the "evil" moniker is way overused in these contentious times and reserve it for only special cases. Come to think of it, with Saddam Hussein in prison and Solobodan Milosevic dead, there's only one man much in the news who has a lot of power to do evil who qualifies as such: Vice President Cheney.

Anyhow, there's a spirited evil DeLay vs. arrogant DeLay discusison going on at a Washington Monthly forum Check it out here.

CYNTHIA McKINNEY: A REAL CARD

Like I said, Democrats are just as capable of being dirty as Republicans. Take Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. Please!

McKinney is in the ethical crosshairs these days because Republican pols and the conservative media need a Democratic scapegoat.

(Speaking of the conservative media, The American Spectator, for example, posted an article headlined "Mount McKinney" today, but there was nary a peep about The Hammer, its one-time darling. The Daily Standard was more forthcoming in an article debunking the notion being trafficked by DeLay supporters that he was quitting for purely political reasons.)

In any event, the fiery McKinney certainly gives her critics plenty of ammunition.

Stories of McKinney misusing her office and taxpayer money are legion, and it was revealed this week that she paid soul music legend Isaac Hayes $1,000 to fly to Atlanta for the dedication of her new congressional home office. That is an illegal use of public money under House rules.

Last week, the six-term congresswoman scuffled with Capitol police when she tried to enter a House office building without an identifying pin label. McKinney's response was to play the gender and race cards by claiming that she was grabbed by an officer because she is a "female black congresswoman" and we all know how few of them there.

McKinney's latest exploits have prompted Atlanta area blogger Dignan to announce that he plans to run against her. He explains why at Dignan's 75 Year Plan:

Imagine having a representative in Congress who cares nothing about her constituents. Imagine your representative constantly being a target because of lunatic statements that would make great headlines at The Onion. Imagine having a virulent racist as your representative.

I don't have to imagine these things. I have to live with this each day.

Cynthia McKinney is not unfit for her job because she is liberal. There are plenty of liberal Democrats who serve their constituents well, even though I often disagree with their positions.

Cynthia McKinney is unfit for her job because she is a do-nothing demogogue whose apparent goal in life is self-promotion through race-baiting and conspiracy theories.