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Wednesday, April 06, 2005From this morning's Corner:NEW OLD STUFF ABOUT DELAY [K. J. Lopez]Unfortunately, on the case just means on the defensive. Not to be cynical, but as a longtime recipient of Republican fundraising letters, I have yet to see Delay or anyone else include "and make sure my wife and other family members are well-compensated for the things politician's families get dragged into doing" alongside keeping guns legal, keeping taxes down, keeping the Democrats on the run and the other explanations for why I should send my hard-earned "$250() $100() $50()." Frum and Pfeiffer are correct that Delay isn't necessarily the worst, and that the Post and Times pieces are hatchet jobs. But why in these circumstances does Delay insist on making himself such an easy target. We don't read this stuff about Hastert and Frist of even the anti-Christ of campaign finance reform, Mitch McConnel. If they haven't been able to make a three ring circus out of the doings of CFR's most ardent opponent, why do they have such an easy time finding problems with Texas' most famous exterminator? If this picks up traction, Republicans are going to have to figure out where we stand on this and lay down clear lines. We can't just react to the appearance of impropriety or the Times will run lousy stories until Olympia Snowe and John McCain are the only Republicans left on Capitol Hill. But we can't just denounce everything as a media hatchet job or people will get the impression (rightly) that the Republicans will permit all corruptions before considering risking one iota of power. Right now, the GOP is in a position of relative strength, what with controlling the House, the Senate and the White House. But we'll lose that strength if we spend our political capital covering Delay's you know what instead of pushing our agenda. One hopes that Mr. Delay will have some serious talks with the rest of the leadership about what else is going to bog down their efforts to get things done and will step aside if it's too much. One recalls the "Save Social Security first" mantra from awhile back, and worries that the GOP's mantra will become "Save Delay first" Speaking of Social Security, it's pretty transparent that the purpose of the Times and Post is to sabotage an agenda including revamping Social Security by replacing substantive talk with more innuendo. The question for the GOP is whether for all our principles, the GOP leadership is more interested in our agenda or its own power. 
posted by gbarto at 9:00 AM |
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