Delayed Departure

I had another topic to write about today, but I’m too giddy, too lightheaded over the impending announcement that Tom DeLay, the Reb congressman from Texas and former majority leader of the House, is not only withdrawing from his reelection campaign but is going to resign from the House.

There is a God in heaven. It seems that freedom is on the march after all! Democracy is spreading all across the Lone Star State! Liberty’s bright light is sending at least one roach running under the stove! These are the kind of sentences I write when I’m lightheaded.

DeLay is a former exterminator, both in his career before being elected to Congress in 1984 and in his role in the Reb party apparatus. His job was to exterminate any form of opposition to the ultra-conservative agenda. In the course of driving out the pests and rodents that scurry along the marble hallways in the Rayburn Office Building, he got exposed to too many toxic substances. He poisoned himself; he got sick with the power of his office.

Every middle-school student who has had a basic civics class has learned that power has the overwhelming potential to corrupt, especially those who wield it with arrogance and utter disregard for the rules of engagement. Tom DeLay is the face of arrogance in power, as witnessed by the almost eerie smirk on his face when he stood for a mug shot after being indicted, arrested and booked on charges of illegally funneling money to Texas state legislative campaigns. That picture makes him the poster child for the campaign to eradicate the disease of corruption due to the prolonged exposure to too much power.

Now, with two of his most senior aides, including his deputy chief of staff, having pled guilty to crimes in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, DeLay can hear the footsteps of justice bearing down on him like an Oklahoma linebacker. People like DeLay do not, repeat, do not resign from power “to pursue other interests” or “to spend time with their family”. They resign because other interests are in hot pursuit of them. In this instance the pursuer is a prosecutor and DeLay has read the Book of Daniel often enough to be able to read the writing on the prison walls. DeLay may well want to spend time with his family, before he starts serving time with some guy named Bubba from Beaumont.

The prospect of Tom DeLay going to jail with Bubba, Jack, or his former aides is increasing with each passing step in the judicial process. While it’s tempting to descend into crass delight over this fall from power, that isn’t the reason to view this prospect with hope. The video showing a former majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives being led in handcuffs into the slammer is just about the ultimate civics lesson for all middle-school kids, and for any “adolescent” politicians in Washington, DC, Austin, Texas, and the other capitol cities in America.

DeLay has told Time magazine that he feels “liberated” by his decision and that he will now spend his time pursuing the goals of getting Rebs elected to office and – sound the alarm – get the children off the street – “forging a closer connection between religion and government.” It’s hard to imagine any Reb, other than one running unopposed in an overwhelmingly conservative district, wanting Tom DeLay’s help at this point. Standing next to this guy, with the toxic fumes still rolling off him, is not exactly a high priority photo opportunity. But, if DeLay has money to spend, he’ll find someone who will take that shot.

It’s the second of his stated goals that should make our skin crawl, just like it does when we realize a spider is crawling on our neck or a roach is headed up our leg. Forging a bond between religion and government is the Iranian model of government. It’s the form of freedom that Islamic fundamentalists want to spread throughout the world, and they’ve found a blood brother in Tom DeLay. Tom DeLay is an aspiring ayatollah; he is an American version of the Iraqi Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. I swear this guy would form a militia if he thought it had a chance to survive.

He and his fellow hard-line clerics in the Middle East speak the same language of fundamentalist oppression of anyone who believes anything other than their version of inspired truth. They have discerned the will of God and they are on a mission from God. Before this mission is said and done, we will see Tom DeLay don the robes of a Christian martyr and he will be hailed as such in conservative Christian churches and conservative talk shows across the land. In that role, he will once again be spraying his special brand of poison in every home and in every mind and heart he enters.

Men like Tom DeLay are a clear and present danger to freedom in America. When they step out of the klieg lights that shine on the national stage, they should still be watched very closely. Just because a roach runs under the stove, doesn’t mean it’s out of the kitchen. It’s just waiting for the lights to be turned out so it can feel liberated and can emerge to pursue its goals.