Tom DeLay To Pursue Corruption In Private Sector

Tom DeLay To Pursue Corruption In Private Sector

April 9, 2006

STAFFORD, TX—

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is facing several ethics violations and felony charges, announced Tuesday that he will resign from Congress in order to concentrate on corruption in the private sector. "I can say with a clear lack of conscience that, after 21 years of public disservice, I have done everything I could to the American people," DeLay said in a televised statement to constituents. "I have a lot to offer the corporate world, such as money laundering and influence-peddling." DeLay added that, before assuming his new irresponsibilities, he looks forward to spending more time alienating his family and cheating on his wife.


Here is a truer picture of Tom Delay.Come on Ronnie Earle. Let the bugman preach in prison. Let's see what it gets him there.

Tom DeLay may look as though he's finished because he is quitting Congress, facing a trial on felony political corruption charges in Texas and being targeted by federal prosecutors in the Jack Abramoff scandal. But that would be dead wrong: DeLay recently told one of his pastors that God wanted him to leave Congress in part because He has bigger plans for DeLay. That pastor, the Rev. Rick Scarborough, introduced DeLay to a Christian conference just last week, saying, "This is a man, I believe, God has appointed . . . to represent righteousness in government."

So mark those words. DeLay may be leaving Congress, but he will be back with a vengeance, in a new and potentially more powerful role, because he is a ferociously determined man who believes he is on a politico-religious mission from God.snipAnd DeLay's crusade will not be sidetracked by the acts of mortals such as states' attorneys, crooked lobbyists and disgraced former staffers who are poised to testify against him. In DeLay's world he answers only to a higher power, and his personal Armageddon has only just begun. He will artfully squeeze a load of money from the Christian Right as he makes his thunderous argument from multiple pulpits in the weeks and months ahead. The new Tom DeLay will combine aspects of the Revs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, and Lee Atwater, the late right-wing political consultant with the legendary killer instinct.snipLooking back, I see DeLay as a somewhat pathetic figure. He'd started his professional life as a pest exterminator in Houston. His business eventually went under, but not before the IRS had sued him three times for not paying income and payroll taxes, and he twice lost court judgments to ex-partners who claimed he'd cheated them. From that base, he launched his unlikely political career in Sugar Land, Tex., in 1978 as part of the Reagan revolution. As a professional pest-killer, DeLay came to believe that government threatened the very existence of small businesses and made a career of speaking for the little guy; he likened the Environmental Protection Agency to "the Gestapo." As a state legislator, he did little of note, except develop a reputation for partying that earned him the nickname "Hot Tub Tom."snipAnd now, DeLay says he prayed long and hard before God made clear to him that He no longer wants DeLay to represent Texas's 22nd Congressional District. Instead, DeLay says, his God wants him to be a messenger -- on a much broader scale. And we will see DeLay constantly smiling as he delivers his message because in his heart he knows that we hopeless sinners will always hate the messenger.

The Delay spin machine works overtime. The humanizing of Tom Delay,the bugman. He's such a good man.

RICHMOND, Tex. -- With its white rail fence, long entry drive, and landscaped lawns surrounding large brick houses, Rio Bend looks like many of the neighborhoods springing up in the exurbs southwest of Houston. But the 13 adults and 26 children who have moved in since summer of last year are part of a novel experiment in foster care -- built with money from the fundraising operation of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and his wife's drive to change child welfare policy.
Rio Bend, still under construction, is the only subdivision in the United States designed for each home to be filled with a foster family. (sounds terrible...oh you live in the foster care subdivision..yuk yuk yuk)snipAlthough children can be of any religion, the parents welcomed here are Christian, married couples with only one working outside the home. They must be experienced as foster parents. After a grand opening last August, 200 people called to say they were interested. Candidates are first screened by Lutheran Social Services, the largest provider of child welfare services in Texas, which works with the parents and children here. The decision rests with Rio Bend, and the congressman's wife interviews many finalists.snipDespite the promise of a permanent place to live, 12 of the 38 youngsters here since summer 2005 have moved out. None of them, state records show, has moved back home with a parent. A few were too young for Rio Bend's mission. One girl was too threatening. A boy did not get along with his foster parents.

Two sets of parents have moved out, too. One couple wanted to take in only babies and was asked to leave, said Danny Wright, who works here for Lutheran Social Services. And Iva Power said she and her husband, Michael, moved out last month because they felt Lutheran Social Services did not give them enough support.