WITHOUT DELAY

April 6, 2006 - Tom Delay took himself out of the running to become the first Sugarland Republican to stand trial and for re-election at the same time. He had just won re-nomination handily against two opponents scoring an overwhelming majority. He said that his decision to bow out and resign from the House by June was only because he spare his party from a bitter and expensive campaign to retain his seat. It had nothing to do with his indictment. It had nothing to do with the news that a second trusted aid had just plead guilty to accepting bribes while working for the Hammer. It had nothing to do with the fact the two of his most trusted aides have now agreed to help the prosecution in the ever widening Abramoff corruption investigation.

He said that he would continue to work to advance conservative issues but that he falt that he could be more effective out of Congress than in it. In June he will change is official residence from Texas to Virginia and his office address from the Capitol to K Street. With Jack Abramoff headed to prison for six years the Congressman may see a real opportunity as the new King of K Street. One thing is sure, Tom ain’t planning on going back to killing bugs. You won’t spot him driving around Dallas with a plastic roach attached to the roof of his BMW.

While they praise the Hammer’s work as the ruthless leader of the ultra conservative movement in the House privately the Republican leadership in Washington is expressing sincere relief at his departure. With polls showing Democrats well ahead in as many as 20 competitive seats and Delay’s high profile legal difficulties continuing to make news maintaining Republican control of the House of Representatives has been an uphill path. Without Delay as a target and reminder of the taint of the Abramoff scandal as a Democrat focus the 2006 campaign road may be a bit more smooth.

In the heat of the first days of the Abramoff scandal Republican promises of reform and regulation of lobbying were extravagant. Limits on gifts from lobbyists; limits on meals paid for by lobbyists; limits on lobbyist paid junkets and corporate funded travel were among the earnest proposals floated in the political air. Even as Duke Cunningham tearfully announced his guilty plea and resignation for having taken millions in disguised bribes – not lunches or extravagant gifts or trips to Scotland or the Marianas – the leadership of both parties were strangely silent on the core of that corruption while the House Ethics Committee remained non-functional and emasculated.

If the Republican Congressional campaign is to avoid a credible charge of having fostered a culture of corruption the House is going to have to produce real and meaningful measures to bring K Street under control. The leadership needs to understand that it can’t do that with petty measures cutting back the members lunch money and they need to understand that a work schedule that calls for Congress to work less than the 80th Congress that Harry called “Do Nothing” in 1948 won’t cut the mustard. The new team of Hastert and Boehner need to become reformers with real results and they need to do it without delay.