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Wednesday, September 28, 2005

The Spirit of '94

The Moose notes the end of the "revolution".

Tom DeLay will not return as Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. Whatever the outcome of his upcoming trial, he is finished as a Republican Leader. He sealed his doom when he suggested that there was no more fat to be cut out of the federal government. His right wing base both outside and inside the House will now be far less likely to stick with him.

DeLay has become for the Republicans what Jim Wright somewhat unfairly became for the Democrats in the early '90s - a symbol of an entrenched, corrupt establishment. As the Moose recently wrote,

"The Bug Man is the most representative leader of what the congressional wing of the GOP has become. The promise of the 1994 Republican takeover of the House of Representatives was to reform the institution and promote conservative principles of limited government, fiscal prudence, and the rights of states and localities. The Republican pledge, summed up in the now laughable Contract with America, was to end the crony culture that had developed during 40 years of Democratic control.

"But after a decade of Republican rule, with DeLay calling most of the shots, the new boss is identical to the old boss -- and maybe even worse. Like the French revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille and then created their own reign of terror, the Republicans who seized power on a promise of clean management now run the House with an appalling indifference to ethical standards."

Frist did not help things along with the revelation that his blind trust can see. And this is just the beginning...

We have entered the season of the indictments - Delay, Abramoff and the Plame investigation will soon come to a head. C-Span will merge with Court T.V. The challenge for the Democrats is to seize the mantle of reform. Perhaps, Newt should become a donkey consultant - after all his Presidential ambition is a big beneficiary of the DeLay indictment.

The Republican "revolution" has ended. But, there remains desire in America to clean up politics and reform the process. The corrupt money rule of the GOP offers the Democrats an opportunity to clean up the system. Bruce Reed offered a menu of proposals that are must reading for Democrats.

Ironically, in the coming days, the right will whine that they are the victims of a political prosecutor. As a former President might respond, what goes around, comes around.
-- Posted at 12:47 PM | Link to this post | Email this post