Hard to believe that only eighteen months ago, October 2004, Tom DeLay was riding high and everyone thought he was impregnable.
His interview with Time magazine on his surprise decision to quit Congress instead of facing an increasingly difficult re-election fight is telling. DeLay has no idea why he became the #1 symbol for corruption in Congress. Listen to him:
We have been effective for 11 years going now, doing some pretty amazing things. They hate that. The reason we've been effective is we've tried to change the culture of Washington, D.C. And do it legally and ethically. The Democrats hate the fact that their culture of K Street has been changed from a totally dominated Democrat K Street [lobbying community] to a totally dominated Republican K Street. Nothing illegal about that at all. And we built that. When we took over in 1995, the K Street contributions to elections was 70/30—70 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican. Today it's 60/40—60 percent Republican and 40 percent Republican. That's a change in culture.
When you ask the average American if a change in Washington's culture is needed, they'll say yes. But not this kind of a change!
Posted by msifry at April 4, 2006 09:48 AM