We wave bye-bye to the Bugman as he rides off into the sunset of lobbying and possible jail time. Bye, Tommy! Write soon!
Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) said goodbye to Congress yesterday in typical fighting form, delivering a pugnacious defense of the iron-fisted partisanship that defined his decade in power.
"Given the chance to do it all again, there's only one thing I'd change," DeLay said in a defiant retirement speech on the House floor. "I'd fight even harder."
Despite his indictment on campaign money-laundering charges in Texas and the expanding investigation of his office's involvement in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal, DeLay said his farewells in a House chamber that must have resembled his fondest dreams: crammed on the Republican side, virtually empty on the Democratic side. The one-time pest exterminator from the Houston suburbs declared that he has "few regrets, no doubts," and assured his colleagues that he always served "honorably and honestly."
What farewell would be complete without a montage of Tom's greatest episodes?
DeLay ultimately outlasted his fellow revolutionary leaders, including former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), whom he once tried to depose, and former majority leader Richard K. Armey, a fellow Texan. And the current House leadership -- including Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), a former lieutenant -- is dominated by DeLay disciples. But though DeLay's bare-knuckled tactics raised millions of dollars and rammed through President Bush's tax cuts and political agenda, they eventually led to his downfall.
He was rebuked several times by the House ethics committee -- for attacking a lobbying group that hired a Democrat, for doing favors for a company that donated heavily to Republicans and for trying to enlist the Federal Aviation Administration to intervene in a Texas political dispute.
He was forced out of his leadership post after being indicted in September for allegedly funneling corporate dollars into Texas legislative races. Defiant as always, he flew on a tobacco company's jet to his arraignment, and told Time magazine that he had prayed that Americans would see Christ through his smiling mug shot.
DeLay announced his resignation from Congress in April after two of his former congressional aides pleaded guilty to bribery charges in the Abramoff scandal, with some of the charges relating to a DeLay-led golfing expedition to Scotland. DeLay has said he had no knowledge of Abramoff's misdeeds, although he famously described Abramoff as "one of my closest and dearest friends," and he has insisted that the Texas charges were the result of a Democratic plot to chase him out of office.
But what's this? Tom is so beloved in his district that Democrats are fighting to keep him on the ballot!
The Texas Democratic Party argued that there is evidence DeLay still lives in Fort Bend County. They also say they will ask a court to permanently block the Republicans from replacing DeLay, R-Sugar Land, on the November ballot.
"Rather than allow the voters to pick a Republican nominee for District 22, Tom DeLay and the Texas Republican Party are engaged in a cowardly and cynical attempt to manipulate the election process and handpick a candidate," said Texas Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie.
Is it the end for the Bugman... or is it just beginning? Tune in next year when you'll hear Nancy Pelosi say, "Damn. I thought we got rid of the bastard", on an all new season of "Capitol Romper Room"- same time, same station.