DeLay, Craddick will have to be light on their feet

From the Houston Chronicle's Clay Robinson:

Most school yard bullies wouldn't be caught dead in a dance class, or so the old macho stereotype would have us believe. Political bullies such as Tom DeLay, however, are another breed.

The U.S. House majority leader from Sugar Land takes pride in his ruthless partisan tactics, his ability to intimidate and run over opponents and raise huge amounts of political cash from special interests eager to court him.

But DeLay also is something of a dancer, although not a very good one. He and Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick were awkwardly two-stepping on the public stage last week after three of DeLay's political associates — who also were Craddick's benefactors — were indicted over fund-raising activities during the 2002 Texas legislative races.

It remains to be seen whether anyone ever will be convicted of a crime, but DeLay's and Craddick's attempts to distance themselves from the allegations were pretty weak.

Click here for the rest.

Obviously, I'm totally biased against DeLay. Not only does his simplistic brand of "common man" conservatism set my teeth to grinding, but his absolute arrogance and sense of triumphant glee also sends me into convulsions. The man just grosses me out on numerous levels. So of course I think he's guilty.

Now, having said all that, I also have to say that in the political world, generally, where there's smoke there's fire. That is, when a politician seems to be bathing in a stinky pool of corruption, there's good reason to suspect that such a politician is corrupt himself. Indeed, this was the principle, coupled with the same kind of hatred that I have for DeLay, that drove millions of conservatives to demand President Clinton's investigation and eventual impeachment. That turned out to be a wild goose chase, but there are some real issues going on with this DeLay thing. Indeed, there is enough prima facie evidence to warrant a trial for some of DeLay's associates.

In pursuit of a one party nation, the Republican House Majority Leader has behaved pretty aggressively: it's not at all hard to believe that he might have crossed the line on more than one occasion. The fact that he's now trying to distance himself from an organization that he, himself, created simply spawns more suspicion--as Ronnie Earle says, the investigation is continuing; they may yet nab the Lizard King.

Or not. If DeLay's innocent of any wrongdoing, I'll continue to hate him, but I have no wish for him to be wrongly convicted. Still, I hope they roast the motherfucker.

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