Today’s Washington Times has a long interview with former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay in which he talks about the problems facing the Republican Party and his efforts to help rebuild it. As I have written, there is no doubt that the GOP is facing many problems today, many of them due to the big‐government conservatism brought about in part by…Tom DeLay.
This is after all, the same Tom DeLay who:
- Presided over an unprecedented spending binge by Congressional Republicans. In fact, DeLay was a cheerleader for using earmarks to buy votes for Republican candidates in competitive districts;
- Twisted arms and threatened dissenters in order to pass the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the first new entitlement program in 40 years;
- Helped sidetrack Social Security reform;
- Helped start the “K Street Project,” a cynical exercise in vote buying that led to much of the corruption that plagued Republicans in recent years;
- Once said that “there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.”
If Republicans and/or conservatives really want to recapture their small government credentials, the might start by ignoring Tom DeLay.