June 9, 2008 9:30AM

Chutzpah

By Michael D. Tanner

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.