June 9, 2008 9:30AM # Chutzpah By [Michael D. Tanner](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-d-tanner) --- SHARE Today’s *Washington Times* has a [long interview](http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/09/delay-warns-gop-faces-long-rebuilding-process/) 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](http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=43&pid=1441337), 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. ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).