'Some Crazy Guy'
The New York Times
June 13, 2003
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Last year I tried to illustrate just how far to the right
America's ruling party has moved by quoting some of Representative Tom DeLay's past
remarks. I got some puzzling responses. "Who cares what some crazy
guy in Congress says?" wrote one liberal economist, chiding me for being
alarmist.
Some crazy guy? Public images are funny things.
Newt Gingrich became a famous symbol of Republican radicalism.
By contrast, most people know
little about Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader.
Yet Mr. DeLay is more radical - and more powerful - than Mr. Gingrich
ever was.
Maybe Mr. DeLay's public profile will be raised by his success
yesterday in sabotaging tax credits for 12 million children.
Those tax credits would cost only $3.5 billion. But Mr. DeLay has embedded
the credits in an $82 billion
tax cut package. That is, he wants to extort $22 in tax cuts (in the
face of record budget deficits) for every dollar given to poor children.
But the really important stories about Mr. DeLay, a central figure
in the impeachment of Bill Clinton, involve his continuing drive to give his party a
permanent lock on power.
Consider the case of Westar Energy, whose chief executive
was indicted for fraud. The subsequent investigation turned up e-mail in which
executives described being solicited by Republican politicians for donations
to groups linked to Mr. DeLay, in return for a legislative "seat at the
table." The provision Westar wanted was duly inserted into an energy bill.
(Republican leaders deny that there was any quid pro quo.)
There's every reason to believe that the Westar case is
unusual only in the fact that the transaction came to light.
Under Mr. DeLay's leadership,
Republicans have established a huge fund-raising advantage,
based not just on promises - special interests have always been able to buy favorable
policies, but never so brazenly - but also on threats. Mr. DeLay
pioneered the "K Street strategy," which - in a radical break with tradition -
punishes lobbying firms that try to maintain good relations with both parties.
Then there's the Texas redistricting story.
Normally states redraw Congressional districts once a decade: Texas
redistricted after the 2000 census. But under Mr. DeLay's leadership, Texas
Republicans are trying to increase their advantage in seats with
a second redistricting. This in itself is an unprecedented power grab.
But it gets worse. Texas Democrats responded with a parliamentary
maneuver, walking out to deprive the state Legislature of a quorum. In
response, hundreds of state law enforcement officers were
diverted from crime-fighting to search for the missing Democrats - assisted, yes, by
the Department of Homeland Security.
A telling anecdote: When an employee tried to stop
Mr. DeLay from smoking a cigar on government property, the majority leader shouted,
"I am the federal government." Not quite, not yet, but he's getting there.
So what will Mr. DeLay and his associates do with their lock on power,
once it is firmly established? They will push through a radical right-wing
agenda. For example, expect to see much less environmental protection:
Mr. DeLay has described the Environmental Protection Agency as "the
Gestapo."
Above all, expect to see the wall between church and state come
tumbling down. Mr. DeLay has said that he went into
politics to promote a "biblical worldview," and that
he pursued President Clinton because he didn't
share that view. Where would this worldview be put into effect?
How about the schools: after the Columbine school shootings, Mr. DeLay
called a press conference in which he attributed the tragedy
to the fact that students are
taught the theory of evolution.
There's no point in getting mad at Mr. DeLay and his clique:
they are what they are. I do, however, get angry at moderates, liberals and traditional
conservatives who avert their eyes, pretending that current disputes are just politics as usual.
They aren't - what we're looking at here is a radical power play, which
if it succeeds will transform our country. Yet it's considered uncool to point that out.
Many of those who minimize the threat the radical right now poses to America
as we know it would hate to live in the country Mr. DeLay wants to
create. Yet by playing down the seriousness of the challenge,
they help bring his vision closer to reality.
nytimes.com
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