It's funny, people in comments are still talking about and giving credit to, Newt Gingrich for stuff that he did in 1994. In almost every way other than indictment, he matches DeLay's disgrace and self-serving blather.

But DeLay is the FAR more formidable foe. He's smarter than Newt, more disciplined in message and organization, more ruthless and has done a lot more to derail Democratic ideals and policies than Newt ever did.

I don't think DeLay can single-handedly "solve" the right's problems -- he's not exactly good at outreach or persuasion without the threat of reprisals -- but I think he's closer to a solution, and has the organizational chops to implement it than his intra-party rival Gingrich will ever be.

It's important to keep tabs on both, but Newt's the much bigger joke.

Also-- the right-to-lifers and the NRA haven't gotten a hearing by the current GOP? What? Is this some alternate reality DeLay is living in?

The Republican party will probably never again be able be a national party and win in important formerly-GOP dominated areas such as suburban Philadelphia so long as they allow their values to be dictated by and tied to Southerners and particularly Texans. I don't think that they really get how culturally they have alienated the rest of the country.

You know, I've always had trouble finding new clients for my consulting business. Do you suppose I could get space in the WashTimes to put my marketing pitch out?

Hmm. Must ponder potential value of this approach.

DeLay/LIEberman 2012

A whining ticket if ever there was one...

Yeah Tom.....you go guy. Using the "new technology" to push an agenda favored by the US Chamber, the NRA and the Right to Life Committee....that's a guaranteed winner and you should do all you can to make sure you get the chance to promote it.

Please please please!

the kind of dynamic political party that won stirring victories in 1994 and 2000

"...given the head-start conservatives had in establishing an intellectual infrastructure...."

This goes to the PNAC thread, too. They never did. Do not mistake idealogues and their narrow and preconceived interests with intellectual logic.

If you ever thought Gingrich was intellectual you weren't listening to what he was saying or the arguments he used. If you saw the K street conspiracy and permanent Republican hegemony through corruption as an intellectual exercise rather than a cynical power grab, I can't hep you.

I'm just hoping the Democratic government arriving can prove to the people they deserve an extended stay until they too need to be replaced.

Is there a corner in his mind somewhere (or any conservative 'mind') that is not thoroughly overwhelmed by delusion?
Shadow party?
No fair hearings for right wing groups?
He should cut to the quick and start alarming us to the threat of bigfoot stealing the moon's green cheese.
It would make as much sense.

Maybe he should pray for another Terri Schiavo.

DeLay might not be the right person to lead it, but a united hardline right-wing party is a real possibility for the post-2008 Republicans. I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen-- after all, the hardliners beat the moderates in the past, and I don't see any moderates who have the stomach for a fight with the hardliners.

Somebody help me out here: Isn't DeLay supposed to be going on trial for malfeasances in TX, and then one can only hope directly to the can? Did I miss the dismissal of the case in all the election focus? Thanks.

Is it me or does his pitch sound very familiar?

"Send me money! It's your only route to salvation! I'll protect you from utter destruction at the hands of the enemy! Quick, before it's too late!!"

Did his op-ed have the word "ADVERTISEMENT" festooned at the top?
That would explain things.

Only under conservative government will groups like the National Rifle Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and National Right to Life Committee

If the Democrats take my advice and vote down/veto gun control legislation? The NRA may not be all that interested in throwing their lot in with the Bible thumpers.

Rich guys and born agains do not a majority make and never will. Gun owners? That's their whole ball of wax, and there's no reason they can't be ours.

Offer the hunters some proof that Democrats are NOT "coming to get their guns." and all bets are off for the GOP.

Delay was indicted for money laundering in Texas. Texas law prohibits corporate donations directly to candidates. Delay took $192,000 of corporate money and sent it to the RNC. The next day, the RNC cut checks totaling $192,000 to republican candidates for seats in the Texas house. Delay wanted a republican majority in the Texas house so the state could gerrymander congressional districts and ensure a republican majority in the Texas U S congressional delegation. The scheme worked, but the district attorney in Travis country (Austin) filed charges against Delay and associates for money laundering ($192,000 in dirty and $192,000 out clean. Delay screamed that he was being politically persecuted and demanded a speedy trial to clear his name. There has been no speedy trial because of numerous delays thanks to Delay's legal team. Caseis still pending, D A has retired and in all probability Delay will eventually get of free. Texas justice at its finest.

The Republicans prefer to have war criminals and convicted felons as their leaders with continued deception of Americans to further the GOP greedy quest for power and $$$

Delay is going to jail. He used all his political funds trying to get the charges dismissed, he had one dismissed and I believe 6 still pending. He is begging for money because all those big fat republican checks dried up. But fuck it, I hope the party looks to him and we get PALIN/DELAY 2012.

Did anyone see him on Hardball ? Mathews called him bitter and visceral and when Delay tried to reply Mathews ignored him and changed the topic. To get dissed my Mathews has to be more then a little humiliating for da Bug Man.

And for the record, Delay is the antithesis of the republican problem, not the solution. Crash and Burn politics, corruption, blind faith, and intellectual dishonesty worked for 4 years, but it is not w/o consequences.

One hopes some shadowy Soros-like character is, via cutouts, sending ALL these guys little dribs and drabs of money, just enough to keep them alive and yammering, the better to continue pulverizing the rubble of the Republican house of cards into smaller and smaller pieces.

Go DeLay! And Palin! And Gingrich! And Kristol! And anybody else with a sheaf of ragged newspaper clippings and a sandwich board! Yours is the One True Way of Conservatism, and you gotta fight for it!

DeLay is nothing but a Republican partisan and self-promoter. If you don't tow the line his way then you better watch your back. He will stoop as low as he can to quash a foe - the man has no conscience. Let him and his Coalition for a Conservative Majority (or is it the Coalition for a Conservative "White" Majority) be the answer for the Republicans. It will surely doom the party. Good luck to ya' Tommy Boy!

Thanks for info on prosecution of the Delay case; wow, what's in name, delay, delay, delay... so typical, so manipulative, so gaming the system.

if only people would ignore his criminal scandals and ethical lapses,

not to mention policy failures.

DeLay is still fighting some past war, but his discussion of a "shadow Democratic party" and a counterpart to MoveOn.org is amusing given that the Obama campaign greatly curtailed those very forces - and won handily nonetheless by focusing all of the efforts through a smaller number of places (the official campaign and the Democratic Party).

DeLay is claiming the way to beat the Democrats going forward is to do exactly the opposite of what just won it for the Dems. Bright guy this bugman.

Someone, anyone, please find a giant can of RAID and 'liberally' apply to this evil secretion called Delay .........

Delay did not have "an 800-word op-ed in the Times." Delay's piece ran in the Washington Times, which is not that same thing at all.

I recall being surprised by seeing what Republican hacks my local CoC was when I went into business for myself. They kept talking about the abortion holocaust and how the gays were taking over our schools. Any small business owners: don't join. It's useless anyway. Rotary or many other groups are better for networking and more service oriented.

I guess the flipside is that most unions are democratic party hives. I've never been in a union, so I don't know how it goes down.

DeLay wants a conservative version of MoveOn? That's rather amusing, considering that "move on" is what you'd call...mmm...let's see, what's the word..oh, yes: PROGRESS. As in, PROGRESSIVE. Yes, that would be a good organization for democrats.

But what would you call a similar organization for conservatives? Those who "stand athwart history and shout STOP!"...well, actually want to turn back the clock.

MoveBack?

Oh, I know:ReTards.

I look forward to the national launching of the DeLay ReTards. Liberals must be trembling in their boots.

Snarki - that's perfect! I needed a good Monday laugh. THANKS!!

I once had the misfortune of residing in Newt Gingrich's district. There was a reason that he and his supporters were known as Newtie and the Blowhards.

As for the Chamber of Commerce, local Chambers may or may not be of help to their constituents. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce turned vicous and venal some years ago. They might as well change their name to "U.S. Chamber of CEO's" since any proposal they support is bad for all the rest of us.

"...and open up to also funding outside organizations that can do what the Democrats' Shadow Party is already doing."

Democrats' Shadow Party? WTH is that? Is there some kind of Republican Shadow Party that we don't know about, and Tom Delay assumes that there is also one for the Democrats? BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

How can Tom DeLay provide answers to the right's problems when neither he nor they know the proper questions?

Good luck, Tom. With this tired old approach, the GOP will continue to contract to a party roughly about the geographic size of the Southeastern Conference (save for Florida), plus Texas and Oklahoma. The Plains and Rocky Mountain states will become increasingly blue, thanks to your retreat to a "pure" southern strategy.

Any of you ever see the '50s sci-fi film "The Amazing Colossal Man," about an Army colonel exposed to a radioactive blast who begins growing and growing? Well, scientists in the film discovered an antidote, as shown by a special effect where we see an elephant in a cage, about the size of a housecat. (The giant man, by now crazed, refuses to be injected with the antidote and in fact impales one of the doctors with the huge hypodermic needle they had planned to use on him.) Anyhow, outside the "solid" south, the GOP elephant currently isn't much bigger than the pint-sized pachyderm we saw in that movie -- and DeLay doesn't have the formula to make it any larger.

DeLay seems to argue that conservative donors should worry less about investing in the Republican party and candidates, and concentrate on financing a coordinating entity ... like the one he just happens to run. [...]

Lawyers cost money... Where else is he gonna get it, if not from conservative donors? He knows them well enough to figure out that some of them might be just stupid enough to still trust him.

When the hell is this guy's trial going to happen!! He should be sitting in a prison cell right now, not spouting his usual crap!

My favorite part of the Delay passage says, "Only under conservative government will groups like the National Rifle Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and National Right to Life Committee receive a fair hearing of their views; it's time they started working together."

That's great. What do these groups have in common? It looks like by inauguration the Republican party will not even claim to be anything but a grab bag of special interests.

Ha ha ha!

This is Disaster Capitalism (with a deep and respectful bow to Naomi Klein), as applied to the Republican Party, as if it was a banana republic. . .

So, the obvious conclusion is that they are now Banana Republicans! ROFL!

Their Permanent Majority Homeland has incurred an economic tsunami (washing away almost all vestiges of trickle-down voodoo Reaganomics, hallelujah!) and the Friedmanite response is, of course, for neoliberal capitalist-worshiping carnivores to move in for the kill and take advantage of the chaos - to take from the ideas lying around" and use them to cannibalize what is left. It couldn't happen to a nicer Party/cadaver.

Enter Tom Delay. . . spazzing as he is discovered, blurting out insanely (he always blurts out insanely), "I am the great and powerful Oz! Don't pay any attention to those Liberals behind the curtain! They don't know how to get Kansas back to reality!"

Oh, this is sweet. I can hear the resonant sounds of "Oreo, reo-oh. Oreo, reo-oh. Oreo, reo-oh. Oreo, reo-oh...." as Delay thinks they are all going to line up and march to his tune.

Oh, do fight it out, loser repubs! Devour your own first-born while you are at it. Save our children from having to teach them the difference between reality and lunacy.

Please!

Hunh? "Democrats' Shadow Party"?

Odd that I never heard of it, but Mr. DeLay has. Well, maybe not so odd.

Where can I send my check to the DSP?

Tom Delay would be about as much of a "solution" for the GOP's problems as an enema with a chainsaw being a solution to constipation---which is why I agree with the man completely. Bring it, Bug Man---give us your best shot. I'd really like to see 70 Dems in the Senate, 350+ Dems in the House, 7 or 8 on SCOTUS, and a WH that becomes the permanent property of the Democratic Party.

I dunno.

If Republicans are the problem, aren't bugs the answer?

Seems plausible.

Offer the hunters some proof that Democrats are NOT "coming to get their guns." and all bets are off for the GOP.

Amen to that.

A 12-year old went to the door of a house with its outside light lit on Halloween.

He was killed when the occupant fired 30 shots from an AK-47.

1) Why would anyone other than a Russian soldier need a Russian military assault rifle - or any assault rifle, for that matter?

2) Who needs 30 shot capacity for any legit reason? Someone who shoots wolves from helicopters?

Damn right we should come for their guns. Better than them coming for our 12 year olds.

The US Chamber of Commerce a conservative organization. Even Tom Delay thinks so. You think in these changing times their leadership might start thinking about other options?