Don't Take DeLay's Name (Entirely) in Vain

A Washington Post editorial today takes Rep. John Murtha to task for being too much like Tom DeLay, the former Majority Leader when the Republicans controlled the House. Certainly, DeLay's combination of bullying, corruption, dandyism, and preening self-righteousness makes him easy to caricature. Like a lot of conservatives (Alberto Gonzales, Scooter Libby, and George Bush himself), Tom DeLay is a little guy who tries to make up for his lack of size by being tougher-than-thou in a weenie boy kind of way. If the right ever gets its military tribunals, one-man rule, or military coup, DeLay would torture liberals with a fervor that only the most committed Christians are capable of.

But DeLay wasn't just a master of "the old games of pork-for-votes and vote-my-way-or-else" as the Post claims, he was also a political genius for our times who the Democrats should take seriously as an example.

Here's a couple of examples of DeLay's political innovations and how the Democrats can learn from him.

1. Tom DeLay was the inspiration for the "K Street Project" that forced Democratic lobbyists out of most corporate lobbying. As DeLay himself said, when the Republicans became a majority in 1994, the lobbyist ratio was 60-40 in favor of the Democrats. By the time DeLay left Congress in 2006, the ratio was 70% Republican to 30% Republican. To restore lobbying parity, the Democrats have to engage in their own "K Street Project." But why should the Democrats stop there? They should demand that the activist right-wing be excluded from important lobbying positions and refuse to deal with corporations, trade associations, and umbrella groups that kowtow to the far right.

2. My impression is that DeLay was behind the "no negotiations" position that Congressional Republicans, then the Bush administration, took with the Democrats after Newt Gingrich was ousted as Speaker in 1998. Of course, Gingrich was getting rolled by the Clinton administration every time they locked horns. So, there was a practical reason for the Republicans to avoid negotiations. But DeLay (and others) also made the refusal to negotiate and compromise into an moral principle. For the conservative right, there are only three options on any issue: victory, appeasement, or surrender. Those who compromise are "appeasing" the enemy and the Democrats and all their constituencies are just as much the "enemy" as Osama bin Laden.

Democratic politicians often act like they'd like to re-establish the friendly competition they had with Republican leaders like Bob Michels in the House or Bob Dole in the Senate. They just need to get over that. The Republican leadership and the activist right in general views them as enemies and Democrats need to view the Republicans, especially the far right, as enemies in turn. For the Democrats, it's a matter of being realistic about the political environment. If the Democrats and any of their constituency groups want to be successful, their first order of business is to figure out how their going to fight and further the right-wing opposition.

3. The final item here is the legislative redistricting battle in Texas. DeLay is under indictment because he recruited corporate money to help the Republicans gain enough East Texas seats for in the Texas legislature to force another round of Congressional redistricting in 2002. Leaving aside the corruption, DeLay's willingness to seek a round of Congressional redistricting outside the normal ten-year realignments was pure political genius. He saw an opportunity to solidify the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and was willing to ignore the tradition of realigning every ten years in order to accomplish his goals.

If the Democrats want to win the presidency and maintain their majorities in Congress, they need to engage in this kind of political creativity as well. Leading Democrats need to stop worrying so much about traditions, comity with the opposition, long-established friendships, and things like that and figure out innovative strategies for furthering their cause. The Republican leadership stopped worrying about traditions, friendships, and things like that in the early nineties. The Democrats need to embrace the new reality.