The Hammer Falls

by Jim Lobe

(IPS) WASHINGTON -- After a year of dismissing as "politically motivated" charges that he had repeatedly violated Congressional ethics rules, the troubles of Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay dramatically escalated Wednesday when he was forced to temporarily resign his post after being indicted by a Texas grand jury for his role in helping the Republican Party win control of that state's legislature in the 2002 elections.

The single most powerful Republican in Congress, DeLay, who will not have to give up his seat, denied all wrongdoing, but announced that he will "temporarily step aside" from his leadership post pursuant to a rule adopted by Republican members of the House of Representatives that he had unsuccessfully tried to repeal last year, presumably in anticipation of his possible indictment.

The indictment comes at a particularly vulnerable moment for Republicans who are increasingly concerned about the declining popularity of President George W. Bush, particularly in light of growing opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq and the poor performance of the federal government during and after Hurricane Katrina.

The party is also increasingly divided over a range of issues, especially the administration's ambitious and expensive plans to rebuild New Orleans. This, coupled with the continuing high costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has moved prominent fiscal conservatives into open revolt against the party's leadership.

The indictment accuses DeLay of conspiring to violate Texas campaign finance laws along with two associates, John Colyandro, former head of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.

"I am innocent," he said at a hastily arranged Capitol Hill press conference. "I have done nothing wrong."

A close ally of Bush, DeLay has been reprimanded three times by a Congressional ethics committee -- more than any sitting member of Congress -- and has also drawn intense scrutiny for his ties with a high-flying lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, who is now under federal criminal investigation.

As majority leader, DeLay, whose nickname is "The Hammer," has played a key role in keeping the increasingly fractious Republicans united -- and lined up squarely behind an increasingly defensive White House. Most political observers have considered him the true power in the House, even though House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who was handpicked by DeLay for the post, actually outranks him.

Indeed, in his post as Majority Leader, DeLay has clearly established himself as the most powerful Republican leader in the United States, second only to Bush himself and possibly Vice President Dick Cheney.

And, while never personally close to Bush or his family, DeLay has generally deferred to the president and his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, on policy issues and priorities, enforcing strict discipline on hesitant or reluctant Republicans.

If Bush has fostered the image of a "Toxic Texan" abroad, then DeLay is virtually a caricature of that stereotype. For one thing, he has a truly toxic past, having run a pest extermination business before entering Congress in 1985.

And he still thinks all the talk about global warming, the ozone hole, and even pesticides like DDT as hazardous to human and planetary health is a lot of nonsense, "designed on computer models by environmental activists."

Unlike Bush, DeLay is a real Texas cowboy (although he learned how to rope steers in rural Venezuela). Prominently displayed in his office are two bull whips, which he likes to take down to show visitors how he keeps the Republican Caucus in line since he was promoted to the Majority Whip position in 1995 by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The adjective that most often comes up to describe DeLay, even among some of his allies, is "mean." In addition to "The Hammer," he has also been commonly referred to as "The Exterminator." Both are nicknames that rarely fail to bring a smile to his face, according to a 2003 profile by the Wall Street Journal.

In many ways, DeLay, more than any other Republican leader, embodies the Christian Right that has almost completely taken over the core of the Republican Party since the 1980s reign of former president Ronald Reagan. Pushing a conservative moral agenda at home, his "Christian Zionism" has made him a favoured keynoter for conventions of right-wing Jewish organizations, such as the Zionist Organization of American.

Southern, white, intense, angry and self-righteous at the same time, profoundly anti-government in all things except national security, DeLay rarely speaks at any length without inveighing against the "elite" and the "privileged few who are determined to discredit and, ultimately, replace core American traditions."

His house is located on a golf course in Sugar Land, Texas. The surname of the pastor of his local church, with whom he reportedly meets often, is Rambo.

During the 2000 elections, Republican spin doctors asked DeLay to take a very low profile, as Bush tried to depict himself as a moderate in order to appeal to political independents.

As Bush has shown his true colors, however, it has become clear that the two men are ideologically compatible on issues ranging from church-state relations and government regulation of business to global warming, and the conduct of the "war on terrorism.".

DeLay has made clear that his worldview was formed early. His father, a Texas oil wildcatter and chronic alcoholic who clearly did not spare the rod on his children, took them to live in Venezuela when DeLay was nine.

There, he said, he was exposed to his "first revolution" when "revolutionaries" ransacked the homes of his friends, the "caballeros," and massacred the people and animals living there, causing "total chaos and complete destruction."

"I carried two great lessons home with me from Venezuela. In many ways, they are the lessons of the 20th Century," he said three years ago. "First, every human life is sacred and precious. Second, power unconstrained by principle, unchecked by accountability is an awful and evil force."

A similar story explains his total opposition to relaxing the 44-year-old U.S. trade embargo with Cuba. When he was 12, he says, the plane on which he and his family were travelling from Venezuela to Texas stopped for refuelling in Havana immediately after the 1959 revolution.

"They took my mother, my sister, my brother and myself out of the plane, marched us down the tarmac between the stinking soldiers with big guns and German shepherds, put us into a room for over three hours," he told a national television news program. "We had no idea what was happening to us," he added, "I'll never forget it."

DeLay has no doubts that "the United States has been the world's greatest force for good," grounded in "the basic principles that are at the root of our exceptionalism," which he lists as "our faith in God, our belief in the sanctity of human life, our acceptance of moral absolutes and our certainty that we are ultimately accountable for our own actions."

To retain that "exceptionalism," he has been a staunch foe of global treaties and institutions, particularly the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In 2003, he introduced the American Servicemembers Protection Act (ASPA), which not only forbade Washington from co-operating with the Court, but authorized the president to use military force to free any U.S. soldier held by the ICC in The Hague or anywhere else.