Smacking the Hammer

As we approach the End Times, America finds itself drenched in a noisome sludge of old fashioned political corruption spurting from the offices of Representative Tom Delay (R-Texas). The machiavellian political fundraising genius and former exterminator now finds himself embroiled in a rapidly cascading series of embarrasing mini-scandals. Last year, DeLay bribed another Republican representative on the floor of the United States Congress. When Democratic Texas state legislators walked out en masse to protest a possibly illegal off-schedule redistricting effort, good old Representative Tom Delay, "the Hammer," diverted resources from the Department of Homeland Security to track down a plane the legislators had chartered, threatening our national security.

On Sunday, Representative Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) called for Tom Delay to step down as House Majority leader. Even Rick Santorum (R-Penn.), darling of the cultural conservative movement, said this about the embattled Delay. "I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves."

Delay has been rebuked by the House Ethics Committee three times. This bipartisan committee contains five Republicans and five Democrats.

And this is to say nothing of the numerous travel scandals and charges of nepotism that have flooded the news in the past few days. Trips funded by foreign operatives, trips funded by Russian and Korean businessmen. Delay didn't descriminate when it came to graft.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the most powerful House Republican is crooked. There's really no other way of looking at it.

There is a pestilence in the corridors of the halls of power, and it is driven by these people. Tom Delay is their fundraiser, their cheerleader, and their standard bearer in the United States Congress.

A blow against Delay is a victory for reason and patriotism. This country was not founded on the principles of a representative who threatens judges and seeks to undermine the balance of power between branches of the federal government. This country was not founded on the principles of men who exploit family tragedies for cheap political gain.

And it definitely was not founded to let a minority of religious zealots dictate the lives of all of its citizens.

If a political movement seeks to change our democracy into a monarchy, we call members of that political movement traitors.

What do we call members of a political movement that seeks to change our democracy into a theocracy?