The Hammer, by Lou Dubose and Jan Reid | by Skye
I think Tom DeLay would be fine with me having this book about his life out for over a week past its due date. He is not a man who cares about playing by the rules.
Lou Dubose, one co-author of "The Hammer: Tom DeLay, God, Money, and the Rise of the Republican Congress," will be a guest speaker at DemocracyFest 2005 here in Austin in June. It should be interesting to hear him talk about politics, because "The Hammer" isn't just a biography of Tom Delay. It's more of a wake-up call about how much the "game" in Washington has changed since Tom DeLay's ilk started their climb.
It's scary stuff. Basically, DeLay and his people have turned Washington into a pay-to-play arena, even more than I thought possible. They're all about power, except when they're about trying to start a war in the Middle East to bring on the Rapture. And the changes they've made aren't just problems right now - they're going to be problems for quite a few years to come.
Here are three items that particularly caught my eye:
- DeLay has supported candidates who will be loyal to him in a very organized way, with everything from campaign donations to a candidate school, including a video on effective use of yard signs.
- Dubose and Reid clam that the Republican Party has an edge over the Democrats in using college organizations as a "proving ground" for young party members. (I'd like to investigate this more.)
- Most of the Contract with America's policy ideas didn't get passed, but many procedural changes were made during that time: eliminating the seniority system for committee chair positions, setting term limits on committee chairs, and cutting committee and party research staffs that used to produce bill summaries. These and other changes concentrate power with the leadership, which means that the minority party becomes irrelevant and compromise is unnecessary.
For a better overall summary than I could write, check out this interview with Lou Dubose in Mother Jones. I would recommend reading that article, then only picking up the book if you like gory details.
To catch up on the current DeLay status, check out the Media Matters page on DeLay, or the House of Scandal.