Tom Delay Is a Hammer, But Is He Also a Ham Sandwich?

Over at HuffingtonPost.com, please note the "Deli Defense" cited by Delay and all manner of his apologists. Huffingtonpost features Delay's excusing his indictment with the statement that prosecutors could indict "a ham sandwich." Take a humorous romp through the GOP talking point, turned veritable lunchtime menu.

Also sobering is Jonathan Chait's op-ed piece showing how the new whip isn't much of an improvement and Ari Berman's article on "The Hammer" in The Nation.

Tom Delay: Innocent until proven guilty. He’s entitled to his day in court. But, for anyone following the misadventures of Jack Abramoff, the only question is why did it take so long to indict Delay? The only trouble is, he owns the appellate court so, ultimately, nothing will ever change. With his relentless, dictatorial, and abusive leadership, Delay has destroyed what little was left of bipartisanship. Democrats are shut out. They don’t even get to see legislation manipulatively changed in the night before votes. Votes get called, then postponed, then abruptly recalled when enough Democrats have gone back to their home offices. This is not why we have a Congress—to run roughshod over almost half the country and their representatives. Delay doesn’t even understand the Constitution, which designed government to afford a huge minority of voters their rights of representation. There was a time, when statesmen and women of both parties worked together, drafted legislation together, provided oversite together, and investigated together. It’s much rarer now.

Delay’s illegal redistricting, just after a lawful census-based redistricting, could only be accomplished by a stacked appellate court and ideologues so entrenched that they can’t even see how they harm America. In a dramatic abuse of power, grandstanding Delay used the dept of Homeland Security to find Texas Dems who left the state. Interesting how sometimes he wants Dems present and sometimes not. He thinks he gets to decide when. Of course, by his compatriots on the right, the indictment is all “partisan.” I think it’s partisan giving the exterminator a free pass. The ditto-heads on the right ought to squish him like the bugs he so aggressively fought. Forget the legal issues. Why do they choose this man to lead? It’s a systemic defect. Who’s harming America? This man and his fawning media servants, who can do nothing but recite GOP talking points supporting the guy. He’s such a nice guy, don’t you know?