Posted on 04/14/2005 1:52:39 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Democrats and Republicans are using the ethics turmoil surrounding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to wage a rhetorical duel accusing each other of skirting tough debates on Social Security, gas prices and judges.
Hyperbole, no stranger on Capitol Hill, is a key weapon in a fight tightly coordinated by party leaders.
Republicans lunged first on Wednesday, accusing Democrats of exploiting questions about who paid for two of DeLay's trips abroad.
"Tom DeLay did nothing wrong," Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., told reporters after the weekly GOP caucus meeting. "There's no evidence of any breaking of the House rules. What this is, is a political smear campaign made by an organization, a political party that is devoid of ideas."
Democrats parried by describing DeLay as the face of a Republican majority controlled by radical, right-wing extremists, unfairly wielding power by changing House ethics rules and threatening to abolish Senate filibusters a hallowed tradition that allows senators to stall legislation with unlimited talk.
"Republicans are engaging in abuse of power and the American people are paying the price," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. Added Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., "The Republicans in the House of Representatives are running the most closed and bitterly partisan House in the history of our country."
DeLay has been cast as either a whipping boy or poster boy in news conferences, debates and hallway asides over who paid for some of his official trips, the Terri Schiavo case and the GOP's majority stewardship of the House and Senate.
On Wednesday, DeLay apologized for "inartful" phrasing when he said on the day Schiavo died that the judges involved would have to answer for their decisions against her parents, who wanted to reconnect her feeding tube. But he gave no ground on the ethics debate.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
POSTER BOY!
Tom Delay is the only man who will speak out and stand up for what's right.
Correct.
As long as the Repubs just stand around like a punch drunk boxer in the ring with their fists down, they are going to get plastered.
They should be going on the attack. Dig up dirt on Pelosi and Reid and hit them back. And at the same time move forward with their agenda.
***….The National Republican Congressional Committee released news articles that have raised questions about the campaign finance practices of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California and the lobbying interests of family members of Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Reid and Pelosi dismissed the tactic at a news conference. ….***
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1383407/posts
I can't be the only one seeing that the whole point of this fiasco has been to get Tom Delay to back down from his comments re: Terri Schiavo. The only "ethics violation" he has committed in the eyes of the secular humanists (including those who wear a cloak of decency) was in his anit-politically correct comment, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."
That sorta preaching just won't sell today.
I'm sorry he has been persecuted for it, and sorry he caved in to the pressure from both parties to back down from it. To say he "gave no ground on the ethics debate" is a continuation of the ruse that this mess was about anything other than Terri Schiavo's murder and Tom Delay's vocal, active, Christian reaction to it. He has given ground. And not to the Left, not to Democrats, not to RINOs, but to the enemy of all that is true. How sad.
He said his words were inartful phrasing - hardly a retreat.
Do you know what that agenda is? They say one thing and do another. If I say my agenda is to lose weight and then I go about eating everything in sight and sitting on my duff all day what would you judge my agenda to be?
lower taxes
judges who follow the Constitution and don't overturn elections
retirement ownership
environmental sanity
strong military
The only argument one could make in defence of all the corruption and injustice is that the judiciary is just too powerful - well, excuse me, but they are only as powerful as the other branches of government allow them to be, and that argument won't float with me. Our President and Conservative Republicans in House and Senate RAN FOR OFFICE on the idea that change was needed on the specific issues of the right to life and the reigning in of the judiciary. It's not like they were takne unawares. Their eyes were wide open - their lips and hands were clenched shut. Why?
Pelosi was fined $21,000 for raising $100,000 illegally. It takes real gall for her to open her mouth about this.
Isn't Hillary ""alleged" illegal fundraising still being reviewed?
A lot goes on behind the scenes .30Carbine.
The media will twist anything said in public so it makes good tactical sense not to give your game plan to the enemy.
I don't know where that stands; let's hope she isn't teflon in the same way her husband was.
When the number of Congress critters with family and/or friends on the payroll starts coming out, this story will die a sudden death.
Thank goodness for cable, talk radio and the Internet.
It will never see the true light of day in the msm. They'll bury it and continue to put DeLay on trial on their pages.
Who needs the MSM? :)
I love the internet :)
Isn't it grand!
Thanks for the LINK!
Agreed.
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