Centerfield

Yesterday evening on NPR I listened to a segment on this. Specifically, they were talking about those two GOP Congressmen who had started circulating a petition or something like that about the need to sideline DeLay and elect someone else. Congressman Flake (I think that's right) was interviewed and I gotta say that he deeply impressed me with what he was saying. Very anti-corruption, anti-appearance_of_evil kinda guy. I'm sure there's more to him than just that. But, he was certainly pushing many of the very same buttons that made me fall for McCain originally.

Posted by: Kevin at January 7, 2006 01:54 PM

As I've been saying for quite a while, "Deputy Dan" Has No Friends. The "main-streeters" want him gone. They wouldn't mind too much if the religious right imploded, either.

Posted by: Tully at January 7, 2006 02:56 PM

I was reading an Austin American-Statesman piece on Flake's effort when I heard this on NPR.

As a man whose US House vote was taken away by Mr. Delay, I'm not exactly smitten with grief to see him go.

The man was evil and should not have been allowed to get as far as he did.

Posted by: Jon Kay at January 7, 2006 02:59 PM

I believe it was Newt that said, "Revenge is a delicacy best served cold."

Posted by: AR at January 7, 2006 03:15 PM

Let's at least give him some credit for doing the right thing.

Kevin,

When I worked for Congress, Flake was an outcast, which always led me to believe he was doing something right. He truly is one of the few who have the ability to close the door on his office knowing everyone on the other side hates his guts... An admirable quality in Washington D.C., IMO.

Posted by: Mathew at January 7, 2006 04:36 PM

Kevin;

Congressman Flake (I think that's right) was interviewed and I gotta say that he deeply impressed me with what he was saying. Very anti-corruption, anti-appearance_of_evil kinda guy. I'm sure there's more to him than just that. But, he was certainly pushing many of the very same buttons that made me fall for McCain originally.

And they're both from the same state. Here's a brief look at him from Wikipedia. Conservative, Mormon from rural Mogollon Rim country of AZ. AZ politics in the family. Not afraid to say the "emperor has no clothes" but never mean-spirited about it. Delay's brand of tax cut and spend Republicanism drove him crazy. Voted against the Highway (robbery) bill and against the extra $50 million for Katrina relief (one of only a handful). His point, "tell us how you will spend it".

Posted by: c3 at January 7, 2006 07:04 PM

Jon, do you mean that the legislature's redistricting (done at DeLay's urging) moved you into a district which was fairly strongly Republican? If so, I'm sorry, but your vote was no more "taken away" than the were the votes of Republicans who were kept locked into Democrat-gerrymandered districts for the years leading up to the redistricting. Or of Republicans who live in predominantly-black urban districts or liberal Democrats who happen to live in a "Red" state. Unless you were a House member who was defeated as a result of the redistricting, you most certainly do still have a vote.

You have a right to vote. You do not have a right to have all the other people who live around you share your opinion about whom to vote for.

I'm happy to see DeLay go, too. He took my party where I didn't want to see it go, turned it into the Beltway establishment party, which is most definitely not what it gained power as. But I don't think we should be cavalierly trotting out words like "evil" for domestic politicians. If President Bush used the word "evil" to describe former KKK wizard Robert Byrd or if President Reagan had ever used it to describe fat-cat hardball politician Tip O'Neil (or convicted felon Dan Rostenkowski, for that matter), you'd be one of the first to cry foul.

Posted by: PatHMV at January 9, 2006 08:24 AM