Posts Tagged ‘Tom DeLay’
July 27th, 2011 by John Feehery
John Boehner is doing an exceptional job as Speaker under extraordinarily tough times.
When I first started working in Congress, Tom Foley had just taken over from Jim Wright as Speaker of the House. Unlike the dictatorial Wright, Foley ran a decentralized process that gave too much power to Committee barons like Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Brooks and John Dingell.
Foley could never quite get the Chairmen to work together enough to overcome their jurisdictional squabbles, and Democrats faltered under the House Bank scandal, the Post Office debacle and a series of other damaging revelations about a Congress that was out of control.
When Newt Gingrich came to the Speaker’s Office, he leap-frogged over the gentlemanly Bob Michel (my former boss) who unfortunately announced his retirement before he could see the promised land of a Republican majority. Gingrich learned the lessons of the ineffective Foley, centralized power in his chambers, and bull-rushed an ambitious Contract with America legislative agenda. Along the way, Gingrich alienated some of the new Freshmen, his committee Chairmen, and some key members of the leadership, so much so that a few of them launched a failed coup against the embattled Speaker. Read more...
Tags: America, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bob Michel, Congress, Conservatives, Dan Rostenkowski, Democrats, Denny Hastert, Dick Armey, George Bush, GOP, Government, Grand Bargain, House Republicans, Jack Brooks, Jim Wright, John Boehner, John Dingell, Mark Foley scandal, Nancy Pelosi, Newt Gingrich, President Obama, Republican, Republican Conference, Republicans, Speaker of the House, spending, taxes, Tea Party, the Iraq War, Tom DeLay, Tom Foley, White House
Posted in Bailouts, Economy, Financial Crisis, GOP, Government, History, Media, Politics, Promises, Reviews, Scandals, Theory, election, speeches, spending, taxes, war | No Comments »
June 7th, 2011 by John Feehery
There are more than a few politicians at the federal level who share two conflicting traits: They believe they are the center of the universe, but they also believe that they are anonymous.
That is especially true for Anthony Weiner, but he is not the first and certainly not the last political figure to be beset with controversy brought on by his own stupid actions.
These politicians believe that they should be able to get free drinks at a bar, but are shocked when a reporter calls them on it. They believe that they can pick up girls who are not their wives and are shocked when somebody notices. They believe that they can get away with low-grade corruption, but are devastated when they end up serving time in a minimum security jail.
These politicians are not babes in the woods. They learn a great deal about life and about hard-ball politics when they run for office. They are used to people combing through their garbage, pouring over their tax returns, having every inch of their lives examined with a fine-tooth comb.
But somehow, after the campaign is over, they drop their defenses. Or after they have spent decades in Congress, they figure that they are invulnerable. Read more...
Tags: America, Anthony Weiner, Barney Frank, Bob Ney, Chris Lee, Congress, Democrats, Duke Cunningham, Eliot Spitzer, Ethics Committee, Gerry Studds, Government, Jack Abramoff scandals, James Traficant, Joe Early, John Boehner, John Doolittle, John Edwards, Mark Foley, Nancy Pelosi, Newt Gingric, political ethics, Politics, Republicans, Rostenkowski, sex scandal, Tom DeLay, Tony Coehlo, Washington, Weiner-gate
Posted in Bad Decisions, Government, History, Politics, Scandals, Theory, bad news, corruption | No Comments »
November 29th, 2010 by John Feehery
A Texas jury has convicted former House majority leader Tom DeLay, seen here in a 2005 file photo. By Luke Frazza, AFP/Getty Images
There were two surprises over the Thanksgiving Day break that caught my attention.
The pleasant surprise came when Notre Dame, who earlier this season lost to the Naval Academy in football, pulled off a major upset against the hated USC Trojans. The Irish, led by a true freshman quarterback, overcame four turnovers (by that same freshman quarterback) to beat Southern Cal on their home turf in a driving rain storm.
The unpleasant surprise came the night before Thanksgiving, when a Texas jury convicted former Majority Leader Tom DeLay on two counts of money laundering.
The Washington Post reported: “A jury in Austin found DeLay guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Punishment for the first ranges from five years to life in prison, but the former congressman from the Houston suburb of Sugar Land could receive probation. DeLay will remain free until he is sentenced on Dec. 20. “This case is a message from the people of the state of Texas that they want – and expect – honesty and ethics in their public officials,” said Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg. “All people have to abide by the law.”…”This is an abuse of power,” the former congressman said outside the courtroom. “It’s a miscarriage of justice, and I still maintain that I am innocent. The criminalization of politics undermines our very system, and I am very disappointed in the outcome.”” Read more...
Tags: Congress, corruption in Washington, Democrats, Government, Politics, Republican, Republicans, Tom DeLay
Posted in GOP, Government, Politics, Theory, corruption, election | No Comments »
August 18th, 2010 by John Feehery
Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General
It has been a bad couple of weeks for the Justice Department.
Yesterday, Rod Blagojevich outfoxed U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and tied up a jury, escaping 23 out of 24 counts.
Earlier in the week, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay announced that he was no longer a target of a Justice Department investigation.
Last week, there was renewed scrutiny over a botched effort by the Public Integrity Section to convict former Senator Ted Stevens of corruption after he perished in a tragic plane accident. In every obituary, there was further reminder of an almost comical effort to throw Stevens in jail by prosecutors who were so inept and so corrupt themselves that the Judge threw out the case and turned his attention on prosecuting the prosecutors.
It is hard to say if Fitzgerald’s case was inherently weak or if Blago’s public relations efforts were incredibly powerful. But it is easy to see that Mr. Fitzgerald sees himself in overly dramatic terms as a latter day Eliot Ness, and that his case was too nakedly political and some say too rushed to get the Illinois governor really nailed to the wall. Read more...
Tags: Attorney General, Eric Holder, Justice Department, Rod Blagojevich, Ted Stevens, Tom DeLay
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
May 18th, 2010 by John Feehery
Enron Complex / Photo credit: Alex (http://budurl.com/nwem)
Originally posted at http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/98251-no-cash-no-campaigns
It has become an almost weekly ritual, especially in the Age of Obama.
A major corporation, let’s say Goldman Sachs or British Petroleum, or in days past, Enron or Halliburton, gets into some hot water politically.
The inevitable committee hearings are called, and the major executives of said corporations are brought before the assorted members of Congress and publicly flogged to the satisfaction of the representatives’ staffs and family members and to the titillation of national media.
And as the flogging commences, inevitably, the congressional committees of one side or the other publicly demand representatives return the campaign contributions from the corporations that were publicly flogged.
This same thing happens when a member of Congress gets into legal trouble. It happened to Tom DeLay, to Mark Foley, and to Charlie Rangel and John Murtha. The money they gave to their colleagues is suddenly tainted and must be returned — or else.
The irony is that the campaign committees, usually the ones who are calling for the campaign money to be returned, wouldn’t survive without these campaign contributions. Read more...
Tags: Barack Obama, campaign, campaign contributions, Charlie Rangel, Congress, election, Enron, Goldman-Sachs, Government, Halliburton, John Murtha, Mark Foley, PAC, senators, Tom DeLay
Posted in Fundraising, Government, Politics, Theory, election | No Comments »
March 6th, 2010 by John Feehery
The resignation of Congressman Eric Massa complicates the life of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And her life is already pretty complicated.
Of course, it means one less vote for a health care bill that Congressional Democrats are trying to get through a reluctant House.
And one vote is a big deal, because it looks like pro-life Democrats aren’t going to swallow what the Senate passed late last year.
The Democrats have constructed a complicated scheme to pass health care, overly complicated in my view. The House has to somehow pass a Senate bill that includes a huge new tax increase on labor union health plans and abortion language that is still unacceptable to Bart Stupak.
Then they are going to pass another follow-on bill that will somehow reverse that labor union tax with so-called “reconciliation” instructions that the Senate then will theoretically take up and pass with 51 votes.
But first, the Senate has to hope that the Senate parliamentarian decides that whatever the House passes somehow fits in with the Senate rules, not a certain proposition.
And if the Parliamentarian decides that it is not kosher, well, then, Joe Biden has to step in and create a new precedent that will give the Republicans ample cause to shut the Upper Chamber down for a while. Read more...
Tags: abortion, Bart Stupak, Bill Clinton, Charlie Rangel, Congress, Democrats, Denny Hastert, Eric Massa, health care, House, Joe Biden, Mark Foley, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, Senate, Tom DeLay, Ways and Means Committee
Posted in Government, Politics, Scandals, election | No Comments »
June 17th, 2008 by John Feehery
This orginally appeared in The Politico
In 1989, when I started working for then-House Minority Leader Bob Michel, I was full of ideological enthusiasm. Fresh off of reading “The Fountainhead” and listening to Newt Gingrich’s GOPAC tapes, I was, in my mind, a fire-breathing conservative who became a bitter critic of George Bush the First and his Big Government ideas. I thought of myself as the most conservative member of the Michel leadership staff. Some thought I was a right-wing wacko.
After I had worked for five years for Michel, a war hero and one of the best leaders in congressional history, he announced his retirement. I decided to go back home to Illinois, where I worked for Denny Hastert, a loyal lieutenant of Michel. Hastert curiously became the campaign manager of Tom DeLay, a bitter critic of Michel who was running for Republican whip.
DeLay, with Hastert’s considerable help, won the whip race as Republicans captured the House for the first time in 40 years. I moved back to Washington to work for then-Majority Whip DeLay and Hastert, his chief deputy. I eventually became DeLay’s communications director. Read more...
Tags: Bob Michel, Conservatives, Moderates, Republicans, Tom DeLay
Posted in Theory | 1 Comment »
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