The controversy surrounding Tom DeLay is at the tipping point. It might escalate into a full-blown crisis, put him against the ropes fighting for his political life, and even lead to his political death. Those who stand with him would be permanently tarred and scarred. Or, it might reach a stage of inertia and be allowed to fade away. 

All Democrats should mobilize themselves immediately to make sure the former, not the latter, occurs. Every Republican politician in the United States should be forced to take a position on Tom DeLay. 

There is no issue that better reveals the hypocrisy and hollowness that defines the true nature of these moralizing, Bible-quoting, boobs. There is no way on God's green earth that anyone can square the corrupt acts of Tom DeLay with Christian values and ethics.  

Remember. It's not only what DeLay did and got censured for.  It's the fact that the Republicans then punished the Republicans who had the courage to censure him by removing them from the Ethics Committee and appointing replacements beholden to DeLay. The House Republicans than went a step further and passed new rules making it harder in the future to find corrupt officials guilty of corruption. All of this amounts to an egregious violation of even minimal moral standards, much less any adherence to the highest standards of Christian morals and conduct.  For a full review of the state of play, reads the AJC editorial of March 16, or read the Los Angeles Times article here.

We can't let the Republicans get away with this. Every member of the Republican caucus in the US House of Representatives should be forced to take a position. For us, that means that every Republican in the US House from the Atlanta metropolitan area should be forced to take a visible and public stand on the antics of Tom DeLay.

I hope that every one of you will call, e-mail, fax, or send a letter—or any combination of the above—to your Republican Representative today asking to know his/her position on Tom DeLay. Then do the same thing for all the other Republicans from the Atlanta area. Be ambitious and do it for as many Georgia Republicans as time allows. 

I have asked four simple questions:

• What is the Congressman's position on Tom DeLay?

• Specifically, would the Congressman discuss his position on Tom DeLay through the prism of Christian values and ethics? Does the Congressman believe that Tom DeLay is acting according to Christian values and ethics? 

• How did the Congressman vote on the matter of removing from the Ethics Committee those Republicans who had participated in DeLay's three-time censure?

• How did the Congressman vote on the measure to make it more difficult to investigate misconduct in the future?

Once we have forced these people to take a stand, we should follow up with additional action, especially for those who didn't simply distance themselves from DeLay and call for his ouster as Majority Leader. At a minimum, we should write letters to editors and post on as many web blogs and forums as possible, giving full publicity to the Republicans' response. We should also form truth squads to attend public forums where the Republicans appear, with signs and handouts spelling out the Representative's position. We should ask questions from the audience in any Q&A session. 

But right now, go to your phone and call your Republican Representative's office.

Contact Tom Barksdale

 

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