NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER Corruption DeLayed BY ALFRED $~ ~EGNERY V~T HY ARE WE SURPRISED t h a t Republicans i n /Washington have been caught up in an / e m b a r r a s s i n g fundraising...
...Although Tom DeLay isn't the only problem, he is a big problem, and the culture among Republicans that he has nurtured over the last ten years is a bigger problem...
...He will no doubt bring several members of Congress down with him, and may bring the Republican majority with him as well--or should we say the Republican majority will bring itself down with him...
...NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER Corruption DeLayed BY ALFRED $~ ~EGNERY V~T HY ARE WE SURPRISED t h a t Republicans i n /Washington have been caught up in an / e m b a r r a s s i n g fundraising scandal...
...Alfred S. Regnery is publisher of The American Spectator and is writing a book on the conservative movement...
...It has often been said that conservatives do a better job on the outside putting pressure on the people on the inside than they do governing...
...Instead of limply claiming that Democrats are just as crooked as they are, Republicans--and President Bush as well-need to remember why they were elected in the first place, banish the DeLay-Abramoff crowd from their midst, and get on with the business of cutting spending and shrinking the size of government...
...Tom DeLay, like everybody else, is legally innocent until he has been proven guilty...
...That is not enough...
...Superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose name cannot be mentioned independently of Tom DeLay's, has pled guilty to numerous counts and is now busily trying to reduce his time in prison by singing to the Justice Department...
...It is our ideas, not our political skills, that have made the conservative movement a force in American politics...
...But politically, he is an embarrassment to conservative principles and should be sent back to Texas...
...They return his money and talk about changing the rules so this does not happen again...
...And what do Republicans do...
...The f f a c t that power corrupts is a concept that has been around since the dawn of civilization...
...We cannot fault DeLay and his colleagues for wanting to expand Republican influence, but we do fault them for putting their offices up for sale and for trying to dance around the rules to get what they want...
...As conservatives gain power, they all too often forget about the ideas that got them where they are--limited government and all the things that flow therefrom...
...The threats and strong-arm tactics he used to pass the massive Medicare Prescription Drug Bill should 4 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 2006 have told conservatives to dump him, but instead too many came to his defense...
...The result...
...Republicans are in power and it shouldn't surprise anybody that some of them are going to take advantage of it...
...They become more interested in maintaining their own power than they are in promoting conservative principles, and they discover that it is easier to buy votes with other people's money than it is to clean out the stables, as they promised when they campaigned for the job...
...i z 23 i 7 i J i x tad z r,q < <D % CZ2 C~ Wq L.U :E b~ z i t.,q i UJ io- >~c3 w k2 D C) c ~ o _ t J J c22 g O _9 F...
...The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is example number one...
...Allowing 6,371 "earmarks" from his colleagues into the Highway Bill and his attempts at merging the K Street lobbying mills with Republican offices in Congress put him in the same class with old Democratic Speaker Jim Wright...
Vol. 39 • February 2006 • No. 1
