I think Tweety brings this guy on his show just to irritate the hell out of liberals, but now Candy Crowley has decided that somehow this corrupt ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was worth the trip down to Sugar Land, TX so he could enlighten all of us with his wisdom as well. In what world is this man worth the time for a double length segment on a Sunday cable "news" show?
Of course Crowley doesn't actually ask him about any specifics on the charges against him and why he claims they are false and she also actually asks him if he's thought about returning to politics. As Driftglass said in his weekly Sunday Show run down, "I guess G. Gordon Liddy was busy". Wikipedia actually has a decent list of DeLay's "controversies" as they call it for at least a partial summary how corrupt he was.
Joe Conason has more on the double standard of the media in regard to Charlie Rangel's problems and this was written before CNN decided to grace DeLay with some air time -- A wave of phony indignation over Charlie Rangel. DeLay actually defended Rangel stepping down in this segment since mean old Nancy Pelosi "set the standard" with him.
You know, I might not be some high paid television anchor but if I had a chance to try to get this guy on the record about some of his corruption problems, I'd actually be mentioning the name Jack Abramoff. I'd also ask him why he thought that there weren't any forced abortions or labor abuses going on in the Mariana Islands. I guess that's too much to expect of Candy Crowley here or Chris Matthews for that matter. She'd prefer to ask him if he's thought about running for office again instead of asking him why anyone in their right mind would want him to run for office again. Hope you're proud of yourself there Candy. I thought John King was bad on this show. Crowley just took it to a new low within a few weeks of taking it over. Bravo.
Transcript via CNN below the fold.
CROWLEY: Let's continue my interview with the former Republican House majority leader, Tom DeLay. I spoke to him in his hometown of Sugar Land, Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: Do you see any danger at all for Republicans with the tea party activists, many of whom don't have a "my party no matter what" view of the Republican Party; they don't necessarily even view themselves as Republicans? DELAY: No, I'm rooting for the tea party activists, mainly because -- and we saw it in the Texas primaries. I watched it very closely. The tea party activists ran a lot of people against Republican incumbents.
And it goes back to what you were talking about, where the tea party activists don't like what's going on, but they don't like the Republicans, either. And it was a real message to the Republicans that they better welcome these people in, because now they voted in the Texas primary, they are Republicans.
CROWLEY: If the tea party activists don't get a candidate that they like, isn't the danger for the Republicans that they just sit home. Aren't you really, sort of, splitting the party, at this point, rather than building it?
DELAY: No, I think it's a great opportunity for the Republicans, if they'll take it. They now have these people in their -- in their party. They ought to be reaching out to them and accommodating them and working with them.
CROWLEY: What about -- what about Tom DeLay's political future?
Is there -- have you ever thought "I might run for something again"?
DELAY: I'd probably have to get a divorce first.
Hopefully my political future is I'd get to go back on "Dancing With the Stars."
CROWLEY: That's so funny. Because so many people, when I said, well, do you have any ideas about what to ask Tom DeLay, they said, "Ask him about "Dancing With the Stars."
Why did you do it?
DELAY: I just thought it would be the greatest thing -- the best fun, and it was the best I've ever had. It was just amazing. I mean, it was a lot of work, and my feet killed me the whole time. And I broke both feet. But I just had the best time.
CROWLEY: And what about the image? What would you -- how would you like to reshape how people view Tom DeLay?
Do you feel compelled to do that?
DELAY: And you're going to think I'm crazy, but I really don't care.
I am who I am and I did what I did and I'm proud of what I did. I'm proud of the Republican record. I'm -- I've had a great career. I've done the things I wanted to do.
The only regret I have is, as majority leader, I was starting us on agendas that actually would change the whole structure of our government and move us toward a constitutional government. I mean, my last agenda I was taking on, we had five bills passed out of the House limiting the jurisdiction of the courts to take on judicial activism.
I wanted to reform entitlements every year, like appropriations, so that we could really get to entitlements and some day get rid of them. And we started that. We -- we actually cut spending for the first time since Ronald Reagan, a real cut in discretionary spending. We beefed up our security.
I mean, we did some great things.
CROWLEY: Now, look how excited you get about -- you know, talking about the things that you might have been able to do had you stayed. You sound a little bit like you might miss it?
DELAY: No, not really. I don't. You know, 22 years was enough for anybody, especially in the position that -- that's -- it's, you know, you're working 12 to 14 hours a day, scheduled every 15 minutes. I was getting exhausted, anyway.
So, no, I really don't miss it. Well, I shouldn't say it that way. I would have loved to be right in the middle of that health care reform fight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: You can take the politician out of Washington; awfully hard to take Washington out of the politician.
