11.13.06
It Was Corruption The Whole Time
It was corruption the whole time, not just the Iraq War. The fall of the Republican Party nationally can be traced back to the corrupt politics of Tom DeLay. From his empowerment of K Street lobbyists, such as Jack Abramoff, to his shameful gerrymander of Congressional districts in Texas. The permanent national majority he proclaimed so recently, after his redistricting triumph, has already crumbled. And with it the political might of the state of Texas nationally. Yes, I know, the GOP in Texas still holds every state-wide elected office, and a majority of legislative, as well as, Congressional seats but nationally very little power. The Texas GOP’s partisan schemes have only caused harm to Texas, not gain.
The one thing that most talking heads discounted in the 2006 election was how big a role GOP corruption would play. The Democrats used the “culture of corruption” theme early on and then backed off a little and went heavy on Iraq, neither was a bad plan, and used together were very effective. Most pundits believed that while voters were fed up with corruption they didn’t believe voters would hold their representative responsible. And, therefore would vote to keep their representative, and corruption wouldn’t play much of a role. They were wrong nationally, but not in TX-31, which didn’t vote out it’s DeLay/Abramoff tied Congressman.
Corruption alone is not enough to make voters turn against their representatives. The corruption has to be shown to be costing voters. In other words the GOP dominance and corruption in conjunction with the shrinking middle class, soaring health care and education costs, defunding of public education, etc., is what caused the snowball.
The Democrats will do well to keep the heat on the GOP about corruption, Perry urged to end lobby contracts. If the GOP keeps it up they will be sure to pay more in 2008. Two years ago who thought that even a mention of a challenge to Speaker Craddick would be on the table? Dewhurst and Perry were reelected but Craddick hasn’t been reelected yet. The fact is the best thing for the Democratic Party at this point would be for Craddick to stay. Like Jim Dunnam, who appears to be the Democratic leader in the Lege, said:
Dunnam declined to comment on any possible challenges to Craddick’s hold on the Speaker’s gavel but he made it clear what he thought was the message sent by voters. “On one side, we can have a new Speaker, have bipartisanship, get back to the people’s business instead of whatever Mr. Craddick’s business is,” he said, “or else he can stay and we’ll pick up another six seats next time because he’s going to continue to make people vote against their districts and we’ll continue to win elections as long as he does that.”
He’s saying, I dare you to keep him. The Texas GOP has a choice. Keep up with your same corrupt leaders and actions and suffer more losses as we near redistricting. Or cut your losses and hope to stop the bleeding of your self-inflicted wounds. I’m hoping that Craddick stays.