Tom Delay, Ruler | USNEWSLINK

Ruling the country "little tyrant" style

Tom Delay, is an absolute, domineering, ruler unrestrained by law or constitution; he's a usurper of sovereignty; he's a ruler who exercises absolute power oppressively and brutally.

THE FOLLOWING ARE EXAMPLES OF TOM DELAY'S PERSONALITY DISORDER

He spends thousands of dollars a year on hair care products and personal beauticians. He instructs his beauticians to tease, puff, and fluff his hair at least 1-1/2 to 2 inches high to make him appear taller. Overly sensitive about being very small, he lies about his height on his drivers license. He claims he's 5'9" but he's only 5'6". He wears elevator shoes to overcome his feelings of inadequacy.

Among politicians, reporters, lobbyists, and others inside the Washington beltway, Delay is known as a short man with a Napoleonic complex. He's unashamedly egotistical, social climbing, and power grabbing - exhibiting a pervasive pattern of arrogance and grandiosity. He has an insatiable need for admiration, and exhibits a lack of empathy - all dangerous traits in a politician intent on acquiring and wielding power in Washington, D.C.

Delay has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

Example: At the time of the war in Vietnam, "DeLay was eligible to enlist but said he did not at the urging of his wife.

Example: He started a pest control company in Texas and from a background of poisoning the ground and water, began to associate with members of the Texas state legislature who he could buy so as to exercise ultimate control over deregulation of toxic substances needed to run his bug business.

He is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.

Example: DeLay has begun expanding his reach beyond domestic issues. He and other Christian Conservatives have teamed up with leaders of Jewish organizations to support Israel's government.

He believes that he is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions).

Example: Normal laws and rules, it seems, aren't good enough for Representative DeLay. Recently, he was eating in a restaurant inside a federal government building, and wanted to smoke. When told that it was against the law to smoke in a federal government building, he is quoted as having said, "I am the federal government."

Example: On accusations that DeLay, Representative Joe Barton [R-Tex.], Representative W.J. "Billy" Tauzin [R-La.], and Senator Richard Shelby [R-Ala.] accepted contributions from Westar, a Kansas-based energy company and in turn inserted a provision in the 2002 energy bill that would exempt it from a federal securities regulation:
"It never ceases to amaze me that in this town people are so cynical that they want to attach money to issues, money to a bill, money to amendments. They hardly ever write that money is given to support people who think the same way. Westar supported people who were doing the things they believed in and wanted to see done. "

Example: "I am in demand for my speaking prowess. I am not influenced by them [corporate lobbyists] paying for me to fly to Dallas or Little Rock, or Nashville."

He has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations.

Example: On the "rift" between House and White House: "I don't see it as a rift at all. They came from outside of Washington, and over those first two years they realized that to get their agenda done, it's going to be the House to do it. Since 1995, the House has taken the lead on getting anything done. "

Example: "Republicans would spend next year's anticipated $14 billion budget surplus--and had intended to do so all year long"--to "force President Clinton to pay for any additional spending requests out of the Social Security surplus. From the get-go, the strategy has always been we're going to spend what's left."
Example: "I don't think there is enough campaign money in the system today," Delay told the Committee on House Administration.

He is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends - often lies or distorts the truth to avoid taking responsibility for his actions.

Example: Quoted from 1994 Texas court records:
Question: And are you presently still an officer or director of [Albo]?
DeLay: I don't think so. No.
Q: All right. You're still an officer, are you not?
DeLay: I don't think I am.
Q: Okay. Did you resign as an officer? DeLay: Not written. It was sort of an agreement.
Q: Okay. So you had an agreement with whom to resign verbally as an officer? DeLay: With Darrell Hutto, president of the company.
Q: And when was that?
DeLay: I don't know. Two, three years ago. It wasn't anything formal. I haven't had much to do with the company since I got elected to Congress.
Q: Suffice it to say, sir, it's your testimony today that you from about two, three years ago had a verbal agreement with Mr. Hutto to resign as an officer or director of Albo Pest Control. Is that correct?
DeLay: As far as I remember, yes.
Q: All right, sir. And that was never reduced to writing that you know of? DeLay: That I know of, no.

He lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others.

Example: "It has never been proven that air toxics are hazardous to people."

He is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her.

Example: DeLay has been anything but shy about using the considerable power of his office to promote his political friends at home and vanquish his foes. That the House majority leader is now using that platform abroad to peddle his personal apocalyptic view of Middle Eastern politics moves him into a new realm.

The Two Faces of Tom Delay

If you think that Bob Barr is as low as it gets in the US House of Representative, you're doing a great injustice to Majority Whip Tom Delay . Tom Delay, the House's Majority Whip is considered by some to be one of the most reviled thugs to hold public office in American history. Tom Delay has literally reduced debate on the House floor to a shoving match. Tom Delay is a 52-year-old Houston millionaire and former owner of a pest-control company. Squashing bugs seems to have convinced Tom Delay that he is a superior being in God's grand scheme. He is the religious right's most reliable culture warrior in the House.

His mission is so stereotypically ultra-right-wing, it sounds like a liberal joke: repeal environmental protection laws. Dismantle the EPA. Teach creationism in public schools. Have the ten commandments tattooed on every citizens ass. Abolish separation of church and state. Outlaw abortion. Pass the flag burning amendment. Spend billions on SDI. Shut down the federal government. Crucify Clinton.

But DeLays' moral impairment doesn't stop there. It finds its logical extension in the realm of campaign finance. Tom Dela is a master of extortion, and his shadowy fundraising operations, which raise unknown amounts of soft money for the GOP are legendary. Not surprisingly, Delay is vigorously opposed to anything even remotely resembling a campaign finance reform. Money, according to Delay, is "not the root of all evil in politics. In fact, money is the lifeblood of politics."

In 1984, Delay was elected to the lower House of Congress. He represents Sugar Land, a deceptively saccharine name for Texas's 22nd Congressional District, home to several of the worst industrial polluters in the country. Delay has branded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the "gestapo of government." His love for America is exemplified by his attempt to repeal the Clean Air Act, by his fight to cut the EPA's budget by one-third and by his cooperation with lobbyists to write legislation exempting their industries from environmental laws.

Tom Delay practically invented the "do-nothing Congress." He was a chief architect of the 1995 government shutdown, a ploy by which Republicans halted all productive business of our democratically elected governing bodies in a failed attempt to weaken President Clinton's resolve. Delay remains hardheaded about that scorched-earth tactic: "Our biggest mistake was backing off from the government shutdown."

On Capitol Hill, Delay's nickname is the Hammer, acquired from his knack for pounding money out of political-action committees (PACs). According to Delay figures, he nailed $2 million for GOP candidates in 1994. "I worked harder than anybody else," he boasts. "I was smarter than anybody else."

Impressed by Delay's relentless humility, House Republicans elected the Hammer to be their Majority Whip. Every time the GOP caucus votes to defile the face of public debate, Delay is there to toss the initial smear.

Tom Delay was the first national politician to call for Bill Clinton's resignation after the President admitted to fooling around with Monica Lewinsky. "Clinton does not have the moral authority to be President," pronounced Delay. "I believe in the Constitution and the Bible."

DeLay has not always been immaculate. In a rare confessional lapse the Hammer admitted that "like many young, ambitious males, I had pushed God aside. What a jerk I was." Delay assures a believing world that he has "rededicated my life to Christ."

The Hammer's dedication to the religious Right is beyond question. Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition, thinks of Delay as "a Domino's Pizza delivery guy. It's there in 30 minutes, or it's free."

Delay's commitment to Christ might be tempted if his lobbyist brother, Randy Delay, landed a job representing Satan. Tom Delay's efforts in Congress have an uncanny tendency to benefit clients of Randy Delay. Tom is eager to say that his sibling is not treated "any differently" than any other lobbyist.

A House ethics committee investigated Delay unseemly relationship with his brother and the Hammer's defiant mode of fund-raising.The panel noted that Delay defense of his behavior did not contain a denial.

During an April 1997 House floor debate, Delaypausing only long enough to ask himself, What Would Jesus Do?shoved Representative David R. Obey (D-Wisconsin) and called him a "chickenshit."

"Everybody is scared of me for some reason," joked Delay.

In the wake of Salon magazine's exposure of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde's adulterous affair, Tom Delay displayed the wrath of God. Delay labeled the factual Salon story "the most disgusting piece of rumormongering I have ever seen." Delay demanded that the FBI investigate the journalists who had brought this piece of dark truth to the light.

Delay had a theory about how the Hyde adultery story originated: "They [the White House] hire a private investigator to find the dirt, then they give it to a reporter to go knock on the door." Delay offered no proof of such collusion between Salon and the Oval Office. Perhaps the Hammer had confused Salon with Newt Gingrich's GOPAC, which was implicated in hiring a private investigator to find dirt on Clinton and then giving it to a reporter.

Delay has spoken highly of the former Speaker of the House. "Since 1989, [Gingrich] has had over 550 ethics charges brought against him, 550. Now what American could withstand that kind of investigation in their own private life and that kind of pressure?" One obvious American springs to mind, but Delay admiration does not cross party lines. "Something is amiss when a President receives almost as many bills from his lawyers as from Congress," lamented Delay, clueless that he himself is a large part of the something that is amiss.

Tom Delay argument for the release of President Clinton's taped grand-jury testimony displayed characteristic "nonpartisan" reasoning. "It's ugly," said Hammer. "It's terrible, but we have to tell the American people the truth."

The truth about Tom Delay became more apparent with every development of the morality charade that was the Clinton impeachment. The Hammer ran a "war room" from his office, becoming a self-designated source of "talking points" to shape the stances of fellow Republicans on impeachment issues. "If we were pumping out press releases on why Bill Clinton is a bad person, then that would be partisan," said a Delay spokesman. Simply providing information on impeachment of the President, he said, "That's not partisan."

The House vote to present the articles of impeachment was the gravest ballot any Representative would ever cast. Stately GOP orators described the decision to impeach or not as "a vote of conscience," an evaluation each legislator would have to make between himself, his understanding of the Constitution and his God.

Tom Delay whipped this "vote of conscience" as vigorously as he has whipped any bill for which his brother lobbied.

GOP Representative Peter King of New York wrote constituents that "threats were made against me by the Republican leadership," promising retribution if he failed to lock step with the party. King, who voted his conscience, claims that Delay subsequently attempted to deny the New Yorker a committee position that he was in line for. Delay spokesman dismissed the contention with a slur: "Pete King has a reputation as making things up, and this is no different."

DeLay rarely treats a direct question with a straight answer. The New Republic unearthed evidence that Tom Delay , a vocal critic of the President's veracity, had himself been less than truthful in a sworn 1994 deposition. Gerald P. DeNisco, attorney for a former Delay business partner, claimed that the Congressman's evasions and misstatements during a deposition five years ago qualified him as a hypocrite.

DeLay denied under oath in a 1994 deposition that he was head of Albo Pest Control Company. At this same time, Delay had reported to Congress that he was chairman of Albo Pest. A Washington newspaper, The Hill, examined other documents in the court case and concluded that Delay had misstated the amount of money he was receiving from the company.

DeLay refused to explain the discrepancies. His spokesman said, "It's pretty obvious that there are people who are doing everything they can to make Tom Delay look bad. There's more to this story than meets the eye, and it will become apparent in the future."

Investigative reporter Dan Moldea, working independently from the New Republic and The Hill, has informed HUSTLER that depositions by Delay and others connected to Albo Pest may reveal that company funds were used to finance the Texan's campaign for Congress. Such a fiscal arrangement may have been in violation of federal election laws.

Media inquiries concerning Tom Delay have deluged the HUSTLER offices since the beginning of Larry Flynt's campaign to expose hypocritical lawmakers. A wide spectrum of commentators and Congressmen, many from the Republican side of the aisle, would like to see the Hammer fall.

Two daunting rumors persist about Tom Delay . One is that a photograph exists in which the Congressman is locked in a sexual embrace with a Mexican prostitute. This elusive photo, if it indeed exists, was once thought to be in the possession of an editor at Newsweek.

The second rumor is that Delay has a grown daughter in the Lone Star State whose mother is not Delay's wife. Sources have stated that Delay has paid support for this child throughout the past two decades, with checks coming, perhaps, from the coffers of Albo Pest. At one point last winter a flurry of inquiring Beltway reporters focused on Austin, Texas, hoping to uncover the speculative daughter's identity.

As of this point, neither rumor has been dispelled.

"This town [Washington] is full of rumors," said Tom Delay in September 1998. "Unfortunately, most of the time, the rumors are true."