Under siege from Democrats over accusations of ethical impropriety, Representative Tom DeLay did what he does best on Thursday night at an elaborate tribute in his honor: He went on the offensive…

Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader, mocked the Democrats for their losses in recent years and accused them of “bitter extremism”… “No ideas, no leadership, no agenda,” Mr. DeLay said in a speech to hundreds of conservatives gathered at the banquet. “And in just the last week we can add to that list: no class.”
WP: Free Reg

The uglification of America continues. DeLay is exposed as one of the most corrupt politicians in recent history, he receives multiple admonitions from the House ethics committee, and he tells us we have no class, no ideas, and no leadership.

It’s our responsibility to fight corruption, to expose corruption, and to punish corruption. It doesn’t matter what party you belong to, Tom. It matters that you are a crook. But apparently, being a crook is popular if you simultaneously hold hard right-wing positions.

“Tom, please hang in there,” Jesse Helms, the former senator from North Carolina, said in a videotaped tribute.

I never had a high opinion of Jesse Helms. But this is the first time I’ve heard him encourage rank criminals to ‘hang in there’.

:::flip:::

Another speaker, David Keene, leader of the American Conservative Union, said: “The message we send tonight is simple enough: We are conservative, we are proud of our leaders, we stand with our own, and none of us are going away anytime soon.”

You are proud of your leader whose own party has seen his ethical lapses as so egregious that they have had to admonish him three times in the past year? You stand with and for this? Thanks for making our point.

The master of ceremonies for the event, Cleta Mitchell, a Washington lawyer, said, “I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t remind me of any funeral I’ve been to recently.”

No, I don’t imagine it did feel like a funeral, what with all the bluegrass music and salmon steaks, (see below).

“The only way DeLay would be damaged is if his friends walked away from him,” Grover G. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a prominent supporter of Mr. DeLay, said earlier in the day.

Grover, you are an asshole. The whole country is damaged when you stick with Tom DeLay.

The $2,000-a-table tribute dinner at the Capital Hilton Hotel, chiefly sponsored by the American Conservative Union, was specifically described not as a fund-raiser but as a public relations boost for Mr. DeLay… Guests wore “Hooray for DeLay” stickers on their lapels. A bluegrass band, Jay Armsworthy and Eastern Tradition, performed. A salad of baby green lettuce with white truffle vinaigrette was followed by filet mignon and salmon.

Wine flowed. For dessert, Mr. DeLay was served a red-white-and-blue cake festooned with sparklers and plastic hammers – a reference to his nickname, the Hammer – while the band played “If I Had a Hammer.”

This sickening display is a metaphor for everything that is wrong with Congress. I firmly believe that the most successful Democratic pol in the 2008 primaries, will be the one that takes up the banner of Ross Perot, not Al Gore. ‘Throw the bums out’ is going to be the winning mantra.

Bacchanalias like this ‘Hooray for Corruption’ party are going to insure that.