Hammer* Time

Ethically-Shmethically
Texas Rep Tom Delay
Drew a bright line for his
Breathren to toe.

Congress to K Street, he
Authoritatively
Wielded his power…Hey
Wait, where’d he go?

Tom “the Hammer” Delay, former House Majority Leader, resigned from Congress on June 9, 2006. Under indictment in Texas and possibly under investigation in connection with the Jack Abramoff scandal, Delay chose to resign rather than risk losing his seat in Congress to the Democrats in the November election. Delay’s tenure in Congress was characterized by extreme accumulation and abuse of power. One of his more blatant abuses was his decision to use federal resources to track down Texas Democrats who fled the state to stall what they believed to be an unconstitutional redistricting vote. His “K Street Project” was a seemingly-successful plan to create an interdependence between lobbyists and Republican legislators with the goal of cementing Republican dominance of Capitol Hill. The downside to this plan was that it paved the way for a series of ethics scandals that ultimately led to his own political demise. Oops.

*Tom Delay was known as "The Hammer" when he forcefully and successfully enforced party discipline as Majority Whip.