Corrupt? Absolutely. - Tom DeLay unites the critics of the Republican Congress. By Chris�Suellentrop

Corrupt? Absolutely. - Tom DeLay unites the critics of the Republican Congress. By Chris�Suellentrop: "Corrupt? Absolutely.
Tom DeLay unites the critics of the Republican Congress.
By Chris Suellentrop
Posted Thursday, Dec. 2, 2004, at 4:23 PM PT
Earlier this year, Tom DeLay correctly diagnosed the disease that infects his congressional majority. 'If 1994 was the year we stopped thinking like a permanent minority,' DeLay told Republicans gathered for a February party retreat in Philadelphia, '2004 is the year we start thinking like a permanent majority: unified, aggressive, rightfully confident of victory.' DeLay, of course, thought permanent-majority status would be a good thing for the GOP, but nine months later he's become the symbol of a party corrupted by its lock on power. When House Republicans voted last month to allow members who have been indicted to keep their leadership positions�a decision that ought to be remembered as the 'DeLay rule'�political writers from David Brooks to E.J. Dionne to John Podhoretz howled that Republicans had finally completed their slow transformation into the entrenched, arrogant, and sleazy Democratic majority they defeated in 1994"