Don't Let The Door Hit You In The #?@!%!!

So, Tom Delay has finally decided to end this part of his political career. Good riddance as far as I'm concerned. I've read several articles and watched the talking heads last night say what a good thing this is for the republican party. Good because it will take the wind out of the sails of Democrats who are critical of this administration and the republican majority in congress. And good because it will remove an obvious albatross from around the republican controlled congress's neck.

Now I understand that the republicans and the Bush administration are doing some house cleaning right now to try to turn public opinion back around. Their numbers are in the toilet. The Bush administration's numbers have been in the 30s for months and steadily declining for the past 5 years. And for the republicans in congress have fared much worse. Their number have been in the teens and recent polling shows that public support for a Democratic controlled House and Senate is at about 50 percent. Needless to some image changing is in order for the party in power.

But all of the house cleaning and image making does not change the fact that the republican agenda has not and will not change. Their plans are, quite simply, to roll back as far as they can all of the programs, regulations and laws that have protected and supported the American public for over half a decade. Changing the face of those plans is merely window dressing.

There is a fundamental difference between the two parties, the Democrats and the republicans. That difference is that the Democrats believe in initiatives that support people. All people, regardless of wealth, socio-economic status, race, religion, gender...etc. Now the republicans have made a great deal out of the fact that Democrats believe in supporting people and their differences. They have cherry-picked a few groups who have existed on the margins of society and are most controversial and made it seem that the Democrats support the interests of those groups over the best interests of American society. That simply is not true. What they fail to realize is that when you support all of a country's citizens, you support ALL of the country's citizens, even the ones with whom they disagree. All of our citizens have the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Republicans support the interests of business and the wealthy elite. We all remember the clips of Bush that were in 'Farenheit 9/11' that were repeated during the 2004 presidential cycle where he was wearing a fancy tux in front of a tux-laden audience saying, 'some may call you the elite, but I call you my base. ' Well, Tom Delay has his own F911 moments, that's for sure. He also views the wealthy, corporate elite as his base. He has certainly accepted enough gifts from them in the pay-for-play political arena he helped create.

In an interview with Time here is how he describes his reasons for accepting those gifts:

"TIME: There have been a number of stories about the private planes, the fancy restaurants, the $740-a-night hotel rooms, the cigars, the fancy trips. Do those fit with a servant of the people? Do you think that any of that high living was a mistake?

DeLay: (Laughs) First of all, that's not high living. That's going to where people are. When you go and you speak to a group, they usually are not meeting in Clute, Texas."

That's where the people are? Really? What people? His wealthy, corporate financeers, that's what people. Clearly, he does not view average Americans as the people he represents.

Don't you think its time that THE people, the real people, the American citizenry take our country back from these elitist neoconmen?

Let's hope that 2006 begins the trend where we, the people take back America.

As far as Tom Delay goes, good riddance. Don't let the door hit you in the ass.