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I Want to Offer Tom DeLay a TWN Fellowship
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I've got no inside track on DeLay, but I imagine that whatever prosecutors were wringing out of his line of former top aides who are pleading guilty one after another to fraud and corruption charges had something to do with DeLay's announcement yesterday.
DeLay probably has some complicated legal wrangling of his own ahead -- but I'd like to step back from all of the excitement about his departure and try and figure out a constructive contribution that DeLay can still make to American politics.
I learned Japanese politics from a number of people, but one of my key mentors was Shin Kanemaru, one of the Tanaka faction strongmen who served as Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party, for a number of years and was one of the key "kingmakers" of Japanese prime ministers in the 1980s. Kanemaru was a master of old-style Japanese politics and fashioned Japan's ethic of political structural corruption into an art form.
Kanemaru was eventually arrested. They found $50 million in gold bars in his home closets, but believe me, that was just the tip of the iceberg. I feel very lucky to have been given a glimpse inside Kanemaru's world because I saw Japanese politics as they really were, not as the many books on Japan's political system theoretically and antiseptically proposed.
I should add that Congressman Barney Frank told me that the difference with DeLay is that he didn't "self deal." But given the dealing to his wife and close associates, I think Frank needs to reconsider.
Learning from the masters of corruption, of those who have made a mockery of governance and regulation, and thrived is important. There's the famous case of Joseph Kennedy who manipulated the pre-SEC stock market, and then later was put in charge of establishing the Securities and Exchange Commission as he was such an expert in what the manipulators did.
America has no good texts today on the realities of how American politics work. Clearly, Tom DeLay and his party have taken us in a direction that feels and smells more corrupt than ten years ago. Enron is part of this era. The secret energy policy meetings with Cheney are as well. Political donations for access. Boeing and the air tanker scandal.
But we act today like American politics is still operating in a purist way. It's kind of like free trade, University of Chicago-trained economists who beat the table in free trade vs. protectionism debates but fail to recognize that South Korea dominates the global DRAM and flat planel industries today because of policies antithetical to Chicago School neoliberalism.
To understand "how a bill becomes a law," like the old School House Rock jingle put it, one must better understand lobbyists, money, and the realities of a more structurally corrupt political system.
I'd argue that Tom DeLay is America's Shin Kanemaru -- and we should learn from him.
DeLay, as part of any rehabilitation plan or any attempt to apologize for his sins to the American public, should write a book something like Eric Redman's classic work, The Dance of Legislation.
Redman's book is a fantastic primer for any young staffer going into Congress. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) gave me the book with an inscription from him the first day I worked in his office. The book is dated today -- and Tom DeLay should write a similar treatment of American politics that ignores theory and gets to the praxis of politics.
That way, Americans and those who are trying to get their head around the context of reform have a clear picture of how ugly and distorted our political system has become.
There would be no one better than Tom DeLay to give this insider's view of America's structurally corrupt political order today.
Tom, give me a call if you are interested.
-- Steve Clemons
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Alas Mr. 'Hammer', we knew ye not at all. Steve offers up an excellent idea and Delay could author his thoughts on congressional corruption. He should have plenty of "time" on his dirty little mitts. If there is any justice left in America that is. Given the predisposition of the Supremes to simply look any other way than at an issue at hand and vital to Americans, justice appears to be a snudge wobbly this fine morning. I'm wondering if federal prosecutors are going to bother with Dennis 'Moby' Hastert and the money that Hastert pocketed from Turkey?
The only thing we need to learn from Hottub Tommy is how he looks in an orange jumpsuit and how you 'self deal' in prison. Lock him up.
There is a sea of difference between DeLay and Joe Kennedy. I can see the Hammer working tirelessly in prison on behalf of Republican felons to allow them to vote, contrary to state laws in several states. It's time to trade gold bar and other bars for prison bars. Had he quit while he was ahead, we'd now see DeLay as one of the best-connected lobbyists, really raking it in. But, like Duke Cunningham, DeLay was in denial. Joe Kennedy had a sense of history, DeLay does not. The comparison simply does not fly.
Steve, you are making the assumption that the man is capable of being honest and can offer some insights into his own methods of imploding Congress. But that makes no sense, as his cronies still run the place. He's not about to limit them or turn them in.
Pardon my ignorance, but was Shin Kanemaru a messianic Christian who believed in the "end of days" and thought that all the Palestinians on the West Bank should move? I'd take an old-fashioned venial politician to a dangerous religious extremist any day.
'
Dear god, tell me you're joking because I really, really don't want to fight with you.
while i'm more partial to the prison route to rehab, this is an interesting -- if rather optimistic -- proposal. certainly constructive, but given the moral fiber that delay has exposed to the public, i have to say that i'm a far more cynical person than you.
Wayne Madsen has some pretty interesting stuff on Delay and that mob hit in Florida. Madsen has great stories, I'm just not sure when they're real and when they're sort of "out there."
Unfortunately DeLay's "mission" is "God's will", as interpreted by DeLay, Robertson, et al, not the good of the American Republic.
Great idea!
But...do we think DeLay will ever admit to any corruption going on that he knew about?
He will probably spend his time, the rest of his life actually, railing about the Godlessness of the FBI and the Justice Dept....and trying to figure a way to take out Ronnie Earl.
RE: I Want to Offer Tom DeLay a TWN Fellowship
Steve Clemons... you've done Samuel Clemens proud.
Imagine that... a quasi-serious proposal to reform a tyrant who would (even now) throw us all in high dudgeon if he could!
You've got me rolling in laughter...
Steve, in return, maybe you could get a job working for the Republicans to help clean up K street---getting rid of the last taint of Democratic corruption.
Nah.. he's gonna get to be Rev Rick Scarborough's Grant Writer for the F-B-I. That's Faith-Based Initiatives, pardner. What did you think I meant? Doin' good, not doin' time. Either that or he'll give George Washington Plunkitt a run for his money in the political advice trade.
It's upsetting to hear you say that our political system has become ugly and distorted. It taps into my worst fears--that greedy money grabbers run the country. Say it ain't so!!
On a lighter note, the schoolhouse rock jingle brought back nice childhood memories...
Amicable Dictatorships Could Theoretically Work.
Ive never had any faith in this countrys elected leaders to get anything done, they too often nowadays toe the party line or fight for regional or constituent interests even when the interests are marginal or obsolete in the grand scheme of things.
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