Tag Archives: Tom DeLay

More on the Majority of the Majority

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

I have been thinking a bit more about Denny’s Hastert’s famous dictum on the majority of the majority.

It is still a very good guideline for how to keep the job of Speaker of the House. But it requires some more refinement.

For most of his tenure, Hastert ruled as Speaker when George W. Bush was President. When you have a President of your own party, you damn well better deploy the majority of the majority philosophy. There were plenty of things that Bush wanted to do that weren’t exactly popular with the Republican base. He got some of those things done, and other things were put on the shelf. Continue reading →

California Bulls Leave The Stadium

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

When I first started on Capitol Hill (23 years ago…man, I am getting old), I was not terribly sophisticated in the world of politics. For example, I couldn’t quite come to grips that one of the most powerful men in the House of Representatives had the same last name as a famous comedian who spent every Labor Day raising money for disabled kids.

Jerry Lewis, at that time, was Chairman of the House Republican Conference and, along with Mickey Edwards and Tom DeLay, a rival of new House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich.

Even back then, Lewis was old-school. A former insurance salesman, Lewis understood politics from the street-level. He wasn’t a particularly brilliant theoretician, but he was a great practical politician who got into the game to help his constituents. Continue reading →

Government Shut Down

BY JOHN FEEHERY

Reprinted from thefeeherytheory.com

During the Eddie Murphy years, Saturday Night Live had an iconic skit  that can best be called “Who Shot Buckwheat.” In a spoof of the media  culture that glorifies murderers and assassins, it examined why John  David Stutts shot Buckwheat.
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Turning Tragedy to Mischief

 

 

BY JOHN FEEHERY

 Reprinted from the feeherytheory.com

On July 24, 1998, just as the House of Representatives concluded debate on contentious healthcare legislation, Russell Weston stepped into the Capitol building and fired a gun, killing officer Jacob Chestnut. He then proceeded into the office of then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), where he encountered Detective John Gibson. Gibson was able to stop Weston from killing others in the whip’s office (including me), but not without sacrificing his own life in the process.

Weston was a deranged psychotic who held strong anti-government views. Perhaps because his target was a strong conservative leader, there was no deep concern at the time about the political rhetoric of the day. There was only concern about the alarming lack of security that surrounded the Capitol grounds, and about the fact that two brave men had given their lives in defense of their country. 

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Appropriators Abandoned by Voters

BY JOHN FEEHERY

From the Feehery Theory

No wonder David Obey retired.

Last night, Alan Mollohan, the West Virginia Congressman and proud member of the House Appropriations Committee, lost his primary against an opponent who attacked the incumbent’s behavior on the Committee.

Over the weekend, Robert Bennett, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, lost in his efforts to gain his party’s nomination to run for re-election.

Next week, it is looking increasingly likely that another appropriator, Arlen Specter, might lose his party’s primary.  Specter switched political parties because he knew he couldn’t win the nomination of the Republican primary voter.

Congressman John Murtha, who died earlier this year, was under intense scrutiny from the Ethics Committee and from the Justice Department for alleged malfeasance on the Committee.  It looks like his seat will go the Republicans.

Two years ago, the long time Appropriations Committee Chairman, Ted Stevens, narrowly lost his bid to win reelection because of an ethical cloud dusted up by a Justice Department indictment.  His case was later thrown out.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and longtime member of the Appropriations Committee, resigned from Congress four years ago under an ethical cloud.  Duke Cunningham actually is spending quality time in jail because he auctioned off earmarks to the highest bidder.

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Suburban Revolutionaries

BY JOHN FEEHERY

In Ancient Rome, it was the poor people who lived in the suburbs.  The rich lived in the city center, close to work, close to entertainment, close to all the finest restaurants (or the Roman version of restaurant).

But in post-World War II America, that all started to change.  Public transportation became more readily available, and bedroom communities rose up, first outside of New York City, and then swept the nation.

The riots of the 1960’s convinced many ethnics and the few remaining Protestants who lived in the big cities, that the American dream was better found in the suburbs, and a great wealth transfer from the cities to the suburbs began in earnest.

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