Tom DeLay as the New Newt

The Democrats are pulling one out of their old playbook. They are turning to a strategy that proved to be successful for them in the 1990s--pick one of the enemies, then demonize nearly everything that person has ever done.

After being emasculated by the historic Republican victory in November, 1994, when the Democrats lost the House after forty years of being the party in power, Democrats and their liberal media mouthpieces needed to exercise some muscle.

Losing control of the House was a devastating political, as well as psychological, blow to the Dems. They needed to score a victory, so they chose to go after a prominent Republican. What better target than the Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, mastermind of "The Contract With America"? With the mainstream media as their messengers, the Dems turned Gingrich into the Great Satan.

In the 1996 elections, it seemed as if every Democrat in America was running against Gingrich. I remember thinking what does Gingrich have to do with my state's senate race? Even in the presidential race, it looked like Clinton's opponent was Gingrich rather than Bob Dole.

Now, all arms of the Democratic party are swinging at Tom DeLay.

From Robert Novak:
MoveOn.org, the left-wing activist group leading the fight against Rep. Tom DeLay, has claimed there is a Republican clamor to replace him as House majority leader that does not actually exist.

"Now," said an e-mail dispatched by MoveOn, "some Republicans in Congress are speaking out against DeLay." In fact, however, no Republican in Congress has criticized DeLay publicly, not even on an off-the-record basis.

The e-mail also declares unequivocally that "DeLay illegally used corporate funds in support of his plan to redistrict Texas." Actually, DeLay has not been convicted, tried or even formally accused of breaking the law.

From Rich Lowry:
For the old-fashioned, the definition of a "news story" is a story that is new — hence the name. But the newspeople at the newspapers the Washington Post and the New York Times have an updated definition — anything that hurts Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay on any given day.

The Times just ran a front-page article reporting that DeLay's wife and daughter receive payments from his political operations. This story might have been news if it hadn't been known for years and been the subject of a detailed report in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call on May 5, 2003 — meaning the Times did a follow-up 702 days later. And this story might have been scandalous if it weren't for the fact that having family members on the pay-roll is a common, bipartisan practice, accepted as legitimate so long as they actually do work (DeLay's daughter runs his congressional campaigns). This story can only be explained if some editor at the Times is not barking at reporters, "Get news on Tom DeLay!" but instead simply, "Get Tom DeLay!"

The same day as the Times front-pager, the Washington Post ran its own front-page article on a trip DeLay took to Russia that was ostensibly funded by a Washington think tank, but that really might have been funded by a Washington lobbyist, in violation of House rules. This might have been news if that trip hadn't taken place in 1997 and been reported in the National Journal on Feb. 25, 2005 — meaning the Post did a relatively brisk follow-up after 39 days.

...The independent ethics groups that have been decrying DeLay's practices, such as Democracy 21 and Common Cause, are allies in this partisan push. Their contributors are hyper-Democrats like George Soros, and their staffers are often former Democratic politicos. They identify ethical government with Democratic government, and get the cooperation of the press, which would have no use for DeLay even if he were the reincarnation of Mr. Smith. This is why House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi can secure a federal grant for a nonprofit that contributes to her political action committee, as The Washington Times recently reported, and the story barely causes a ripple, let alone gets recycled every 39 days.
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I don't know if DeLay will survive.

Lowry describes what's happening to him as a "ritual with all the carefully scripted but irrational rules of an Aztec sacrifice ceremony. First, the target is deemed 'dogged by ethics questions.' Then, every scrap of negative information is splashed on the front pages, until out of exhaustion the target's supporters abandon him."

It will be a test of the New Media's growing influence and power. Can they effectively counter the orchestrated Dem onslaught?