Primary is a barometer for DeLay: He faces three challengers after five months of legal bad news

(from The People's Republic of Seabrook)

"I feel very good," DeLay said at a Galveston County GOP dinner in League City on Thursday. "We've done all we needed to do. We ran a very good, positive campaign."

We get to find out on Tuesday if being a corrupt, venal, mean-spirited demagogue is a liability for the good, God-fearing Evangelical Social Conservatives here in District 22. If past is prologue, and around here it usually is, Tom DeLay should sail through the primary without breaking a sweat. You'd think that, after multiple accusations of corruption and now indictments on money-laundering charges, DeLay would be facing an uphill battle to convince local Republicans that he's still their man. Well, in most places, DeLay's behavior would get him booted from office by people who demand ethical and honest representation. Here in District 22, though, all one really has to do is to wrap yourself in flag, faith, and loads of cash to be successful. And no one has done that better over the past 22 years than Tom DeLay.

DeLay will be helped in his quest for the GOP coronation nomination by the fact that the only people who actually vote in GOP primaries are the True Believers. On a good day, perhaps 15% of eligible voters will bother to vote, and heavily represented among those 15% are those who worship the ground DeLay trods upon. After all, he IS a faithful man of God, no?

Most Americans expect their elected representatives to be ethical, decent, respectful human beings who will represent them with dignity and honesty. Of course, most Americans don't live in District 22, where so-called good, God-fearing Christians will tolerate the worst sort of corruption, illegality, and unethical behavior as long as you present yourself as "born again".

Conduct yourself as overarchingly pious, speak the language, and show up at enough local Republican events so that the locals think you actually care, and you can get away with just about anything in this Congressional district. It doesn't seem to matter that DeLay has been indicted on money laundering charges, nor that he has been rebuked by the House Ethics Committee on numerous occasions. Yes, you could argue that DeLay has yet to be convicted of anything, but given the amount of smoke that follows him around, wouldn't a reasonable person assume that there's a fire somewhere nearby?

DeLay even managed to have the entire state of Texas redisticted to his liking, and now that clusterf--k is before the Supreme Court. Can't the folks in this district figure out that they keep returning perhaps the most corrupt politician in modern history to Washington time and time again? Apparently not; they're too busy praying and feeling holier than thou. When you're on top of the mountain, nothing else really matters, eh?

The 22-year incumbent is favored over three challengers — former schoolteacher Pat Baig, lawyer Tom Campbell and lawyer Mike Fjetland, who have spent the past several weeks crisscrossing the four-county district to find and firm up support.

In a hint of the challenge they face in battling DeLay, the opening prayer from local GOP stalwart Kris Anne Vogelpohl at the League City dinner included these lines: "Especially we pray for Tom DeLay and his family. Please be with him."

Indeed, this sort of single-minded, unquestioning support is exactly what has kept Tom DeLay in power for the past 22 years. By wrapping himself in flag and faith, DeLay has succeeding in painting himself as the brave defender of the causes important to the (self) righteous, slash-and-burn Evangelicals who recognize and revere DeLay as one of their own, because he speaks their language. Unfortunately, while DeLay represents the holier-than-thou, the intolerant, and the zealous, these folks seem to know nothing and understand even less about what Christianity (not to mention simple decency) is about.

Tuesday's primary is a critical juncture for DeLay, for whom the past five months has been a spiral of negative news stemming from legal troubles in Travis County and the bribery investigation of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a former DeLay ally.

The Travis County indictment, a money-laundering charge stemming from alleged campaign finance violations during the 2002 Texas House races, forced DeLay to give up his powerful position as House majority leader. The post had afforded him almost unbeatable clout on Capitol Hill.

He blames the indictment on what he calls a political vendetta by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat.

When you view yourself as untouchable, you can do this sort of thing. It would be nice to think that Republican voters here in District 22 would finally be able to find it within themselves to vote for decent, honest, and ethcial representation, but I've lived here long enough to know that there is almost no chance it will happen. Tom DeLay will likely skate through the primary unscathed, and he'll head into November's general election smugly and arrogantly feeling as if God is on his side.

Here in District 22, it seems that God votes Republican. Still, you'd think that He'd be able to do better than Tom DeLay....