Thank you God for giving us Tom DeLay. Otherwise my political rants would lack the poignancy of righteous indignation, not to mention a certain sleaze factor I find irresistible. It's his family this time that's the focus of my particular outrage. Turns out his wife and daughter are making a pretty good living out of this "Daddy goes to Congress" gig. According to the NY Times ,
The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.
Now, I've worked on political campaigns, and let me tell you, most of us don't make near that. In fact, the salaries were so low I turned them down. It would have made my resume look bad to future employers, and probably brought the IRS sniffing around, wondering where the rest of my compensation was. Most of the campaign workers I know make barely enough to keep them out of poverty, in fact, many are given housing by friends of the campaign. So when Tom DeLay's daughter is paid $3,681for the month, and has received $222,000 since 2001, for "assisting Armpac in arranging and organizing individual events," and when his wife makes even more for "signing off on her husband's schedule," I'm outraged. Not on behalf of the contributors to Armpac—after all, their only goal is to buy some influence with the Congressman—but for the rest of us campaign workers, who work for a pittance so that honest and good people will be elected.
One of my jobs as a fundraiser for a Congressional campaign (in addition to "arranging and organizing individual events") was to ask people for money. Ordinary, hardworking folks for whom $100 was a lot of cash. I had several versions of a beg and in one I bragged about our low overhead—only two of our staff of 16 was paid, so contribution checks would go directly to fund television and radio ads. This was particularly appealing; most people are a bit of a tightwad at heart.
Sometimes I'd ask people to give the price of a pair of good shoes. For folks who'd normally spend $25 at PayLess, that was how much they ought to give to support a like-minded candidate. For others, who might plop down $200 without batting an eyelash, a similar check to a candidate would be appropriate. Of course, many gave us more, realizing that supporting good candidates was worth a lot more than a pair of shoes, but many of our contributors were new to the idea of giving candidates a check as well as a vote. Just as they'd think long and hard before buying shoes, they liked to try a candidate on for size as well before parting with a bit of their paycheck.
Those were the very people we wanted to represent. People who thought they didn't matter. People who figured politicians were all connected by a feeding tube to special interests, so their puny contribution wouldn't have fed the beast more than a few paperclips. (I was one of them, in fact, my first political contribution came with a note to use it for thumbtacks.)
So I get upset when I see that there are people getting rich off their "campaign work." Tom DeLay's family gets over $500,000, for doing the same kind of work I did for nothing, and on top of that Daddy gives them a nice tax break too. Maybe Republican campaigns and PACs pay a lot more than the Democratic ones I worked for. Maybe Republican donors don't mind seeing their contributions line pockets instead of pay for media, literature, and thumbtacks. Maybe Republican candidates have to pay high salaries in order to get poly sci majors to sell their souls. I don't know; I do know you can't buy honesty.
I'd like to meet Christine DeLay, and her daughter Dani. I'd be tempted to ask them why they don't believe in Daddy Tom enough to work for free, or at least an honest pittance. But I think I already know the answer to that.
Instead, I'll just thank them. After all, if they weren't being paid so much—to buy shoes, and other luxuries— the candidates they've supported, including Daddy Tom, Heather Wilson, and members of the ethics committee:
Doc Hastings of Washington, $5,930; Judy Biggert of Illinois, $1,764; Kenny Hulshof of Missouri, $14,964; and Steven LaTourette of Ohio, $16,073.
would have had even more to spend against Democratic opponents.
So God, could you keep Tom DeLay in office just a little longer, please? We need all the help we can get, because sometimes the price of a pair of shoes just doesn't cover it.
