DELAY PRESENTS HIMSELF AS THE SOLUTION…. Disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R) has an item in the far-right Washington Times today last week, acknowledging how impressed he is with “liberal infrastructure,” which he believes now “dwarfs conservatism’s in size, scope, and sophistication,” and will be “setting and helping to impose the national agenda for the coming years.” It’s a remarkable turn of events, given the head-start conservatives had in establishing an intellectual infrastructure over the years.
He notes that progressive groups and Barack Obama’s impressive fundraising operation is “impressive,” but for the right, it’s also “intimidating.” DeLay, however, has a suggestion on how the right can and should proceed.
Between now and [2012], Republicans must come to terms with their organizational shortcomings and finally become again the kind of dynamic political party that won stirring victories in 1994 and 2000. Our party must expand its organization to include our coalition groups in the ways Democrats have with theirs. The Coalition for a Conservative Majority, an organization I helped start in 2006, is trying to pull conservative organizations back together after too many years of internecine squabbling. Only under conservative government will groups like the National Rifle Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and National Right to Life Committee receive a fair hearing of their views; it’s time they started working together.
Conservatism’s leading donors must look beyond contributing only to traditional channels like the RNC or campaign committees, and open up to also funding outside organizations that can do what the Democrats’ Shadow Party is already doing. New resources must be tapped, and just as importantly, coordinated…. We need now a new, 21st-century political coalition to remind them of that fact, and to restore its faith in actual conservatives.
Is it me, or is this shamelessly self-serving, even by DeLay’s standards? He has an 800-word op-ed in the Times, the point of which seems to be that his organization is the key vehicle for conservatives to get back on track. Indeed, DeLay seems to argue that conservative donors should worry less about investing in the Republican party and candidates, and concentrate on financing a coordinating entity … like the one he just happens to run.
DeLay has been making noises for a couple of years now about creating his own MoveOn.org-for-the-right activist group, which presumably would offer him a vehicle for, well, whatever it is DeLay does. Last November, he made it official, launching the Coalition for a Conservative Majority.
Since then, the group has had a real impact by … well, there was that one time it … the CCM certainly made a splash when the group … OK, no one’s heard a word from DeLay’s outfit since it started begging for cash last year.
But DeLay is still out there, peddling himself as the guy who can fix the right’s problems, if only people would ignore his criminal scandals and ethical lapses, and follow his lead. Even for DeLay, this is pretty sad.
