House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is reportedly doing the equivilent of the political limbo in his efforts to avoid media-types and keep a low (for him) profile.
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank in a “Washington Sketch” column reports:
Tom DeLay sneaks around the Capitol like a fugitive these days, using back doors and basement passages to avoid television cameras. He skips meetings where reporters might get a chance to film his answers to their questions. He makes unscheduled appearances so he won’t attract a media mob and disrupt colleagues’ events. And it still doesn’t work.
Out of sight but not totally out of mind isn’t a bad strategy when a poll shows more than 50 percent of the American public want you to step down and you’ve become such a celebrity that Saturday Night Live does satires about you. But its hard to do when you’re so high profile, as the Post notes:
The only safe place in public for DeLay these days is the House floor, where he is surrounded by affectionate colleagues and journalists are not allowed to speak. Stopping in to vote after lunch, DeLay gave a brief shoulder rub to the Republican floor leader, then worked the room as his party voted down a Democratic amendment on an education bill.
Things are not so friendly out in the corridors, where cameras lurk. When a photographer caught him slipping out the back door of his office last week, DeLay shouted for the photos to stop. For his weekly session with the news media — off camera — reporters yesterday were herded into DeLay’s office, while the leader was escorted into the back entrance by bodyguards and his press secretary.
There, away from the cameras, DeLay gave vent to his anger. Told that Democrats are seeking bipartisan support for new ethics rules, he laughed and said: “I bet they are. I’m not interested in the water that they’re carrying for some of these leftist groups.”
Asked about criticism of his ethics from an outside organization, he replied: “You really think a leftist group like that will have an impact on people that support me and support what I’m trying to accomplish here? Heh, heh, heh. I don’t think so.”
And that really is it, isn’t it? DeLay DeLivers. So for some it’s like Daffy Duck would say: “Ethics, shmethics…what does it matter as long as he helps us get what we want?” Heh, heh, heh..
UPDATE: Others learn the limbo dance:
Two Republicans on the House ethics committee say they’ll step aside from any investigation of Tom DeLay, acknowledging their contributions to the majority leader’s defense funds will lead others to question their impartiality.
The withdrawal announcement Wednesday represented the second time in two weeks that majority Republicans caved in to criticism by minority Democrats. Last week, Republicans reversed themselves and voted to reinstate investigative procedures they put in place nearly a decade ago.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.