Bush saw Tom DeLay as ‘the help’

January 9, 2006

For a guy who treasures loyalty as a person’s most important trait, Bush has no qualms about throwing friends overboard when they face an unspinnable problem. Ken “Kenny Boy” Lay was Bush’s close pal, until the president no longer knew who he was. Katherine Harris was the nice lady who helped him steal a presidential election, until she ran for the Senate and he stopped taking her calls. Trent Lott was in tight with Bush, right up until he wasn’t.

As for Tom DeLay, last month Bush “liked” him and his “remarkable” record. Now, the Bush gang has leaked word that the president never saw DeLay as anything more than “the help.”

When legal and ethical questions began spinning around House majority leader Tom DeLay last year, President George W. Bush was publicly supportive. Privately, though, he questioned his fellow Texan’s mojo. Bush had scored 10 points higher than DeLay in the Representative’s district in 2004, and that was only after Bush had recorded a telephone message to help rally local Republicans. “I can’t believe I had to do robocalls for him,” the President said bitingly to an Oval Office visitor. […]

Even before DeLay’s announcement that he would abdicate his leadership post, top Bush advisers tell TIME, the President’s inner circle always treated DeLay as a necessary burden. He may have had an unmatched grip on the House and Washington lobbyists, but DeLay is not the kind of guy — in background and temperament — the President feels comfortable with. Of the former exterminator, a Republican close to the President’s inner circle says, “They have always seen him as beneath them, more blue collar. He’s seen as a useful servant, not someone you would want to vacation with.”

As a public relations strategy, this strikes me as foolish. DeLay’s in freefall, so it makes sense to create some distance between the president and him. But to leak word that the Bush gang has always perceived DeLay as “beneath them, more blue collar” doesn’t make DeLay look worse; it makes the Bush gang look like arrogant snobs.

Worse, it shows a twisted sense of values. The Bush White House doesn’t mind DeLay’s corruption, his unethical deals, or his sleazy political attacks; they just didn’t see him as the type of guy the president could bring to Kennebunkport. According to this standard, the measure of a man isn’t his character or conduct, it’s whether he uses “summer” as a verb.

Right target, wrong spin.

I guess as long as he doesn’t get a blow job he will be the greatest president we have ever had? Right? Great people are all two faced slimeballs, right?

  • This is why I read you, CB. What a great catch on seeing through the spin. Bush treasures loyalty only in others, he doesn’t remain loyal. Love that. Bonus points for the “Bush is a snob.”

  • Bush is a snob? Ah c’mon. After watching “Daddy” Bush, who would have thunk Dubya would have been anything but?

  • The Dark Lord is not pleased with his servant. But as long as the Eye sees, the minions of the dark will search for the Ring.

    And don’t think that just because DeLay has abdicated, he won’t be a powerful mover behind the scenes, making sure to line up his buddy Blunt for the leadership position. Just because the Mob boss doesn’t sit on the throne of power doesn’t mean he isn’t the boss and that he doesn’t have power.

  • Apparently the feeling is mutual:

    Both camps describe the two conservative Texan’s relationship as professional—an alliance, not a friendship. “DeLay admires Bush’s leadership but still thinks of himself as the strongest conservative on the block,” a DeLay friend says. “They perceive DeLay as a bull in a china shop. They appreciate him as their protector and retriever.” Like many of his colleagues on Capitol Hill, DeLay suffers under what officials call this Administration’s general lack of respect for Congress. But he is also in the unique position of being the most prominent modern Republican politician in Texas to rise without the help of White House senior adviser Karl Rove, and the two have never been close. “Karl thinks of him as someone a little bit too opinionated for his own good,” says an official close to both men. “And DeLay thinks of Karl as a former mail vendor, not some great guru.”

    Sounds to me like it was only a matter of time before there was a rift–the only question was, who would screw whom?

  • You know, this could get really good. Delay strikes me as the type that will take revenge on those shoving him under the bus. He’d ruin careers just to prove he still has power.

  • Bush’s Brain vs. The Hammer
    Sounds like a WWF wrestling smackdown match.

    Let the best man win?
    Now there’s a tough question.

  • “Delay strikes me as the type that will take revenge on those shoving him under the bus. He’d ruin careers just to prove he still has power.”

    Please, PLEASE!!

  • Anyone in Congress is considered “the help” by this president!
    ESPECIALLY the Republican House Majority Leader.

    As for Rep. DeLay continuing to wield power ‘behind the scenes’…I cry bull!
    Blunt is as motivated by power and influence as any political figure can be. He may begin by allowing DeLay a strong voice, but I doubt that will last.

  • I hope all of the blue collar Bush supporters read this and realize the Bushie’s good ol’ boy act is a complete sham.

  • “They have always seen him as beneath them, more blue collar. […N]ot someone you would want to vacation with.”

    That’s quite a contrast to the image the White House tries to put out of Bush as the guy you would want to invite to your barbeque and have a beer with. (BTW I love barbeques with beer and he doesn’t sound anything like the type of guy I would want at mine. I can’t stand frat boys.)

  • So Delay is a stinky hillbilly hitman and Shrub is an aristocrat, twerp, infant king. Both are power hungry clowns whose make-up is running. Let’s hope there are bared teeth behind those painted on smiles and that they get angry enough in their blind, arrogant stupidity to chew each others heart out. Absolutely. And that Rove jumps in the middle to break it up and gets his tongue and “package” bit off in the process.

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