Disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been making noises for a year 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. Yesterday, he made it official.
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has formed a new grass-roots organization that he says will help conservatives better convey their message to voters and take back control of Congress.
The Coalition for a Conservative Majority (CCM) — co-founded by Mr. DeLay, Texas Republican, and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell — will establish “chapters” in all 50 states, which will be used to lobby lawmakers, coordinate political messages and influence members of the press.
“Right now, liberals are better organized, funded and active than I have ever witnessed,” Mr. DeLay said. “Our goal is to work with the talented leaders of the conservative movement to complement their efforts, using an army of activists to push for the policies and leadership conservatives are begging for.”
It looks like the DCCC’s Doug Thornell hit the right note: “Given their historic loss in 2006, it is surprising Republicans would turn to Tom DeLay, an indicted former member of Congress who became the symbol of everything wrong with the corrupt Republican majority. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same for the GOP.”
For what it’s worth, DeLay said he wants — get this — the right to emulate the successes of the left: “When I left Congress, one of the things I did was start research on what the left was doing … and the Left over the last six years has not only caught up with the right — but they have surpassed us.”
That’s a surprising observation — activists on the left have been saying the inverse since the mid-’90s — but I’m still not exactly clear on why the right needs another activist organization.
Is there really some niche that the “Coalition for a Conservative Majority” expects to fill? It’s not as if the movement is hurting for organizations:
* There are already plenty of groups that have been around for years (Norquist’s outfit, the Heritage Foundation, AEI, Council for National Policy, Arlington Group, Young Americans for Freedom)
* Religious right groups (Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, American Family Association, Traditional Values Coalition)
* And a bunch of new groups that have popped up recently to revitalize the conservative movement (Freedom’s Watch, The Vanguard, Victory Caucus, Gingrich’s new outfit, Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, Reagan 21, Move America Forward, and the revitalized Citizens For The Republic)
DeLay and Blackwell are looking at this landscape and thinking, “You know what conservatives really need? Another activist organization for the right.” How very odd.
Of course, one wonders what will happen to this new group if DeLay is convicted on the criminal charges he’s currently facing….