Tom DeLay

As is clearly visible in the official photograph, Tom DeLay's face is held on entirely by the strings of his funders.

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Dale Gribble Tom "The Hammer" Delay is an ex-exterminator who dabbled in United States politics.

He was a key proponent of the K Street Project, which was a plan by the Republican Party to get ex-Republican politicians secure jobs as high-priced lobbyists, and to make all business lobbies only play with the Republican party. This sucked for many of these lobbies when the Republicans were out of power and were not playing with anyone.

He endured a brief moment of fame in the 1990s when conservative talk radio was obsessed with bringing President Bill Clinton down, by any means possible.

He was also reprimanded twice by the US House Ethics Committee for corruption, before, finally, being forced out of office by an indictment related to his good friend Jack Abramoff.

Following the collapse of his political career he appeared on Dancing with the Stars. Conspiracy theories state that he was booted off early because, despite bringing in the wingnut audience, he so disgusted the rest of the country that they refused to watch. Also, he didn't dance very well.

He also stated "I AM the law" when he was not allowed to smoke in a restaurant. Given his former occupation, they were probably lucky he was only releasing nicotine into the air.

The K Street Project

The K Street Project was an idea by Tom DeLay to marry the Republican Party and the majority of the major corporate lobby groups on K Street permanently, as part of his plans to enact a permanent Republican majority in the Congress.

For a long time, it seemed he was successful, but then other events made people realize exactly how incompetent the Republican Party is. Many of those lobbies that did back the Republicans exclusively then attempted to find common ground with Democrats.

Criminal conviction

In November 2010, DeLay was found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy. In January 2011 he received a three-year term for the conspiracy charge, and five years for the money laundering, although the judge allowed him to accept ten years' probation instead of the latter term. DeLay called the decision "a political campaign", and declared that he only received the sentence because "I was tried in the most liberal county in the state of Texas; indeed, in the United States." Indeed, if he had been tried in a more "tough on crime" jurisdiction, he might have received more years in the hoosgow. You're welcome, Tom.

External links

• The K Street Project on SourceWatch
• The K Street Project on Think Progress