@ Chronic

Republicans Resurrect The Hammer

It's no secret that Texas Democrats are going to use the specter of Tom DeLay in the next election. What is surprising is that Texas Republicans have started swinging the Hammer again.

In his response to Attorney General Greg Abbott's opinion on the powers of House Speaker Tom Craddick, House Democratic Caucus chair Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, called it "what anyone would expect from the legacy of Tom DeLay politics."

The Republican Party of Texas quickly put out a press release attacking Dunnam. "Histor­ic­ally," spokesman Hans Klingler wrote, "Texas voters will remember it was Dunnam who led a coalition of his liberal cohorts embarrassingly across the border to hide out in Oklahoma in 2003 instead of doing the taxpayers' business."

Historically, Texas voters may remember the Democrats took off to Ardmore, to break quorum over DeLay's redistricting plan. There were also unanswered questions over DeLay's connection to the Department of Homeland Security being used to hunt the Killer Ds down. At the time, Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, gave a warning to his fellow Repub­lic­ans: "When this goes down in history, [the Democrats] will be the heroes, and we'll be a bunch of schmucks."

Posted Tuesday, Dec. 18.