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May 15, 2005
Tom DeLay: “Democrats have no class?”
When I read Tom DeLay’s comment “Democrats have no class” at his going away party in DC, I immediately thought he was referring to my quote about DeLay in a local paper the day before: “What a rotten bastard”. My comment was not intended for print (so I guess I shouldn’t have said it) and may have been inappropriate. Nevertheless I said it and I am sure DeLay was concerned about my quote as much as he is concerned about the future of the EPA.
I am also confident his hypocritical comment about “class” was not directed towards me, although in this instance I may have deserved it. Notice I said, “may” because my reason for saying “What a rotten bastard” needs some explaining. There are few things worse than someone taking credit for the hard work of others and this is what prompted the comment.
In 2001 Burlington Northern Santa Fe proposed a railroad (The San Jacinto Rail) carrying toxic chemicals skirting the Clear Lake community, a suburb of Houston. This is where I have lived for 18 years. This rail would carry, among other things, ethylene oxide, a very explosive and dangerous chemical. It would have been built only 100 feet from the nearest resident, within 200 feet of a one of a kind training facility for NASA and within 1/4 mile of the nearest elementary school.
This proposal prompted one of my other quotes “What idiot thought of this idea?” To make a long story short, the community fought the proposal and petitioned Houston City Council to file suit. They did. And we won. This victory was with the support from every single elected official in the area from board members of the local Homeowners Associations to United States Congress, except for one, Tom DeLay, Congressman of the area affected. (Actually our State Senator Mike “Missing in Action” Jackson was also an exception.)
Immediately after the community began organizing, the Republican members of the loosely formed group sent a delegation to meet with DeLay and he told him he didn’t want to get involved. And he did just that for three years. The community with the support of every other politician, except their own, worked hard over a three-year period and stopped the construction of the rail. And then Richard Morrison challenged DeLay, and he suddenly became interested in the issues of his own district.
Just after the election in 2004, Mayor Bill White called a press conference and gave DeLay credit for solving the San Jacinto Rail problem by allowing BNSF to use the existing rails owned by Union Pacific instead of building new ones. And DeLay lapped it up like a dog with a bowl of anti freeze.
Little did anyone know this solution was the very solution proposed to DeLay in 2001, and was the very same solution that he “Didn’t want to get involved” with when asked by his own Constituents.
For those of us who took our time and money to fight this stupidity, the idea of a Congressman, or anyone for that matter, turning his back on his Constituents, then years later standing up, having a press conference, and taking credit for our years of hard work was sickening and insulting. What is "classy" about that?
And DeLay wonders why those of us who have worked hard to support and defend our community have harsh words for him.
What a rotten bastard.
Posted by John Cobarruvias at May 15, 2005 11:31 AM | Permalink
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Comments
"Democrats have no class." Did he really say that? Coming from him, that statement is so richly ironic that you either have to admire him for his wickedly dry sense of humor, or pity him for having no sense of humor at all... Still, if one assumes that to Mr. Delay a "classy" person is someone who gives generously to his re-election campaign, then in that sense he's probably sincere when he says that Democrats and others who find him embarassing "have no class."
Posted by: Mike Chappell at May 17, 2005 07:48 AM