Exclusive: Tom DeLay Says He Will Give Up His Seat (Time Mag)

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The embattled former Republican leader tells TIME that he will leave Congress and not seek reelection
Rep. Tom DeLay, whose iron hold on the House Republicans melted as a lobbying corruption scandal engulfed the Capitol, told TIME that he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months. Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress," DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. "I'm very much at peace with it." He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. "This had become a referendum on me," he said. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district."

DeLay's fall has been stunningly swift, one of the most brutal and decisive in American history. He had to give up his title of Majority Leader, the No. 2 spot in the House Republican leadership, in September when a Texas grand jury indicted him on charges of trying to evade the state's election law. So he moved out of his palatial suite in the Capitol, where he once brandished a "No Whining" mug during feisty weekly sessions with reporters, and moved across the street to the Cannon House Office Building, home of many freshmen.

The surprise decision was based on the sort of ruthless calculation that had once given him unchallenged dominance of House Republicans and their wealthy friends in Washington's lobbying community: he realized he might lose in this November's election. DeLay got a scare in a Republican primary last month, and a recent poll taken by his campaign gave him a roughly 50-50 shot of winning, in an election season when Republicans need every seat they can hang onto to avoid a Democratic takeover of the House.



http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1179853,00.html

[seemslikeadream]

1. BYE BYE TOM

Tom DeLay will drop out of his re-election race, two Republican congressional sources tell CNN.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

2. LLLLLLL OOOOOOOOOOOO SSSERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Taunting isn't something I normally condone, but fuck it.

WHAT A FUCKING LLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

[soothsayer]

3. The hammer has fallen

bwa ha ha ha! next stop, prison. Hammer time!

[Danascot]

4. That was one big mother toilet

I could hear the flush all the way from Texas to here in New York

[UTUSN]

5. Well alRIGHTy then-------- buh-BUYE - cheeneeing a-hole!!!1 n/t

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6. polling on him in the 22nd District was going down

Matthews said that DeLay told him in an interview that the polling on him in the 22nd District was going down,as a result of his part in a campaign contribution controversy.


He (DeLay) expected to take a beating all summer on this,” Matthews said.I guess he felt the beating was going to continue

DeLay defeated three other Republicans to win his March 7 primary. The second-place finisher was lawyer Tom Campbell.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12141276/