Forget for a moment this silly “gotcha” piece in Time.

This sentence caught my eye:

The regulation also noted that Americans are barred not only from purchasing Cuban goods in foreign countries, but also from consuming them in those countries.

I wasn’t aware of that. Well, it’s a good thing we have that law. Because if nothing else, barring Americans from consuming Cuban cigars in, say, Hungary, is surely to be the final blow that brings down Casto’s regime.

Speaking of Delay, this Michael Kinsley column tidily sums my position on the issue. Frankly, I think the GOP should oust him because he’s been an awful, unprincipled, unsuccessful majority leader. I’ve written before, what’s most aggravating about many of Delay’s ethics violations are not that he actually committed them, but that he committed them in the course of pushing legislation that would dramatically expand the size of the federal government.

The Nick Smith fiasco, for example, saw Delay strong-arm a principled member of the GOP into abandoning his principles to support the prescription drug plan.

Delay and Hastert both need to go. Hastert because he’s a classic, smoke-in-the-backroom backscratcher, who measures success by how many new programs he gets passed. Delay for the reasons outlined above, in addition to the fact that he embodies all the trappings of powers the GOP rebelled against to gain power in 1994. In fact, Tom Delay, 1994 would frown upon Tom Delay 2005:

“The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know…I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure, not isolation.” – U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, 11/16/95

Lexis can be a bitch, sometimes.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 28th, 2005 at 7:39 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.