The Hammer and the Madame

Trying to figure out Madame Virginia Foxx's relationship with Tom DeLay, like certain other metaphysical enigmas, can cause me mild fainting spells. DeLay is precisely the sort of cocky little male dictator that Foxx used to despise. Probably still does. But that $10,000 DeLay gave her for her campaign does a lot to sweeten spite. Hell, if she played THOSE cards right, that spigot might gush: DeLay gave over $40,000 to her fellow North Carolina Republican Congressman Robin Hayes. Hmmmm ... one might live so long.

Especially if one did as one was told. Foxx has voted with DeLay 96% of the time. All those big government spending bills ... YES YES YES, moaned the Madame, who has conducted her long public life being as stingy a conservative as breathes air on earth.

At the same time, she quietly joins the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the don't-spend-a-damn-dime caucus of arch-conservative House Republicans led by Mike Pence (R-Ind.). Foxx's name mysteriously does not show up on the membership list of the RSC, but a call to her office confirms she's joined up.

Foxx is a total back-bencher, and not the most sociable soul, so the extent to which DeLay even KNOWS her is open to speculation ... knows her or cares about her views, unless there's a close vote. But there's plenty of evidence that DeLay got good and mad at her RSC buddy Mike Pence during the height of the Hurricane Katrina crisis (see below), and it was at that precise time that Madame Foxx decided to stick her sore thumb waaay up in the air, voting NO on Katrina aid. Might have gotten Mr. DeLay's attention.

Mike Pence, according to Robert Novak, got DeLay's attention and got slapped down for it, hard, Sept. 20th, for criticizing "the leadership" for their big-spending ways. Pence had been in the press on the 19th, confidently announcing that Congress would surely come to its senses and put a hold on certain highway spending and the Medicare prescription drug plan, to offset the $60 billion (so far) going to the hurricane zone. According to both Novak and Dana Milbank in the WashPost, Pence tucked tail. He and the RSC had been reticent before this about publicly criticizing Republican leadership, but the dam seemed to be leaking.

And here comes Foxx and 10 other conservatives (all members of RSC? probably), voting against the second Katrina aid bill. For that stunning vote, was she on the receiving end of some of that Pence-style punishment? One wonders. This sentence appeared in the WashPost on Tuesday this week: "In private meetings last week, GOP leaders sharply criticized rank-and-file Republicans for taking issue with the surge in spending....? Virginia Foxx may have gotten cussed. By MEN, at least some of whom are less capable than she. Wonder how that felt.

Pence and Foxx and the rest of the conservative mavericks, as it turned out, only had to wait mere nanoseconds before DeLay was indicted and officially removed from a position of authority over them. Don't you know they're so secretly relieved that ... they're developing pimples!

For DeLay, the politics of Katrina relief, particularly to the Texas portion of the hurricane zone, goes to the root of his ethical problems. He's indicted for funneling corporate money into the project to redistrict Texas to give himself an additional half-dozen Republican yes-men in Congress. Two of those new yes-men, freshmen Louie Gohmert and Ted Poe, represent districts in the hurricane zone, and they'll have to face a potentially pissed off electorate next year. DeLay's determined to pour on the money to save 'em.

"This leadership group is so out of touch, it's unbelievable," an unnamed Republican lawmaker was quoted as saying in the WashPost (link above). Could well be Foxx's view of that situation, though not necessarily her quote. I'd lay money on it.

Which begs the question: Why did she vote with DeLay 96% of the time? Opportunism? Selling out one's values for filthy lucre? Or pure old human cowardice? Tom DeLay is, after all, a thug who scares plenty of people.