Blogcall5 will feature David Donnelly of WithoutDeLay.org exposing the backlash against Tom DeLay arising from his exploitation of Terri Schiavo.

Date: Tuesday March 29, 2005 at 1 p.m. ET
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The Backlash Against Tom DeLay

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's long career of political crime is catching up with him. In his home state of Texas, prosecutor Ronnie Earle is moving towards indicting DeLay for using illegal corporate money to seize control of the Texas legislature. In Washington DC, DeLay's gifts from corrupt lobbyists like Jack Abramoff - which we discussed in BlogCall3 - are making headlines and calling attention to DeLay's destruction of the House Ethics Committee to avoid punishment.

On March 15th, Public Campaign Action Fund launched a multi-faceted campaign to demand DeLay's resignation. DeLay's pay-to-play politics, abuse of power, attitude that the rules don't apply to him, and his exploitation of Terri Schiavo all speak to why he is unfit to be a leader of Congress. 16,000 citizens have signed their on-line petition at withoutdelay.org to demand DeLay's resignation, and these messages are going directly to Congress.

Public Campaign Action Fund is now going into targeted districts to make key Representatives choose between standing with their constituents against corruption, or standing with Tom DeLay. The campaign will rely on the power of on-line organizing to help drive the message that it's time to "clean up Congress... without DeLay." In the coming days they will issue reports cataloguing DeLay's statements and the money he's raised from special interests with legislation before Congress. They are blogging at the Daily DeLay (http://dailydelay.blogspot.com) to highlight anti-DeLay organizing efforts, news stories, editorials, and commentary.

Polls show 82% of Americans think Congress and the President should stay out of Terri Schiavo's life; 65% said it was all about politics, not values; 54% said they would be less likely to vote for a Congressperson who forced the case into Federal courts. Republicans are feeling the heat from conservatives as well as liberals, and some are quietly blaming DeLay for getting them into this mess.

Will the backlash against Tom DeLay finally bring him down?

Links:

• 3/28/05 Wall St. Journal Editorial: Smells Like Beltway