Hightower Lowdown

In politics, especially in the South, it's not uncommon to be tagged with a nickname. In my first run for office here in Texas, I became widely known as "Whole Hog" Hightower after I gave a particularly fiery speech at the state AFL-CIO convention. Noting that our state government had long served the corporate elites, leaving only pork rinds and pigs' feet for the working families, I declared that it was time for regular folks to go into the smokehouse of Texas politics and, at long last, claim the whole hog for themselves. In some circles, I'm still greeted with fond shouts of "Whole Hog!" whenever they see me.

So if nicknames can characterize you, what are we to make of Mr. Tom DeLay, the Republican leader of the U.S. Congress? Despite his high position, the great majority of Americans don't know DeLay's name and wouldn't recognize him if he walked up and kicked them in their collective butt (which he's actually doing from the backrooms of Washington). But those who do know Tom have dubbed him not with one nickname but several, all of which attest to his relentless and ruthless pursuit of their extremist causes: The Hammer, Rottweiler, The Bug Man, Dereg, The Messiah and (Tom's personal favorite) The Exterminator.

If these nicknames aren't chilling enough for you, here's how one of his own congressional constituents describes him: "Tom DeLay is a shiver looking for a spine to run up." By whatever name you choose, it's time for all of us to know just who this guy is, for DeLay has quietly become by far the most powerful man in Congress, with his own political muscle that rivals the White House itself. Not that DeLay Inc. and BushCo are at odds--both push essentially the same corporatist and right-wing agenda. It's a good-cop/bad-cop routine in which George W. is the affable, disarming public persona of these agendas and DeLay is the cold-eyed enforcer. As Tom has said, "I'm the ditch digger who makes it all happen." [ read more ]