Matthews: Delay A Cloth-coat Guy
Chris Matthews is the number one suck up whenever he interviews Tom Delay and in this excerpt you'll see why. Matthews: Congressman DeLay, historica
Chris Matthews is the number one suck up whenever he interviews Tom Delay and in this excerpt you'll see why.
Matthews: Congressman DeLay, historically there are two kinds of Republicans, like there are two kinds of everything else. There's what we always call "cloth-coat" Republicans -- regular people who believe in the conservative cause -- and then the rich people, the country club crowd. Does it bother you as a cloth-coat guy who has never made much money in this business at all, who came in with no money, to spend all your years fighting for lower taxes which have basically benefited the richest people? Does it bother you to be a cloth-coat guy fighting for the mink-coat crowd?
DeLay: (laughs) No, Chris, because I'm not fighting for any one individual. I'm fighting for our economy, the way of life and the quality of life for the American people and I'm fighting for human freedom. Cutting taxes is a human freedom thing that helps build this country and helps push it along and creates thousands, if not millions, of jobs. It allows people to buy houses and buy cars and it just stimulates the economy, as we all know. It's not done to benefit one group or another.
Matthews: But does it bother you, all the years you've been in power, as you gained power for your cause, that the people that have come to you -- the lobbyists, the big shots, the fat cats, the people that contributed a lot of money to the Republican party -- that come to you as a regular guy with no wealth and say, "This thing we want through, this special thing we want through, will really help us and will give us relief." And you know that they're just rich people who want to get richer. That doesn't bother you?
DeLay: First of all, I don't see it that way, Chris. What I see is that we built one of the largest political coalitions that's ever been put together in the last 50 years, of people of like mind that believe in less government, fewer taxes, a stronger economy, strong defense. And it took that kind of big coalition in order to drive a conservative agenda.