By Marie Cocco
WASHINGTON—At one time or another, most journalists come to understand that they will not be the next Woodward or Bernstein. They are not likely to help bring down a president or, for that matter, even a county commissioner.
The joy of journalism in these days of newsroom layoffs, shrunken budgets and sophisticated political spin lies more often than not in a simple truth: Politicians say the darndest things.
They are, as a group, funnier than just about anyone but professional comedians. They make us giddy with their tortured locutions—Ronald Reagan saying that trees cause pollution and Bill Clinton’s parsing of the meaning of “is” are among the all-time hits. Still, few politicians have a record of hilarity as consistent as Tom DeLay’s.
Less than a year after he left Congress in disgrace, having been indicted for campaign-finance chicanery and with a bevy of ex-aides and cronies already found guilty, the former House Republican leader is back to his routine. This time, instead of taking to the House floor to declare that the Columbine High School shootings were the obvious outgrowth of working mothers who use birth control and the teaching of evolution (not necessarily in that order), DeLay has put his deepest thoughts into print. .....
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