DeLay Brags About Taking Over K Street

In an interview yesterday with TIME Magazine, Tom DeLay said he was a “target” because he was “effective” and accomplished “some pretty amazing things.” DeLay is especially proud of the K-Street Project, the pay-to-play system where the success of lobbyists would be dictated not by how compelling a case they could make, but rather by how willing they would be to line the pockets of DeLay and his colleagues.

DeLay describes how it works:

TIME: Do you think you did anything that made you more of a target for your critics? Do you think you made it easier for the opponents to “”

DeLay: No. The opponents HATE what we do””what we have done in the last 11 years in the majority. We have built the largest political coalition of my adult lifetime. They hate that. We have been effective for 11 years going now, doing some pretty amazing things. They hate that. The reason we’ve been effective is we’ve tried to change the culture of Washington, D.C. And do it legally and ethically. The Democrats hate the fact that their culture of K Street has been changed from a totally dominated Democrat K Street [lobbying community] to a totally dominated Republican K Street. Nothing illegal about that at all. And we built that. When we took over in 1995, the K Street contributions to elections was 70/30″”70 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican. Today it’s 60/40″”60 percent Republican and 40 percent Republican. That’s a change in culture. Democrats and the left hate that, and they have worked very hard to destroy it.

While DeLay is gone, the corrupt system he set up — and is so proud of — remains. It’s that system that allowed people like Jack Abramoff to thrive. (More about the K Street Project and Abramoff’s role HERE.)