More Bad News for DeLay

Houston Chronicle poll shows support slipping for Rep. Tom DeLay at home.

Published April 4, 2005 2:57PM (EDT)

It seems Sugar Land, and the rest of Rep. Tom DeLays Houston Texas district, isn't so sweet on the GOP leader these days. This weekend the Houston Chronicle published a poll that showed "nearly 40 percent of 501 likely voters in his district said their opinion of DeLay is less favorable than last year, compared with 11 percent who said their view of him has improved." Additionally, "45 percent of respondents said they would vote for someone other than DeLay if the 22nd Congressional District election were to be held soon."

Not surprisingly, it's the GOP's Terri Schiavo debacle that is helping drive down DeLay's poll numbers. According to the Chronicle, "Nearly 69 percent of people in the poll, including substantial majorities of Democrats and Republicans, said they opposed the government's intervention in the case. Nearly 58 percent were critical of DeLay's leading role in spurring Congress to pass a special law to get a federal court review of Schiavo's parents' attempts to have her feeding tube kept in place."

Even Dick Cheney has distanced himself from DeLay's radical comments last week that judges who ruled for Michael Schiavo in the contentious right-to-die case should face possible impeachment charges. "I don't think that's appropriate . . . There's a reason why judges get lifetime appointments," Cheney told the New York Post.


By Eric Boehlert

Eric Boehlert, a former senior writer for Salon, is the author of "Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush."

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