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Why do Republicans Get Away With Sexual Escapades When Democrats Get Impeached?
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Congressman Bill Thomas, a Republican from California, has been selected by an elite GOP House committee as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the premier committee chairmanship in the House of Representatives.
The mainstream press is not bringing up a rather nettlesome ethical issue about the Congressman, however. His conservative hometown paper, the Bakersfield Californian, reluctantly disclosed this summer that Thomas had pursued an “intimate relationship” with a high-powered drug company lobbyist. Because he headed the Ways and Means Sub-Committee on Health, Thomas had the most influence over any Medicare pharmacy legislation. The Bakersfield Californian noted that the appearance of a serious conflict of interest caused them to disclose the liaison.
The Democrats, as usual, did not pursue the issue, even though the GOP would have eaten any Democrat alive who had an affair with a lobbyist representing an industry they oversaw. Now Thomas is assuming one of the most powerful positions in D.C.
Of course, Thomas’s party has once again evidenced its brazen hypocrisy. Tom DeLay and his junkyard dogs are only “absolute moralists” when it comes to Democrats. When it's one of their own who strays and betrays the public trust, they are as quiet as cat burglars.
In July of 2000, BuzzFlash wrote and posted the two-part series which follows. We are re-posting this story because the Republicans in the House – and the mainstream press – don’t give a hoot about the blatant conflict of interest evidenced by Thomas’s ethical (and moral) lapse. Of course, if it were a Democrat, he’d be nailed to the wall by now. That’s just the way that the new political double standard works.
Getting oral service in the White House Pantry may be sleazy, but having an affair with the head lobbyist of the industry you oversee is a violation of the public trust.
The New Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, According to His Hometown Paper, Betrayed the Public Trust
Part I
During the impeachment trial, Congressman Tom DeLay, R-Texas, ferociously attacked President Clinton for what DeLay called his adulterous and morally degenerative behavior. Clinton, according to DeLay, symbolizes the complete moral failure of the Democrats, whom he accuses of being “moral relativists.” He, on the other hand, subscribes to a doctrine of uncompromising “absolute truth.”
Of course, this makes a rather difficult yard stick to apply to DeLay’s own GOP brethren, particularly now that Bill Thomas, R-California, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, has been outed as an adulterer. Prior to the scandal, many pundits had forecast that Thomas is in line to replace retiring Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer, R-Texas.
So what is DeLay to do? After all, Thomas is a loyal Republican who voted to impeach President Clinton. And that was a test of “absolute truth” for DeLay, nicknamed the hammer for his take-no-prisoners approach to lining up votes. But Bill Thomas has now been revealed as an unfaithful husband by his hometown paper, the Bakersfield Californian. The Californian’s editor, Mike Jenner, has written. “I didn’t believe – and still don’t – that the private life of a public figure is necessarily the public’s business. …but when a congressman develops a close personal relationship with a person paid to influence the writing of legislation and the shaping of policy, that no longer is simply a private matter.”
Indeed, the woman in question, Deborah Steelman, who was married at the time of the relationship, represents a drug industry lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, as well as individual drug makers including Johnson & Johnson, and Bristol-Myers, Squibb Co. Mr. Thomas’ Subcommittee on Health has broad oversight over health care issues in the United States. Ms. Steelman’s organization would certainly benefit from a favorable hearing before the Subcommittee. Although the President was criticized for being involved in sexual acts with a much younger intern, Bill Thomas is reported to have engaged in an intimate affair with a high-profile lobbyist for the very industry which his subcommittee oversees.
DeLay has faced this dilemma before. A couple of his firebrand colleagues who denounced Clinton for his sexual escapades were thrown over the rail in order to appease a clamoring public. They include former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who engaged in a six-year extra-marital affair with a congressional aide, and former Louisiana Congressman Bob Livingston, who was given the nickname Capitol Hill Romeo. Gingrich, who tossed incendiary accusations of moral depravity at Clinton, was bedding a woman 22-years his junior while calling for Clinton’s head. And Gingrich happened to be married at the time, to his second wife. Rep. Thomas is married and has two grown children.
So Congressman DeLay must be just a little dispirited. Sexual pecadilloes are taking a toll on the GOP leadership, although they haven’t slowed down the House’s obsession with hijacking the legislative and judicial process to hound Clinton and Gore to distraction. More GOP leaders were ready to be outed during the impeachment, rumors had it, but the Democrats, an embracing and tolerant lot, lost interest in the sexual exploits of the GOP junkyard dogs. As a result, at least a few Republican careers were saved. But a good affair, in the end, is hard to conceal, especially when both parties are married – and particularly when one of the adulterers represents a moneyed lobbying interest and the other is perhaps the most powerful elected official deciding legislation affecting her clients.
So we beseech Tom DeLay to tell BuzzFlash if Rep.Thomas has violated the Majority Whip’s inviolable standard of “absolute truth.” If so, will Thomas be reluctantly dumped overboard, like Gingrich and Livingston before him? If not, then is DeLay’s measurement of “absolute truth” really one truth for Republicans—a very flexible one at that—and another for Democrats?
BuzzFlash called DeLay’s press office for the Congressman’s “absolute truth” take on Congressman Thomas. As of this posting, BuzzFlash has received no response.
PART II
This week (early July of 2000) lizard-tongued Tom DeLay found time to lambaste the Democrats for conducting a “circus” when they walked out of the House in protest of the GOP Medicare Drug plan. House Speaker Dennis Hastert chimed in that the Dems were engaging in “demagoguery.” Dan Burton, full-time Clinton scold and part-time Chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, accused Vice President Gore of stalling on a futile e-mail investigation.
Yes, the GOP leaders had a lot to say this week – about everything but the all-but-acknowledged sexual liaison between the powerful Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-California) and Dawn Steelman, a high-powered lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry.
The reason that they should be concerned, as Thomas’s hometown paper, the Bakersfield Californian, argued, is because this particular “intimate” relationship raises the question of an ethical conflict of interest. Billions of dollars of profit are at stake for the drug companies in the battle between the competing GOP and Democratic drug plans. Steelman, a “star” drug company lobbyist (who earns nearly a million dollars a year from firms like Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer), was surely doing whatever she could, her relationship with Thomas aside, to get the Republican version passed. The drug companies have spent $30 million to fight the Democratic drug bill for seniors – and that’s just pocket change for them. But the effort paid off. They won on Wednesday, as the Republicans narrowly carried the day.
Congress will decide between more money for the engorged profits of the pharmaceutical companies or lower costs to seniors on a limited budget. Amidst this significant policy decision, Thomas, the most powerful committee chair overseeing issues specifically affecting the drug industry, is accused of a sexual relationship with a high-powered, high-paid drug company lobbyist.
When it reluctantly exposed the affair on June 25, the Bakersfield Californian observed: “Whatever the influence his relationship with Steelman may entail, Thomas’ position on a Medicare drug benefit appears to be identical to that of the pharmaceutical industry she represents.”
So if this were a powerful Democrat, let’s say, who was caught messing around with a high-paid union lobbyist, BuzzFlash knows that DeLay, Burton and Hastert would be all over the guy in a New York minute. DeLay would be haranguing him with lectures about “absolute truth’” and calling for his resignation. Burton would already have issued a subpoena for the Democrat’s e-mail, office documents, and phone records. Hastert, the Jolly Rogers of the three, would have been lining up votes to strip the unethical congressman from committee memberships while giving various committee chairs the go sign for a series of unending investigations. And the right wing legal “foundations” would start their well-practiced drill of hijacking the legal system to persecute the guy.
But nary a word is being said about Congressman Thomas’s bedroom scandal. (Thomas and Steelman are both married. She is in the process of being divorced.) The GOP junkyard dogs are muzzled for all sins Republican. There are no frenzied, bullying calls to Janet Reno demanding the appointment of an independent counsel. No accusations of conspiratorial activity between the drug companies, Ms. Steelman and Congressman Thomas. No steely-eyed,self-righteous assertions that the Congressman has violated the public’s trust.
Tom DeLay recently has called for a cultural Jihad to be launched against the “debased values” represented by the Democrats. His most persistent and bitter charge is that the Democrats, led by Clinton and Gore, are “moral relativists.” But as far as the GOP silence on the Thomas scandal goes, nothing could be more “relative” when it comes to morality, or perhaps immorality. At least that’s what DeLay, the Majority Whip and House enforcer, would be charging if Thomas were a Democrat.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
