With The Hammer, Lou Dubose and Jan Reid track the rise of Tom DeLay from owner of a pest control business to unremarkable, and hard-partying, Texas legislator (his nickname was "Hot Tub Tom"), to the congressional pinnacle of power. DeLay is the representative who has called the Environmental Protection Agency "the Gestapo of government," that he drove what he dubbed "The Campaign" to impeach Bill Clinton because Clinton lacked a "biblical worldview," that he didn't serve in Vietnam because too many minorities had signed up leaving no room for people like him, and recently stated any House adoption of a revised bill reinstating tax credits for poor families "ain't going to happen."

DeLay is bold — a majority leader with extraordinary powers and extraordinary ambition — and whether he is maneuvering to redistrict Texas congressional seats or flying to Israel to critique the president, he uses that power to shape our politics here and abroad. It is time a proper introduction was made to this man, the only member of the House to keep half a dozen bullwhips on his office wall and a copy of the Ten Commandments on the windowsill.

In the summer of 2003, the nation observed the curious spectacle of the Texas governor, lieutenant governor, house speaker, and Republican legislators taking direct orders from Tom DeLay, far off in Washington, D.C. One can argue that the House majority leader was just doing his job — helping gerrymander congressional districts to get rid of Democrats. But what an exercise in raw power! He has muscled and bullied in order to have his way on the shaming and impeachment of Bill Clinton, on the vote recount in Florida, on the redistricting prerogatives of statelegislatures, even to impose his reading of scripture on U.S. policy in the Middle East: DeLay dispatched himself to Israel to pronounce George W. Bush's "roadmap to peace" a dead-end street.

For a writer, DeLay is a rich character, always out there — slam bang — The Hammer. The congressman would never be at home in the Houston country clubs and mansions of the two presidents named George Bush. He likes to say outrageous things. DeLay knows that even some Republicans view him with condescension. But he is a master of Byzantine congressional procedure and the art of accumulating and dealing out money; and he means to redirect the course of American history. Who are his progenitors? Look to Huey Long, Joseph McCarthy, and Richard Nixon (the congressional years).

"In this critical biography, veteran Texas journalists Dubose and Reid tell the story of the boy from Sugarland, Tex., who rose from smalltown exterminator to majority leader of the House of Representatives, earning the nickname 'the Hammer' along the way. All the major episodes of DeLay's career are vividly covered: his rise through the House ranks, the coup against Speaker Newt Gingrich, how DeLay built his formidable fund-raising operation and (allegedly) bullied the lobbyists of K Street into towing the GOP party line, his alliance with right-wing Zionists (Christian and Jewish), and his disdain for Bill Clinton. The book is written from a progressive perspective, and the authors do not engage in substantive policy discussions about the merits of DeLay's ideas. There is no examination, for example, of the literature on the efficacy of government regulation — Dubose and Reid simply assume that Delay's hardcore deregulation position is bad. For them, the House under Delay is 'no longer a deliberative body' but rather functions as a 'plebiscitary' system that merely rubber-stamps the wishes of the Republican leadership. They do, however, affirm that DeLay's positions are sincerely held — that he is a 'conviction politician' who may be cynical about process but not about substance. (Sept. 28)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

The New Republican House of Representatives began with the bang of an oversized gavel made for Newt Gingrich to convene the 1995 session. Gingrich, note the authors--longtime journalists in Texas--flamed out within three years. But the changes he ushered in have endured, and they have been drastic. Today, Tom DeLay presides over a House that has all but banished bipartisan committee work, meaningful floor debate, and collaboration and social relations across party lines. In the current system, Democrats' views are all but irrelevant. Dubose and Reid trace the evangelical Speaker's career from his early days in the Texas Legislature, and explain why the changes he helped spearhead are likely to last for the next quarter-century or more.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dubose and Reid present a lively, hard-hitting biography of the pro-business, pro-Jesus, anti-government, anti-environment House majority leader Tom DeLay who is driving today's congressional agenda.