Dance, Tom, dance!

You know that any article that features a photo of Tom DeLay standing next to an Elvis impersonator is going to be good reading, right? And so it is.

I've opined before that DeLay's actions so far indicate to me a desire on his part to not just win but win big. I'm gratified to see that I'm not the only person who thinks that.

"He needs to play it safe and come home and do the things you need to do," said Gloria Roemer, spokeswoman for Harris County Judge Robert Eckels. "He wants to win by a substantial margin."

Unlike me, Robert Eckels is in a pretty good position to know what Tom DeLay is thinking, so if he's saying this sort of thing, you can accept it as true. Just remember that you read it here first.

I find this quote, from Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, to be even more interesting:

"He may have observed the experiences of others who took their districts for granted and lived to rue the day," said Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman. "It's always smart to dance with the girl that brung ya."

[...]

DeLay's Democratic opponent is former Rep. Nick Lampson, who lost his seat after the redistricting. Lampson had raised more than $500,000 by June 30; in 2004, Morrison raised only about $643,000 for the entire campaign.

DeLay and Lampson each plan to raise at least $4 million.

"Tom Delay is anything but naive," Kaufman said. "It is not going to be a tortoise-and-hare situation for him."

Is Kaufman implying that DeLay was caught napping last year? We know that he didn't really do much campaigning until fairly late in the cycle. He's certainly being serious about his own fundraising, what with bringing in Big Time Dick for a little secure-undisclosed-location schmoozing. Make of this what you will.

One last item of interest:

[T]he parade of local appearances is a departure from past August breaks. In 2002, for instance, DeLay campaigned for eight House members from California to North Carolina. In 2003, he and other lawmakers addressed Israel's Knesset.

On this break, he spent just two days away from the district — one in Nashville, Tenn., to attend a Christian conservative rally and another at a Hilton Head golf fundraiser for Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.

There's another reason, beyond DeLay's need to tend to his own backyard, why he isn't travelling around raising money for other people so much: Coverage like this tends to follow along with him.

I'll be returning to some of these ideas later on over the weekend. For now, just enjoy that Elvis picture.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 26, 2005 to Election 2006 | TrackBack