Delay as a speaker would cause a problem for the Conservative movement in that the two leaders it speaks of having since 1980 are Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich, with other Republican leadership variously guilty of ideological sins and not worthy of leadership status, like Bush II supporting No Child Left Behind, Steel Tariffs, and Medicare Part D, or Bush I raising taxes, or Boehner's Cromnibus compromise, etc.I agree with David T that the GOP still retakes Congress in 1994. Without Newt though, Bob Michel still retires, so that means Dick Army or Tom Delay become Speaker of the House. I shudder to think what would happen, especially if Delay becomes Speaker.
Delay as a speaker would cause a problem for the Conservative movement in that the two leaders it speaks of having since 1980 are Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich, with other Republican leadership variously guilty of ideological sins and not worthy of leadership status, like Bush II supporting No Child Left Behind, Steel Tariffs, and Medicare Part D, or Bush I raising taxes, or Boehner's Cromnibus compromise, etc.
Delay was in my view a very smart politician and someone who was good at legislation. He was also blatantly sleazy in a way that Gingrich wasn't, believe it or not. Delay would likely go down on corruption charges at some point. Dealmaking culture would be disgraced much earlier, and the Republican legislative successes of the '90s would be seen in a different light entirely. This would probably lead to an earlier inclination of the Tea Party, which was a movement to purify the right on the grassroots terms, and would lead to the Republican hard turn right earlier on. Perhaps Mike Pence would emerge as a leader on economic issues while Tom Tancredo would be a populist with Presidential chances, based off of the timeline available.
That was kind of the point. If he was still around as the Whip, you might see a less rebellious GOP House rank and file.My God, can you imagine The Hammer as speaker? I grew up in Sugarland and met him in at boy scouts. He was scary.