Tom DeLay and the Northern Marianas: It's Not the Heat, It's the Cupidity

   I'm convinced that Edmund Burke (1729-97), the great conservative Irish philosopher/politician must have possessed one heck of a nifty crystal ball.   How else could he have known that one day, a man named Tom DeLay would arise,  and, with a straight face, attempt to flummox an entire nation?  It's entirely likely that Burke was focusing on the future House Majority Leader when he wrote "Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises; for never intending to go beyond promises, it costs nothing."  And that, dear reader, is one of the most succinct, most prescient summations of Mr. DeLay you will ever read.

     For in Mr. DeLay and his coterie of virtuous paragons, we find the quintessence of political and moral hypocrisy.  Armed with a Bible, moral certitude and an unquenchable thirst for victory, DeLay has taken duplicity to heights that might even astound Mr. Burke.  But in the process, maybe -- just maybe -- he has sown the seeds of his own (and, dare, we pray, his party's) defeat. 

    Throughout American history, certain key words and phrases have served as summary death-knells -- Waterloos, if you will -- for people and parties.  Who amongst us fails to recall such classics as At  long last, have you no sense of shame, Senator McCarthy? Who lost China? and those Eisenhower-era favorites deep-freeze and vicuna coat.  Grabbing hold of Burke's crystal ball, I see three words -- The Northern Marianas -- pulsing in the light.  Let us all hope and pray that this little phrase -- The Northern Marianas -- will become Mr. DeLay's (and by extension his party's) Waterloo.   

    Until recently, few people had ever heard of the CNMI (The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).  And Saipan, its only true city, well, if anything there was a vague, vague recollection of some bloody long-ago South Pacific battle in the closing days of World War II.  Of late however, The Northern Marianas, Saipan and Tom DeLay have been receiving a lot of space and ink.  What's it all about, and what in the world does all this have to do with Edmund Burke's mot about hypocrisy?

   In reality, it's a long, terribly involved tale involving prostitution and white slavery, forced labor and abortion, political bribery and overnight fortunes.  In addition to Majority Leader DeLay, the cast of characters includes such disparate players as super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, anti-tax revolutionary Grover Norquist and the Tan family of Saipan.  For those who want to steep themselves in all the grisly details, we invite you to go to either  http://saipansucks.com/ or the May 15th edition of  http://www.dailykos.com/

   OK, let's get to the short-hand version.  The CNMI is a U.S. Commonwealth in the West Pacific Ocean. Although near Asia, it is hardly Asian in outlook.  For people in the Northern Marianas, politics is a full-contact blood sport.  Corruption is rife.  As a U.S. Commonwealth, its citizens are supposed to under the aegis of American law -- offered the same protections as people in Puerto Rico, Portland or Poughkeepsie.  Suppose to is the operative expression here, for in fact, many people there live in a world of subjugation and servility.  It is hot there.  But it's not so much the heat; it's the cupidity.

    The family of Tan Siu Lin moved to the Commonwealth from Hong Kong in either the late 1970s or early 1980s.  Their family corporation, Luen Thai, recently went public on the Hong Kong exchange in order to further expand their garment manufacturing enterprise.  They are extraordinarily generous in their contributions to the Republican Party here in America, and rub shoulders with just about anyone they care to on Capitol Hill. 

    The Tan family has a not so secret little enterprise: they sponsor white slavery and prostitution.  The scheme goes like this: girls from all over Asia (most notably China) are sold on the idea of paying anywhere from $2,000 to $7,000 to go to the CNMI.  Once there, they are told, they will be put to work in jobs where they will easily be able to earn in one year more than they could expect to make in a decade back home.  There are even hints that they may be able to go to the United States.  That is the lure.  Now for the reality.

    Once in the Northern Marianas, the young women are sent to sweat shops where they work 50, 60, 70 hours a week and more at criminally low wages, making garments that are then sold with "Made In America" labels.  They are forced to live in tiny, substandard hovels for which Luen Thai charges a minimum of $100.00 a month.  Before too long, these girls and women realize that they are never going to be able to repay all the money they begged or borrowed to leave home.  In their desperation, they learn that there is an alternative: they can become "party girls" at one of the Tan family's many "clubs," "discotechs" or "restaurants."  Moreover, they sign contracts that obligate them to have abortions if, in the course of their "hostessing" they should become pregnant.

     In 1998, George Miller, a liberal Democrat who represents California's East Bay (Oakland) in the House of Representatives, issued a report detailing the deplorable, immoral, and criminal activities going on in the CNMI.  At the time his report was issued, Majority Whip DeLay and his cohorts were far, far more interested in the deplorable, immoral and criminal activities of President William Jefferson Clinton, who committed the singular sin of having Monica Lewinsky's head in his lap.  Miller's report withered on the Congressional vine.

    Three months after Miller published his findings, DeLay made his first trip to the Northern Marianas.  He found it to be a "wonderful place" where "people are so happy."  When asked about the living and working conditions uncovered by Representative Miller, DeLay responded that Miller's report had more to do with the Democrat's not-so-hidden political agenda than reality!  One wonders just how much Tom DeLay got to see of life in the Northern Mariana's from the back nine of the golf course he was playing.

    Over the years, DeLay, along with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, tax revolter Grover Norquist and a host of Republican bigwigs have made the Northern Marianas their personal cause.  Have they, who blithely accuse Democrats of being immoral secular humanists decried the existence of white slavery or prostitution there?  Not on your Nelly.  Has DeLay, who will witness his born-again faith at the drop of a hat done or said anything to put an end to contractually-obligated abortion there?  You've got to be kidding.  Has anyone in the majority addressed the fact that garments, which are being manufactured thousands and thousands of miles from our shores by women working under inhuman conditions, are labeled "Made in America?"  Not a peep.  Why?

   The answer to this was given by Edmund Burke nearly 250 years ago.  DeLay and his minions are moral hypocrites -- men [and women] who occupy the front pew on Sunday and then slosh through the gutter the other six days.  They are cynical politicians who promise to make America a Christian Nation while on the campaign trail, and then suborn immorality while in office.  It is only fitting that they who proclaim their moral certainty, they who accuse others of being "atheists," and "advocates of the culture of death," should be exposed for what they are: hypocrites who never intend to go beyond making promises.