Delegation Clout: Were It Not For Tom DeLay, Perhaps We Would Have Been Number One

This morning, the Star Telegram is touting the fact that Texas didn’t drop in Roll Call’s rankings of the clout of state congressional delegations even though the delegation is mostly Republican and the House is now under Democratic control:

In the biennial ranking of states’ clout released by Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, Texas retained its No. 3 position, behind California, at No. 1., and New York. Even though Republican Tom DeLay, who was House majority leader, stepped down and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, lost the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Texas “is still a force to be reckoned with, holding on to the No. 3 slot through its sheer size and some well-positioned lawmakers,” Roll Call said.

Of course, if we’d still had Charlie Stenholm and Martin Frost in our delegation, we probably would have been number one in the rankings.

Had it not been for the very man they mention above (Tom DeLay), those two very experienced lawmakers would still be serving in Congress.