for the Democrat Party”—but a trial could mar the campaign season. And Mr DeLay's ties toVibram kso, Abramoff, the disgraced former superlobbyist, will be much investigated this year. At least two of his former aides figure in that money-for-influence scandal, and Mr DeLay's own golf trips and general chumminess with Mr Abramoff have become political liabilities, though he has not been implicated. “The best Mr DeLay can hope out of Washington is continuing bad publicity but he's not indicted,” says Richard Murray, a political-science Vibram kso trek at the University of Houston.
Such troubles were unimaginable when Mr DeLay organised Texas's controversial redistricting four
years ago (which ended up with the state losing six Democrats, including Mr Lampson). Ironically, Vibram kso,eLay did not use that process to make his own seat safer: the change actually pushed a few more Democrats into his own district. In fact, about one-fifth of Mr DeLay's district is actually Mr Lampson's old one.
Mr Lampson, the toughest candidate Mr DeLay has faced for some time, insists he is not trying to make Vibram Five Fingers Bikila the heart of his campaign; he vows instead to emphasise homeland security, fiscal responsibility, education and access to health care. Both men will be raising money madly, from all over the country. Mr Lampson is already sitting on more than $1m in cash, which is a tidy pile for
a challenger at this early stage.
Another problem for Mr DeLay, assuming that he survives the primary, is Steve Stockman, a former,Vibram kso trek congressman who has entered the race as an independent. Mr Stockman will need 500 votes to get on the ballot in November. He has vowed to go after Mr Lampson, but since his politics are to the right of Mr DeLay's, he may end up pulling support away from him. (According to the Chronicle poll, he could draw 11% of election-day voters.) That prospect is not good news for the Hammer on his home turf.
BACK in the days before Iraq, George Bush's nuclear ambitions marked him out to his critics in vibram five fingers,as a wild-eyed cowboy. He was the man who scrapped the once-hallowed anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty with Russia, started exploring new missile defences, opposed ratification of a
