The Happiest Man in America

From The New York Times 12/8/1998:

DeLay's Capitol Hill office is humming with the buzz of impeachment. Squadrons of young aides are readying their speed-dialers to summon lawmakers back to vote on one or more articles of impeachment the week of Dec. 14. Staff members are clearing their desks to give dozens of Republican lawmakers who are retiring or lost their elections -- and lost their offices -- a place to pen notes and call colleagues.
With Livingston lying low, Gingrich all but gone and Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas, the majority leader, still licking his wounds from a bruising fight to keep his leadership job, DeLay has filled the breach, using his vaunted whip operation to lead the impeachment charge against Clinton.
The very fact that DeLay, a pugnacious, steely-eyed son of an oil driller, is virtually alone among his fellow House Republican bosses on the impeachment stage, is tilting the way the drama is playing out.
"When you combine his leadership role and ability to count votes, and his personal feelings on this issue, it'd be hard for him not to be a central player," said Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., one of DeLay's assistant whips.
A hard-core conservative with close ties to the Christian right, DeLay painted a bull's-eye on Bill Clinton soon after the scandal involving Monica Lewinsky broke in January. He was one of the first Republicans to call on Clinton to resign, and in August, when other Republicans were shying away from challenging Clinton, DeLay brought his whip staff back from vacation to go on the attack.