"It's not hard to put a dollar figure on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's importance to corporate America," write Bloomberg News' Michael Forsythe and Jonathan D. Salant. "For drug makers, his support is worth $13 billion; for petrochemical companies, it could be as much as $375 billion.

In recent years, DeLay (R-TX) has fought to protect energy companies from polution lawsuits, block FDA regulation of tobacco, and pass a Medicare overhaul that forbids the government from negotiating lower prescription drug prices with the drug companies.

Yeah, those are in line with the values of ordinary Americans. We want inflated drug prices, more pollution and higher rates of childhood tobacco addiction, don't we?

But hey, as long as those campaign contributions keep rolling in...