According to the law of karma, every human action––in thought, word, or deed––inevitably leads to results or consequences, positive or negative, depending upon the quality of the action. Karma is considered the means by which everyone becomes the architect of their own destiny.

When a Texas jury convicted former House Majority Leader Tom Delay Wednesday of money laundering, it was the first nail in the coffin of a political career marked by bullying and unethical behavior––bad karma.

Prosecutors accused DeLay of conspiring with two associates, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, to use his Texas-based PAC to send $190,000 in corporate money to an arm of the Washington-based Republican National Committee. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates.

Under Texas law, corporate money can’t go directly to political campaigns. Prosecutors claim the money helped Republicans take control of the Texas House. That enabled the GOP majority to push through a Delay-engineered congressional redistricting plan that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004––and strengthened DeLay’s political power.

The man once known as “Hot Tub Tom” because of his drinking and partying–– before his “born-again Christian conversion”––helped Newt Gingrich lead the 1994 Republican Revolution, which swept Democrats from power in both houses of Congress, and put Republicans in control of the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years.

Once in control, DeLay, Gingrich, and conservative activist Grover Norquist founded the infamous K Street Project in an effort to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire only Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials. Delay earned his nickname, “The Hammer,” for his enforcement of party discipline and retribution against those who didn’t support the legislative agenda of President George W. Bush. All sounds pretty Christian to me.

DeLay faces up to life in prison on the money laundering conviction, and two to twenty years for the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He resigned from Congress in 2006 due to the indictment and a separate federal investigation into his ties to former disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a probe that ended without any charges.

Of course, Tom Delay’s conviction just marks the beginning of an appeals process that will seek to clear his name. One can only hope that the process takes years and whatever is left of his money and reputation.