I notice McCain still has his job.
On reflection, even if the voters do vote out DeLay, if there’s still a Republican administration when it happens and he hasn’t made too many enemies, they’ll just do what they did with Ashcroft: give Tom a wildly inappropropriate position in the executive branch. Secretary of Education DeLay, anyone?
They’ll make him head of the White House Commission on Ethics…
Here’s what Rep. Chris Shays has to say:
You know how, when any Republican has said the faintest hint of a discouraging word about the prospects of Bush’s Social Security Deform plan, a word is said to him offstage, and next thing you know, he’s falling all over himself, repudiating his negative comments?
If the same thing happens here, with Shays’ comments about DeLay, then Rove’s still got DeLay’s back, and he’ll pull through, unless he’s indicted, in which case all bets are off.
But if nobody takes Shays aside and forces him to eat his words, then other Republicans will follow the trail Shays has blazed here. And that will bring DeLay down.
It’s so much fun watching the rats jump overboard!
I could argue it either way; the Bushies are distancing themselves from DeLay, which is not a good sign.
Given that he is a longtime professional pol and must know the dirt on many who would rather keep it hidden, I suspect he will pull of a Trent Lott maneuvre and take a less visible role in the party.
Of course, this assumes his constituents wish to re-elect him.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40496-2005Apr9.html
If you ain’t registered at the Post…you outta be.
So you believe that Delay is worth defending? Interesting.
Delay and friends are working overtime to associate DeLay and his corruption as the face of 21st-century conservatism. I heartily wish them success.
The attacks on his family and his travel make that claim more credible. The opposition is foolish by not focusing on his unique ethics problems.
How do you read that in my post? Legend has it that when a ship is sinking, the ship’s rats abandon it. DeLay’s ship is sinking. It’s the frickin’ political Titanic of the 21st Century so far. The fact that I call them rats is both in keeping with the legend I’m alluding to and in keeping with my personal feelings about most of them. Santorum is one of my personal rats, for that matter, since the benighted idiots of my dear state are the ones who sent him up the Hill in the first place.
This piece from the LA Times shows more of the pile on.
Hell, when Santorum takes a shot at a conservative leader you KNOW he’s in trouble.
The news gets worse by the day for Delay. I’d say it’s a virtually certainty that he will lose his leadership role in weeks, not months. And I’d say it’s more likely than not that he loses his seat in Congress entirely. And I’d say there’s at least a fair chance of him doing prison time.
No, that’s the smart move. Anything the Dems say give him, and the RW Amen Corner, an opening to spin his problems as a smear campaign by the opposition, practicing the politics of personal destruction, yadayada. They have to stand back and let him hang himself to “win” this politically.
So what’s the liberal media been doing all these years, friends?
I agree with ElvisL1ves, but there is also an added benefit of holding off any DeLay resignation until election time. The voters are historically amnesic when it comes to recent history, and it would be preferable to have him resign in late October 2006. It’s of benefit to the Democrats to allow the drip-drip-drip of revelation after revelation continue for another year or more. I think that it more of the reason that we’re seeing very little reaction out of the Democrats for right now. They’d rather gently blow on the coals to keep them burning than pour on the gas and have the whole thing be burned out by election time.
Patience, children. We can’t let this come to a head too early and as soon as the papal conclave meets next week Mr DeLay and his problems will disappear from the front page. Wouldn’t you agree that it would be ever so much more fun if he were to crash and burn spectacularly for weeks on end?
Oh, of course - and it would be even more just to have the Cheney-Halliburton and Bush-Harken stories get the attention they deserve, even belatedly.
NurseCarmen, you’re right about that, too.
Well, those two stories would probably be more fun than we poor sinners deserve. I’ll settle for DeLay’s ass on a platter.
A truly compassionate person, one who is mindful of one’s own failings, humble and forgiving, would be quick to rise in defense of Tom DeLay (R-Undead). Do not sanctimonious and mealy-mouthed hypocrites deserve some representation in the corridors of power? If we were to elect only the wise and the just, who would speak for the morally depraved pustules? Democrats are in place to speak for the homosexual, the atheist, the pornographer, and the Trotskyist. Who would stand for the ethically bankrupt hyenas?
It will come as no surprise to my enemies or to either of my friends that I lack such tolerance and acceptance, no one will be shocked to see me gloating with ghoulish glee at the prospect limned by the OP. I chuckle, I chortle, I dance down the street with all the grace and rythmic perfection for which white folks are widely admired. As ol’ Marse Tom is hustled into the tumbril for his long, slow ride to the guillotine, I sing a glad song of patriotic fervor, Long Live the Republic, and Off With His Head.
Why rush things? Start with his toes…