Out, but Not Cold. Tom DeLay, the disgusting, disgraceful, ethically-challenged Republican Majority Leader in the House of Representatives, has stepped down "temporarily" because he has just been indicted in his home state, Texas, for corruption.
+
On April 12, 2005, I said in this blog:

I will be amazed if a year from now Tom DeLay is still House Majority Leader.

That was 5 1/2 months ago. I had hoped DeLay would be out, permanently, shortly after that blog entry, but 5 1/2 months would be soon enuf if it turns out to be permanent rather than temporary.
+
DeLay asserts his innocence, which of course must mean he isn't guilty of a thing. After all, no one guilty has ever denied guilt. 95% of the people in the prisons of this country are innocent. If you doubt it, just ask them. I hope Tom DeLay joins them, soon and for a long time.
+
Alas, DeLay's permanent ouster would be a boon for the Republican Party, not just for the Nation, because he is enormously unpopular. That would be fair if the Republicans themselves ousted him because they are insistent on ethical behavior on the part of every Republican. That is, however, not remotely the case.
+
Quite the contrary, the Republicans actually pushed thru, in November 2004, a measure that would remove the requirement that DeLay step down if he was indicted. Public indignation caused them to reverse that in January 2005. So the Republican Party tried to protect DeLay from the foreseeable, natural consequences of his corrupt behavior — because the national Republican Party is Slime Central.
+
One can never know how a jury will vote, so we'll just have to wait to see if DeLay beats the rap or joins all those other innocents in prison. As we might have said when I was a teen, "I'll give you three guesses [as to what I hope for]. First two don't count."
+
(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 1,927.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 4:06 PM