Tom DeLay turns tail and steps down as Majority Leader

It seems fitting, somehow, that the guy who used to make his living as an exterminator ended up as the exterminated. Tom DeLay has been taking a lot of point blank shots from people he prevously wouldn't have deemed fit to kiss his boots. Those shots have escalated into jarring body blows. In the end, the ex-Majority Leader admitted the inevitable and abandoned his battle to hold on to the House leadership. Heh heh. You can read a less partisan version of the day's events here, on MSNBC.COM.

Facing an apparent sea change in Republican politics, DeLay, the one-time poster boy for the conservative revolution, threw in the towel yesterday under intense pressure from a Republican Party bitch-slapped, ambushed, and hamstrung by an unending parade of devastating news that continues unabated in 2006--an election year for every member of the House!

"I have always acted in an ethical manner within the rules of our body and the laws of our land," the Texas bad boy told fellow Republicans in a letter. There were shouts of jubilation from the Republican side of the aisle when they read the news. Not from us: Democrats hoped he'd continue his pointless and factionalizing fight until election time.

Delay went on in his letter to say "I cannot allow our adversaries to divide and distract our attention." The royal we is in operation here. "Our adversaries" are merely the prosecutors vying to put Delay behind bars.

Until yesterday, Tom DeLay insisted he would reclaim his rightful position after clearing his name. And then Black Jack Abramoff turning state's evidence drug him even further into the mud.

Reps. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the GOP whip, and John Boehner of Ohio, a one-time member of the leadership, want the job, along with two or tree others.

Speaker of the House Hastert said he expects elections to be held when lawmakers return to the Capitol the week of Jan. 31. Congress had put off resuming until late January in hopes Delay could put his troubles behind him. Heh heh.

Democrats, poised to take control of the House in November, twisted the knife around a bit:

"The culture of corruption is so pervasive in the Republican conference that a single person stepping down is not nearly enough to clean up the Republican Congress," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader.

Democrats must gain 15 seats in November to win control of the 435-member House. A year ago that seemed like a hopeless pipe-dream. Today? It seems inevitable.
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