Delayeth hath been somewhateth strucketh down, saith the Lord! Praise be to God and His Holy Works. Praise the Lord, Hosannas to the Highest, Peace to Men of Good Will. Yi-Hi! Glory be! Yippee Kai Yo Kai Yay!

"American Democracy Might Now Have a Chance"

Well, maybe if the mewling cowards that comprise the "opposition party" leadership were to address the corruption of our electoral system. But until then, our Democracy is DEAD. Delay is just a SYMPTOM, he isn't the actual disease. Do you doubt there is a REASON that Bush has used recess appointments to stack cronies into the Election Commission these past few days, just preceding the '06 midterms??? Heres the deal Steve, I will go out on a limb here. I expect WIDESPREAD inexplicable results from the mid-terms, all favoring the Republicans. The REAL hot bed issues, such as voter fraud, are being ignored by all but a few, such as Conyers. And the so called Dem leadership left him to stand alone on the issue. Even the GAO report, that points strongly to widespread fraud in '04 has recieved ZILCH in the way of media exposure. Bottom line, we don't need to work hard at SAVING our Democracy, we need to work hard at RETRIEVING our Democracy. And from what I have seen so far, the God damned COWARDS that are supposed to be representing our interests aren't going to do so.

As I have said, many times, we are in DEEEEEEEP shit here, and it ain't getting better just because some OBVIOUS scumbag steps out of the way.

Poor Tommy the Cockroach ... Think my victory lunch today will be a bowl of screamin' chili 'n a Guinness ...

2006 off to a relatively good start now ... one down, 'bout an executive branch to go ... Maybe get us a Speakership, Majority Leader slots ...

Yup ... busy year comin' along here ...

"American Democracy Might Now Have a Chance"

Well, maybe if the mewling cowards that comprise the "opposition party" leadership were to address the corruption of our electoral system. But until then, our Democracy is DEAD. Delay is just a SYMPTOM, he isn't the actual disease. Do you doubt there is a REASON that Bush has used recess appointments to stack cronies into the Election Commission these past few days, just preceding the '06 midterms??? Heres the deal Steve, I will go out on a limb here. I expect WIDESPREAD inexplicable results from the mid-terms, all favoring the Republicans. The REAL hot bed issues, such as voter fraud, are being ignored by all but a few, such as Conyers. And the so called Dem leadership left him to stand alone on the issue. Even the GAO report, that points strongly to widespread fraud in '04 has recieved ZILCH in the way of media exposure. Bottom line, we don't need to work hard at SAVING our Democracy, we need to work hard at RETRIEVING our Democracy. And from what I have seen so far, the God damned COWARDS that are supposed to be representing our interests aren't going to do so.

As I have said, many times, we are in DEEEEEEEP shit here, and it ain't getting better just because some OBVIOUS scumbag steps out of the way.

Dang, once again, sorry for the double post. I think it is a glitch on my end. My room mate agrees, she just left the room mumbling something about senility......

He won't be where he belongs until he's in jail. Impeach the bastards before they destroy our country.

Maybe we should have kept ole "Hot Tub Tom" around until closer to the elections. He was getting to be as radioactive as Newt.

Nonetheless, for the sake of the Republic, I say good riddance to him.

(I hope there will be lots of creepy crawly things he can occupy himself with while rotting away in a nasty TX prison.)

"(I hope there will be lots of creepy crawly things he can occupy himself with while rotting away in a nasty TX prison.)"

Well, its probably creepy, but I doubt it can still crawl.

Bigger question, can the Texas Democrats field someone to knock off Delay. And Hastert. And Blunt.and...

I'd sure like to see subpeona power after '06.

I'd like to see somebody seriously address the legal issue of whether a president and vice president can be impeached, if not as one unit, then in parallel proceedings ending the same day.

President Pelosi anyone?

Will the K-Street Project still be up and running? If so, DeLay's departure won't mean anything. As long as Grover Norquist and the like are free to buy the government, Democracy won't have a chance. DeLay is just a part of the problem--granted, a big part. But the whole process is broke.

The amazing thing about the founding fathers is that they appreciated the importance of the institutions over the members of the institutions. But most current Republicans seem to be happy to change the rules to help current members (e.g. "nuclear option"). Even so-called moderates in the House have been happy to placate GOP abuse of power. The extending of votes to all hours of the night, preventing lawmakers and their staffs from getting a chance to look at legislation before it is voted on, and preventing the minority party from any form of oversight was a group effort. The Norquist's and other lobbyists will still control the process as long as serious reform isn't undertaken.

Will the K-Street Project still be up and running? If so, DeLay's departure won't mean anything. As long as Grover Norquist and the like are free to buy the government, Democracy won't have a chance. DeLay is just a part of the problem--granted, a big part. But the whole process is broke.

The amazing thing about the founding fathers is that they appreciated the importance of the institutions over the members of the institutions. But most current Republicans seem to be happy to change the rules to help current members (e.g. "nuclear option"). Even so-called moderates in the House have been happy to placate GOP abuse of power. The extending of votes to all hours of the night, preventing lawmakers and their staffs from getting a chance to look at legislation before it is voted on, and preventing the minority party from any form of oversight was a group effort. The Norquist's and other lobbyists will still control the process as long as serious reform isn't undertaken.

The short quote on DeLay's resignation was a most monumental understatement. The year 2006 will see the scandal web get more tangled, the courts more crowded with those who plea bargain or go to trial, and the news more short on time to list elected officials who are part of the web. It is a small start; let's hope for better government. Dare I hope?

Color me cynical, but wasn't DeLay planning to give up his post and continue acting in the same position behind the scenes? I don't think he's out until he's out of Congress.

Delay is out for only one reason, and I wouldn't interpret it as a positive sign for Democracy. The reason? His money pipeline, the one he used to control the Republicans, just got cut. Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans know how to make lemonade out of lemons. Why not become loud champions of lobbying reform? The money ain't there, for this brief moment, anyway. Boy, are we suckers!

"American Democracy Might Now Have a Chance"

yes, i'm glad delay isn't going to hold out for a return to his position but we're a long friggin' way from democracy now "having a chance..." the bushco abuses are so legion and corruption, while it may be a large part, is still only part... i'd list the others but, for one thing, we all know what they are, and, for another, it's saturday night and i just don't have the strength to climb back down into the bushco garbage pit at the moment...

http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

When Richard Perle's conflict of interest as chair of the Defense Policy Board hit the news, he held on, and on, and then resigned . . . from the Chairmanship.

He stayed on Board. His conflict of interest remained. Yet no one in the media, no Democrat, no muckraker, bothered to point out the overt and ongoing conflict of interest between Perle's "service" on that Board and his business interests. As far as I know, Perle's still on the board.

Tom DeLay is hardly alone in running this racketeering operation. Hastert, Frist, and many others are not merely complicit, but rather hip-deep.

Problem is, none of them are terribly concerned, as long as they're convinced that the electronic voting machine issue is not dealt with prior to 2006. As mentioned upthread, refusal to deal with this issue by prominent Dems will sink any real attempts to gain redress of grievances on the part of the electorate, or to hold the Exec accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors.

I agree this really doesn't change the corrupt Republican slimeball machine. They have an abundance of amoral and vile people ready, willing, and able to fill the DeLay void. And like some others have suggested DeLay will still be fully operational less his 'official' title.

The only way the the status quo can change is with Dem taking back control of the House in Nov 2006.

I see this as a crucial MUST HAVE or else the situation looks rather bleak for our Constition and democracy in America.

Nick Lampson, a former Democratic Congressman gerrymandered out of his seat by DeLay plans to challenge DeLay in 06.

http://www.lampson.com/

Send Lawyers guns and MONEY!!!

Interesting history on gerrymandering and other undemocratic DeLay deeds.

Details of the ties between Alexander Strategy, Mr. DeLay and Mr. Abramoff - who pleaded guilty last week in federal court and is cooperating with investigators - have already begun to trickle out. Alexander Strategy paid Mr. DeLay's wife $115,000 in consulting fees while conducting business with Mr. Abramoff's firm. Mr. Abramoff also referred clients to Mr. Buckham.

Mr. Buckham and the firm also shared clients - among them an entity in Malaysia and the Choctaw Indian tribe in Mississippi - with Mr. Abramoff, who in his plea agreement admitted to using corrupting tactics with lawmakers on behalf of his clients. Mr. Abramoff also admitted to having defrauded his Indian clients of millions of dollars. At one point, Mr. Buckham even sought to hire Mr. Abramoff himself, participants in the case said.

Mr. Buckham and at least one member of his firm worked with domestic and overseas clients who prosecutors suspect helped funnel money and perks to Mr. DeLay, his fund-raising operations and other lawmakers in ways intended to curry favor with the Republican leadership.

And at one time, Americans for a Republican Majority, or Armpac, the leadership committee that raised money for Mr. DeLay, was run out of the offices of Alexander Strategy.

But the firm's web of contacts on Capitol Hill reaches past Mr. DeLay, making Alexander Strategy a potentially useful resource as investigators examine other lawmakers.

The firm's name surfaced at the periphery of the corruption investigation into Representative Randy Cunningham, Republican of California. Mr. Cunningham resigned after pleading guilty to accepting bribes from a defense contractor that did business with Alexander Strategy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/08/politics/08alexander.html

Rollingstone quotes Newt:

Newt Gingrich, the original architect of the Republican Revolution, is obviously dismayed to see his handiwork going up in flames. Even so, the force with which Newt is blasting his party's corruption woes is surprising. As he told Bloomberg:
The Abramoff scandal has to be seen as part of a much larger and deeper problem. It's not about lobbyist corruption. You can't have a corrupt lobbyist without a corrupt member or corrupt staff. This was a team effort.

There are a series of behaviors, a series of attitudes, a series of crony-like activities that are not defensible, and no Republican should try to defend them. The danger for Republicans is to pretend this isn't fundamental or to pretend that they can get by passively without undertaking real reform.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/nataffdaily/story/9104743?rnd=1136656964987&has-player=true

"Inch by inch."

Though it is hardly time to celebrate the end of the fascist totalitarian dictatorship that is now America, we can all accept Delay's long overdue demise as majority leader as one small step for democrats, and one giant leap for democracy.

As filthy and underhanded as Delay is however, his backdoor machinations and dirty dealings in the shadows need to be kept in the hot light of day as Memekiller dutifully reminds us.

Many more heads need to roll of course, - and hopefully several at the very top, - but a victory is a victory.

With Fitzgerald's ongoing investigation, the spygate abuses and constitutional crisis, Abramoff's ratting on whoknowswho in the sordid halls of congress, the expanding recognition that Iraq is a bloody costly noendinsight horrorshow with no good options for America, the rapidly increasing pressure for a revisiting of the 9/11 whitewash - I mean investigations, and a festering litany of other pernicious Bush government/GOP abuses, deceptions, failures, dereliction of duty, acts of malfeasance and perfidy, and wanton profiteering haunting the fascist cabals in the Bush government totalitarian dictatorship, - there is some small glimmer of hope for salvaging what little remains of our once more perfect union.

Bravo.

"Newt Gingrich, the original architect of the Republican Revolution, is obviously dismayed to see his handiwork going up in flames..."

Honest to God, can't someone please drive a stake through his heart?

I agree with many of the posters above. DeLay is just a cog (the main cog, maybe, but still only a part) in a very big, very powerful and corrupt political and financial machine. GOPers love to wallow in the fanatsy that their party wins elections on the basis of its ideas. What a joke! The GOP controls government by controlling money and the people who get it. It's one big payola scheme and it keeps them in power. It has to be dismantled nut by bolt. The big question is, can it be? Is it too entrenched and do its tentacles reach too far?

DeLay is OUT: American Democracy Might Now Have a Chance

Fat Chance. This kind of optimism give false hope.
American Democracy relies on JUSTICE. Our judicial system was and continues to be packed with minds believing in an imperial presidency---NOT American Democracy. The Justice Department was and continues to be packed with minds believing they are there to implement the wishes of the imperial president be it in favorable rulings for corporations, against plaintiffs in descrimination cases, asserting torture is not only ok but a RIGHT that this imperial president has.
American Democracy relies on FREEDOM. Turning the US foreign intelligence appratus internally on US citizen is NOT FREEDOM. Spying on Americans is NOT FREEDOM. Controlling the media by intimidation is NOT FREEDOM. Using the Rendon Group to orchestrate and dessiminate FALSE information world-wide claiming WMD in Iraq is NOT FREEDOM. Using the Lincoln Group to buy Mullahs to write favorable pieces about America in Arab news is NOT FREEDOM. Denying habeas corpus is NOT FREEDOM. Abducting people, placing them in secret prisons without trial, torturing them, denying them access to their family, Red Cross, legal representation is NOT FREEDOM.

American Democracy relies on TRUST, the public trust of its government to act and do things in the interest of its citizens NOT buddies of the President who get government jobs for which they are unqualifies or buddies of the President whose companies and corporations get lucrative government contracts that either deliver sub-standard products or no products and services to its citizens. The administration and government institutions have lost the public trust.
*The conduct of using force in Iraq-- resulting in "unintended consequence".
*The (mis-)handling of the devastation of Katrina (hell of a job, Brownie). How is this president "staying the course" to rebuild New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities and towns. Has the president done a "cut and run" on the American citizens of these lands.

Rehabilitating Gingrich is just another case of putting a fresh coat of paint on a shithouse.

Does anyone remember the exact details of Newt's resignation? Wasn't he sort of run out of town? Wasn't he cheating on his own wife with a young staffer while he was howling about Clinton's infidelity? Wasn't there a scandal about his book deal?

He was on C-Span yesterday and some woman called and was gushing about a Gingrich run for the presidency in 08. As Gingrich was looking all coy and smarmy at the idea of a run I was trying to remember his role in pushing all the new PACs that pretty much started the present wave of lobbying corruption.

Yes, by all means Newt was "ethically challenged" and left under a cloud. That is why it is all the more rich that Newt is criticizing the corruption so vocally.

laura rozen links to the LA Times coverage of a new scandal linking Delay, Doolittle, and the utterly despicable Richard Pombo.

If there is anyone that needs to be taken out is the awful Pombo. Like now.

I sincerely hope we won't have some poor citizen's family's tragedy dragged through the streets by the likes of Boss DeLay. Ms Schaivo's family had suffered enough without DeLay somehow convincing himself that he should take sides in that instances. DeLay did it to cynically draw attention away from himself and the Abramoff scandal so that he could retain Leadership in the House. His party and he should be ashamed. And, whether ashamed or not, he should serve time if the charges merit it. May his grasping compatriots rot in a jail that they so heartily appropriated for so many others.

I'm glad that the weasel was forced to step down. I hope this recent scandal will help to clean up Congress from blatant corruption.

American Democracy is going precisely nowhere while Junior&The WHIGs occupy 1600 Penn. Sure, the demise of a vainglorious bully like Tommy is hardly a P.R. coup for the GOP, but the Cabal is busy planning to whack Iraq (D'uh, which way did he go?). The rubes will be finessed by the MSM once again, and Cabal will rule in perpetuity applying Martial Law when necessary.

DeLay and the corrupt lawmakers he takes down with him are mere shitkickers where the big deals go down. While Diebold has a full-Nelson on "voting computers" these swine will be governing your grandchildren in a terminally ill biosphere.

So fuck cockroaches like DeLay. It's time to rusticate the greedy warmongers from the White House and salvage our Democracy and what's left of the planet.