Tom Delay Steps down as Majority Leader

From Crocks and Liars...

Delay's outgoing Press Conference

Just listening to the first few minutes of this egomaniac is almost too much for any person to take. He actually said "we have shrunk the size of this government."

Video-WMP Video-QT Flash Video (thanks to David Edwards for the vid and the Flash)

Yes, he has led this country into almost being bankrupt. He says they have been united as a team. He should have said,"united as a K Street" team. The crowd behind him is very happy for Tom. I didn't know that disgrace was a time to celebrate. He says he's always acted in an ethical manner, within the rules of the house. Anyone want to tell me how many times he broke those rules?

Meanwhile Firedoglake has the scoop...

The DNC ought to pull clips from this and play them in districts all over the country, because hubris and failure to take any responsibility don't even begin to describe DeLay here.

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The WaPo states the obvious: that DeLay has an ethics problem. (Is there a 12-step program for that, because I'm thinking there are a lot more folks on the Hill that may need it in the next few months...I see an enteprenurial niche for "Without Ethics Anonymous," I'm just saying.)

Meanwhile, the NYTimes explores how skittish Republicans are becoming about the 2006 elections, fearing that DeLay will be tied to them like a big, concrete block. If Dems are smart, that's exactly what they will do, in my opinion, because the KStreet project is still going whether or not DeLay is its figurehead of the moment -- and the whole dirty, smarmy mess needs some serious sunlight.

By 2003, the Republicans held a 2-to-1 advantage. Since 1998, the center found, more than 2,200 former federal employees had registered as federal lobbyists, as had nearly 275 former White House aides and nearly 250 former members of Congress. Many rules governing their conduct remain deliberately vague, and the House Ethics Committee has been paralyzed because of dysfunction and partisan disputes....

Of course, the record suggests that for every loophole any new law might close, lobbyists will find a way to open another....

This needs serious discussion, above and beyond whatever new indictments may come down over the course of the next few years. The way business is done in Washington needs some disinfecting. And I don't mean just by shutting out the Bugman.

Yes, it does - and I point front and center to serous Campaign Reform as well as Election Reform to help clean out the bugs.

Vyan