[GOP Corruption]

Thoughts on the Indictment

So how will the righties respond to this news? DeLay, as has been well-documented, is one of the most well-connected members of the Republican Party. Yet last summer (Spring?), when the GOP held a fete in his honor, the affair was poorly-attended by major pols. With all the trouble the GOP finds itself in, they're going to start needing scapegoats. When Bush dropped the ball on Katrina, Brownie's head rolled. So, will DeLay become the sacrificial lamb, or will the GOP rally round their man?

Indications thus far look like a rally. In what I can only describe as a depressingly predictable response, they're playing the "blame the whistle-blower" card. The Corner is calling it an "egregious abuse of prosecutorial power." Jonah is "inclined to give DeLay the benefit of the doubt," which is itself mind-boggling. If ever there was the stink of crookedness on a politician, if ever a guy deserved serious doubt, it was Tom DeLay. Michelle Malkin has a vast catalogue of claims against the prosecutor, and she's still posting madly. Tom Maguire plays his classic card: misdirection. He's talking about DeLay's replacement. Powerline calls prosecutor Ronnie Earle a "notorious Democratic Party hack." And so it goes.

But DeLay is almost certainly guilty, just as Bush was almost certainly lying about Iraq, and soldiers were almost certainly instructed to torture prisoners, and on and on. Each time, we see the same vitriol from the same usual suspects with the same level of predictability. And when the almost certain events do come to pass, the righties apologize, right? Of course not--they ignore the facts or change the subject or--most commonly--spew more vitriol. So DeLay is probably guilty, and i it comes to pass that he is found guilty, then we'll welcome another round of vitriol. And so that goes.

Just as a note, it was the US House that tried to change their own ethics laws to protect DeLay in case of this indictment, which they felt was almost certain to come down. And the reason they changed the rules wasn't because they wanted to prevent "partisan" attacks, it's because they know DeLay, and they know he's crooked as Dick Nixon, and they didn't want to have to investigate a fairly well-known crook who happened to be leading their party.

And just one other note, it's the party DeLay leads that refuses independent investigations into grave events like 9/11 and Katrina. So don't expect the GOP to immediately call for investigations into DeLay--like the Dems did with Clinton.

Who knows how it will play out, or whether the GOP faithful who elected these crooks will finally see through them. In any case, I'm going to enjoy sitting ringside to watch it play out.