[Politics]

So This is What "Bringing Together" Looks Like

Just two days ago, Tom DeLay told a rapt Brit Hume that his indictment was bringing the GOP together. Appears not everyone got the memo:

Members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, upset with Congress's spending, said they are prepared to challenge some of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's top lieutenants if the case against DeLay isn't resolved by year's end. They warned that the three-way power-sharing arrangement Hastert set up in Delay's absence can't last into the next House session, which begins in January....

Meanwhile, some moderates who have clashed with DeLay were already speaking as though his temporary resignation from leadership is permanent.

And as for the glue that holds together the DeLay bloc? You know, that green stuff? Trouble:

Troubling to the Republicans is that DeLay's indictment combined with other GOP gloomy news --President Bush's declining approval ratings, rising gas prices and other scandals--could convince big-money donors that the Democrats have a chance of winning next year. They fear this will depress contributions to the GOP and increase the numbers for the Democrats.

So by "bringing together," DeLay must have meant his intra- and extra-party rivals. Or maybe he just didn't get their memo.