In Sunday's Washington Post Mike Allen has a really interesting story their headline guy called "DeLay's Backers Launch Offense - Conservatives Say GOP Is Threatened." What it really looks like to me is circling the wagons, going into a protective position, and trying to slime the Democrats to take attention away from DeLay.
Here is Mike Allen's lede: "Allies and friends of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) have concluded that public attention to his ethics is unlikely to abate for months to come, and they plan to try to preserve his power by launching an aggressive media strategy and calling in favors from prominent conservative leaders, according to Republicans participating in the strategy sessions.
"The Republicans said the strategy combines leaks from DeLay allies about questionable Democratic trips and financial matters; denunciations of unfavorable news stories as biased, orchestrated rehashes; and swift, organized responses to journalists' inquiries."
That looks to me as though it is the Democrats in the attack and the conservatives on the defense.
On top of that, as long as they are defending DeLay, the Republicans are going to have less time and effort to put into legislation that screws up the country more. In the meantime, the Republicans themselves generally are looking worse and worse as they demonstrate that the social conservatives have taken the bit into their teeth and are running wild.