Originally posted as a comment, it got lost in the shuffle, and I figure I had expounded enough for it to merit being a diary.
Now that Tom DeLay has been indicted, and I see some celebrations and gloating on dKos happening, I just want to say that I am not gloating at all.
Why? An explanation after the fold.
I am nowhere NEAR gloating. What makes any of you think he'll actually be
convicted? Even if so, what makes you think he'll actually lose his seat? With scandal brewing, he still garnered 55% of the vote in his district last year.
Frankly, I've had my heart ripped out so many times in the last few years, I just cannot bring myself to gloat before anything truly final has been decided. There were a lot of people gloating in the morning of November 2, 2004. They weren't gloating by the evening.
Not that I don't hope Tommy Boy's conviction will happen, but I'll believe it when I see it. I've seen TOO much premature celebration, only to see the Republicans laughing at the end, when it actually counts. In the race between the tortoise and the hare, I don't want to be the hare, and take a break, thinking we've got it in the bag. I'm not taking anything for granted anymore.
Sure, have a cheer. Whoop it up. And then get right back to work taking down the rest of those corrupt motherfuckers. The WORST thing that can happen now is for people to take their eye off the ball, thinking anything is in the bag. Remember, those Earle charges against Kay Bailey Hutchinson disintegrated pretty quickly.
I may perhaps gloat if and when DeLay actually LOSES his seat, when all the votes are actually counted, and after any push for a recount by pissed off Republicans, and after any courts get involved in the matter and finally rule once and for all that DeLay LOST his re-election bid, and he is OUT of the House for sure. THEN perhaps I'll gloat.
No, wait. If DeLay is gone, but Santorum keeps his job, there'll be no gloating from me that day. In order for me to gloat, DeLay, Blunt, Dreier, Hastert, Santorum, Lott, Hutchinson, Burns, Schwarzenegger, and a whole host of other corrupt politicians MUST go in the 2006 elections. And Frist will also have to be indicted at the very least. MAYBE then I'll gloat.
But if even one of those aforementioned keeps his seat, I will not gloat. Because we will have failed our country. If even all but Dreier get kicked out, it will still be a sad day in America that that disgusting excuse for a human being gets to keep his seat.
It's high time to associate each and every one of them like this:
That is how the American public must view them, each and every one of them.
We cannot slow down now.
And maybe, just maybe, if they all really do get kicked out of Congress in the 2006 elections, on that November night, I might just crack a smile.