So you're going to God. Yeah, OK.
God got seventy virgins for you, Tom?
Because you're not resigning from Congress out of altruism (look it up.) You're NOT doing it for the good of the country, either. You've never done anything for the good of the country. You're quitting early because it's the only way you can poison the election. It's your last fanatical piece of destruction. Your suicide bomb.
I'd like to make sure you are the only casualty.
More on the flip
Why has the fight-loving, stubborn-as-an-ass exterminator decided to quit early, not take his chances in November, and eschew the hundreds of juicy lies he could be spreading over the next seven months? At first, it seemed he was facing the reality of further indictments and convictions...
Then I remembered it's TOM DELAY, and facing realities is not part of the program with this guy.
But election engineering sure as hell is.
Now part of it undoubtedly is the little-known corruption insurance program that Congress has for itself, as diaried yesterday
by terminal3. After all, what better use for ill-gotten gains than the legal defense of the obviously guilty?
But there's another factor here. As Markos himself
noted yesterday a special election will have to be held because of DeLay's resignation. Now, the first question that comes to mind is "what's the cost to the taxpayers?" because elections in America aren't free (heh), and now TX-22 is going to have to hold two in seven months. But more importantly;
unlike the general in November where a plurality would win, a special must be won with 50% plus one. And with several independents on the ballot, 50% plus one gives Republicans a better shot.
So that's it.
The second most powerful turdpile in Washington is reduced to quitting early to force a special election, on the hope that a fellow Repub will win the seat and have tentative "incumbency" come November. All to keep the Democrats from "stealing" (Turdpile's word) his seat. (Stealing is what this asshole calls an open election. Apparently Diebold hasn't locked up Tx-22 just yet.)
The Ruling Party elite have determined the best use of this once-powerful tool is to don a political bomb vest and walk into the special election, sowing (partisan) carnage to advance a fanatical and failed neocon agenda.
So, how to defuse this bomb? One word, to be unerringly placed in front of the words "former congressman", "former house majority leader", or "Tom DeLay"...
DISGRACED
It's a word I only heard once during yesterday's news cycle. "Former" got used a lot, much like with Duke Cunningham. It sounds so...retired, doesn't it? I noticed the same treatment with Heckuva-job Brownie. His assprint was still in the chair while the Pundibots intoned the "former" qualifier.
Tom DeLay has (not yet) resigned his seat in DISGRACE.
He is facing state and federal FELONY INDICTMENTS.
These indictments are part of a PARTY-WIDE influence-peddling scandal of historic proportions.
And the final nail for the Hammer; DeLay's ego won't let him quietly slink away. He's lapping up the adoration the wingnuts are heaping on him, which puts him in the position of playing the martyr. Perfect. Same mindset held by a benighted Palestinian teenager walking into a cafe full of Israelis. Except this one is easy to spot. "Look, it's Tom DeLay, NATIONAL DISGRACE. Let's go somewhere else for coffee."
Pointing out this final cynical abuse of the election system in Texas cannot hurt the democrats here, as trying to talk independents out of running would. It reactivates resentments over redistricting and keeps the focus on GOP mischief.