Here's an idea I might be able to get behind:
Link
The Democrats' challenge is to make his [DeLay's] fall as expensive as possible for the Republicans. It seems to me that an immediate motion to expel -- before DeLay is ready to resign -- would be a good start.
It turns out that Mark believes
... a motion to expel a member is a Constitutionally privileged motion, and as such can be offered at any time.
Mark isn't under any illusion this would pass,
But getting all, or vitually all, of the Republicans in the House on record as supporting not just corruption but selling out to the Russians would be a triumph in itself.
And if some Republicans actually voted for the motion, so much the better. DeLay would have the choice of not retaliating and looking weak or retaliating and looking like a thug.
Hey, that might be interesting to watch!
Btw, this type of motion has some interesting rules...
So, if the rules say what I think they say, any Member can at any time rise, interrupting other pending business if necessary, and ask the Speaker to put the question whether to consider a motion to expel to a vote. According to the Congressional Research Service,
if the moving member is the Minority Leader, the motion is debated immediately for at least one hour, after which the debate may be continued or the previous question ordered, but in any case the motion eventually comes to a vote. If another member offers the motion, the same thing happens, but at a time of the Speaker's choosing within two days rather than immediately.
What's especially lovely about this procedure (again, assuming I'm reading the rules correctly) is that the first vote isn't on the resolution of expulsion itself, but merely on whether to debate that resolution. So Republicans voting against it wouldn't even be able to defend themselvse by saying they wanted to hear the evidence first; their "No" votes would be votes against hearing the evidence.
Normally this type of frontal assault would have all sorts of repurcussions with people tossing grenades like these all over the place, but ...
The recent stacking of the Republican side of the Ethics Committee with DeLay loyalists, and the new rule requiring one Republican vote before that committee can even start an inquiry, will make hash of any argument that the matter ought to be considered by the Ethics Committee first. Right now, there is no functioning Ethics Committee, since it has been unable to agree on its own rules.