Tom DeLay

I demand CNN provide wall-to-wall coverage of this breaking political assault scandal at a rally for Ned Lampson, the Democrat running for Tom DeLay's seat. CrooksandLiars has the video of the tall white-haired man in the DeLay t-shirt assaulting the short woman in front of him - Marsha Rovai, age 70.

And here’s Evan Derkacz at Alternet with an outstanding piece on the resignation of Congressman Tom DeLay, in the wake of formal criminal charges of money laundering, and the extent to which it is also a symptom of a corruption gene throughout the Republican party.

An Excerpt:

DeLay will undoubtedly maintain that his four letters of admonition, his criminal indictments, the numerous anecdotes of threats and coercion, are merely partisan contrivances, as he has done in the past.

But the point here isn't simply that a man who consciously took it upon himself to undermine the American system of Democracy is facing charges for his strong-arming opponents and ethics breaches of breathtaking proportions. The point is that nearly every powerful player in the conservative movement and the Republican Party "fed from his trough."

Everyone's favorite cable-news curmudgeon, Jack Cafferty, who has never suffered easily with the GOP band of thieves on Capitol Hill, let it rip on Tom DeLay's disgraced departure from Congress.

Said Cafferty of DeLay today on CNN's The Situation Room: "He would strut around on capitol hill like a cocky little, banty rooster, but today he slithered away from Congress to await his fate at the hands of the criminal justice system -- good riddance."

Now, Jack, don't be so hard on him. He's just your average Republican.

As always, you can catch the clip at Crooks and Liars.

You can reach Bob Geiger at geiger.bob@gmail.com

Once upon a time, I never imagined that the "most powerful man in Washington," as he was often called, would resign in disgrace. Remember, it was DeLay who strong-armed the impeachment of Clinton, even after the GOP lost 5 seats. For over seven years I have invested my entire life in opposing the hegemony of the Right Wing. Back in 1999, the Right was poised to control all three branches of government, and I believed that once that happened, there would be no turning back. And then with a little help from Katherine Harris, Jeb's pals, DeLay's Gucci riot squad -- and the Felonious Five on the Supreme Court -- the Right did control all three branches.

But he still says he's pure as the driven snow. Hugh Hewitt predicts a speedy comeback - I can't wait!

Rep. DeLay Won't Seek Reelection
By Jonathan Weisman and Chris Cillizza

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the House Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, told House allies tonight that he will resign from the House rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable.

From MichiganDems.com:

LANSING–In light of Jack Abramoff’s sentencing to nearly six years in prison for fraud, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer today revealed that Abramoff has long been an ally to GOP gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos. Business Week and the Associated Press reported in 1999 that Abramoff was “first to sign up” for a meeting with GOP House conservatives hosted by DeVos on the Amway yacht. Brewer demanded that DeVos abide by his own words on accountability and release the photographs of him and Abramoff at that event and from other meetings they had.

When I ran track in high school in the 1970's, one of my heroes was Jim Ryun, who set the world mile record of 3:51.1 in 1967 and held the record until 1975. But then Ryun became a rightwing Kansas Republican and gained fame for speaking in tongues.

Now Ryun is running again - but now he's running away from investigative bloggers at TPMMuckraker.com. That's because TPM is on the scent of a sweetheart deal between Ryun and the U.S. Family Network (USFN), a sham nonprofit controlled by former DeLay Chief of Staff Ed Buckham and funded by Jack Abramoff's lobbying clients.

Do deep-pocketed "philanthropists" necessarily control the organizations they fund? That has certainly been the contention of those who truck in conspiracy theories about the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations funding liberal and neo-liberal organizations. As for the rightwing, journalists such as Joe Conason and Gene Lyons uncovered that the "vast right wing conspiracy" -- or the New Right network of think tanks, media outlets and pressure groups -- was marshalled under rightwing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife for his Get-Clinton campaign. Prior to the work of Conason and Lyons, Russ Bellant extensively documented in "The Coors Connection" how the Coors Family, Scaife and other wealthy rightwingers have funded the New Right movement since the early '70's. Among these rightwing benefactors are the Koch brothers. But the Kochs have been working both sides of the fence. As Bill Berkowitz writes, the Koch brothers have also been funding the Democratic Leadership Council.

(AP) The Supreme Court said Monday it would consider the constitutionality of a Texas congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay that helped Republicans gain seats in Congress.

The 2003 boundaries helped Republicans win 21 of the state's 32 seats in Congress in the last election_ up from 15. They were approved amid a nasty battle between Republican leaders and Democrats and minority groups in Texas.