Dare the GOP DeLay?

Perhaps not:

So, should Republicans close ranks and stand by their man? Well, no. If Republican leaders offer supportive words for DeLay, the best case scenario goes like this: Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle receives the kind of abusive coverage that Kenneth Starr got during the Clinton scandals (not likely), and DeLay is exonerated -- but only after months when DeLay's troubles tarnish the GOP at large. At the end of the ordeal, we get Tom DeLay back as Majority Leader and the comeuppance of a single Democratic prosecutor in Austin who no one had heard of before. The worst case scenario: DeLay is convicted, and his disgrace rubs off on everyone who stuck by him, seriously wounding Republicans at the polls next year.

That might be worth the risk it if DeLay were irreplaceable on the Hill, but he isn't. While his hardball tactics have produced some victories in the past -- notably in the Texas redistricting fight that moved several House seats into the R column -- lately he's worn out his welcome. Two weeks ago he generated peals of laughter from sea to sea when he said that "nobody has been able to come up with any" fat to cut out of the federal budget to offset post-Katrina rebuilding costs, and that "after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good." These are the words of a leader who is either boldly dishonest or who has simply lost touch with reality. I wrote last week about the good politics and good policy of efforts to prove DeLay wrong, including the Republican Study Committee's "Operation Offset."

The problem is that if this bogus indictment succeeds in changing the GOP leadership, the Democrats will do it again and again. If DeLay's innocent, it will not hurt the GOP to support him. If he's not, it may.

The GOP has always maintained higher standards than the Dems---if you don't think so, look at how they held Gingrich, Lott, and Livingstone accountable for misdemeanors while the Democrats have tolerated crimes in their caucus (remember the Torch?)

This isn't the time to knuckle under to ethics-challenged knuckledraggers.

If the Dems want to discuss ethics and integrity, bring it on. We're about to see the corruption of their party in Louisiana exposed for all the world to see.

I doubt Pelosi and Reid will care for this discussion in a couple of weeks.