Three Cheers for DeLay

Gateway Pundit addresses the opposition:

"You and your media continually remind Americans of indictments as if they were convictions. You don't report that the prosecutor is a liberal hack who tried and failed six times to get Tom Delay indicted on bogus charges. You don't say boo about the bogus charges that are thrown out. You mention in your reports that 'former' employees of Delay were convicted as if this places guilt on Representative Delay. You attack, attack, attack, until the person has had enough. And, this is your win. And, if Republicans think that these attacking politics, the only politics the Democrats know, will stop here, HAH! Think again. You get more of what you reward. Democrats cannot win on their liberal socialist agenda. Liberals can win if they personally attack. Today, dems may have won a round."

Um, conservatives can't win if they personally attack?

John Hinderaker at Power Line sees DeLay being railroaded:

It's too bad, I think. DeLay was an effective leader, albeit too liberal in recent years. It's possible, of course, that he did something wrong along the way. But there is no evidence of that in the public domain; as I've often said, the politically-inspired prosecution of DeLay by Travis County's discredited DA, Ronnie Earle, is a bad joke. As far as we can tell at the moment, DeLay appears to be yet another victim of the Democrats' politics of personal destruction--the only politics they know."

For the record, "politics of personal destruction" was a phrase coined by Bill Clinton when he felt the Republicans were practicing it against him.

Ed Morrissey will miss DeLay, but says he bears some of the blame:

"DeLay may have taken one for the team here. I'm sorry to see him go under these circumstances. The Hammer has never made it onto my list of favorites in DC, but up until recently he performed reliably in keeping the caucus focused on the agenda. This prosecution pursued by Ronnie Earle is the worst kind of political hackery, and to the extent that this weighed on his campaign, DeLay's withdrawal and resignation diminishes the political process.

"However, no one can deny that DeLay carries baggage, and at least a significant portion is of his own making. Jack Abramoff may have disavowed any connections between himself and DeLay, but the former leader made it his business to engage K Street and turn it red. This is nothing different than what Democrats did for forty years prior to 1994, but the point was that the GOP promised us something different in the Contract With America."

This piece in the Cleveland Plain Dealer strikes me as more than just "embarrassing":

"Secretary of State Ken Blackwell made an embarrassing announcement Monday: He accidentally bought stock in Diebold Inc., a voting machine maker that benefited from decisions made by his office.

"In a required filing with the Ohio Ethics Commission, the GOP gubernatorial hopeful said his hefty portfolio included 178 shares of Diebold stock, which sold for a loss.