So, how was your weekend? I have a hunch it was a bit more pleasant that it was for Tom DeLay.
Let’s see, there was the first member of the House Republican Caucus who called for him to resign…
“Tom’s conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election,” Rep. Chris Shays, a Connecticut Republican, told The Associated Press in an interview, calling for DeLay to step down as majority leader.
…plus Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum distancing himself from DeLay…
Rick Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said Sunday that DeLay needs to explain his conduct to the public.
“I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves,” Santorum told ABC’s “This Week.”
…plus word from Jack Abramoff that DeLay’s defense for his Abramoff-related scandals is a total sham…
“Everybody is lying,” Abramoff told a former colleague. There are e-mails and records that will implicate others, he said…. DeLay and his aides have said repeatedly they were unaware of Abramoff’s behind-the-scenes financing role. “Those S.O.B.s,” Abramoff said last week about DeLay and his staffers, according to his luncheon companion. “DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details.”
…plus the president declining to defend DeLay, John McCain doing the same, and an item in the New York Times citing GOP insiders who have “begun to speak privately about their sense that [DeLay’s] standing is in danger.”
DeLay may have the enthusiastic backing of the far-right, but his standing among everyone else is nevertheless being destroyed, bit by bit. It’ll take a lot more pressure for DeLay to actually resign as Majority Leader, but in the interim, his ability to lead his caucus is weakened, and scandal-hungry reporters smell blood in the water. Pass the popcorn.