Saving DeLay: the GOP's "culture of life" in action

The part of me that likes to have dessert before the meal enjoys the prospect of DeLay getting dropped like a bad stink by the House Republicans (a consummation that appears more likely with each passing day). But the other part of me--let's call him the realist--knows there are two important reasons not to give DeLay the quick flush:

First, there's the fact that however inviting a target The Hammer might be--one thing that both Dems and Repubs agree on in this business--the problem is hardly limited to his bad acts, as Talking Points Memo reminds us,

But he isn't a Majority Leader who happens, possibly, also to be corrupt. The GOP Majority in the House is built on his corrupt practices, his money machine. They define its modes of operation and priorities.

Absent DeLay, the game of corruption and abuse of power will go on; it's just that they'll have lost their finest practitioner of the art--their Air Jordan, if you will. It'll take a general House cleaning, not just one ritual sacrifice, to change the status quo.

Which brings us to the second reason not to want this business to end too rapidly: the ongoing problem of the American voter's short attention span. A quick and too-tidy resolution to l'affaire DeLay, plus a couple more judiciously timed changes in the Terror Threat Level, could easily drive whole business off the radar screen by next summer, when every member of the House will stand for re-election.

The Christian Science Monitor has a decent background piece on the gradual fall from the moral high ground by House Repubs in the last decade. Apart from context that's missing from a lot of current coverage that seems to be driven by the GOP talking points (e.g., are the Dems just "playing politics" by preventing the Ethics Committee from convening?), the Monitor piece includes this nicely-worded "Culture of Life" take on the problem by an anonymous Repub:

But in private, some senior leaders are saying it's only a matter of time before the most powerful Republican in Congress is forced from office. "Democrats should save their money. Why murder someone who is committing suicide?" said a senior GOP lawmaker, on condition of anonymity.

With friends like these, does DeLay need enemies? Well, sure, of course he does.