Dropping the Hammer

When the Wall Street Journal starts talking about showing DeLay the door, the Hammer is probably not long for this world.

Give the radical right their credit: They'll use DeLay, they'll support him, they'll lie for him, they'll cover for him, they'll distract us from his offenses, they'll enable him, they'll let him have access to power beyond dreams and wealth beyond avarice, they'll change the rules and break the law for him . . . right up to the point where he becomes a political liability, at which point, they'll put him down like a horse with a broken leg.

Without blinking.

Remember how fast Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott were dropped once the numbers went wrong?

It's a fairly predictable process: There'll be some proximate cause, some final straw--like Lott's birthday tribute to Strom Thurmond's apartheid Dixiecrat days--that won't begin to capture the full range of offenses committed by the man. Then he'll be gone, and the comparatively minor nature of that final offense, by itself, will even be pointed to for a time as proof that DeLay was hounded out of office by a liberal media, etc., etc.

You could argue that the Dems could learn a little of this cold-bloodedness--surely I'm not the only one who could name a high profile Dem or two in the last 20 years who was kept around after becoming a liability? I mean, it was charming when Gene McCarthy continued to run for president; it's not when Joe Lieberman does.

But when the GOP purges one of its own, it's an ugly spectacle--there is honor among thieves, but not among Republicans.