"The Midnight Special:" Shinin' its everlovin' light on Tom DeLay?

Anyone who cares enough to pay attention already knows: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been indicted in Texas on a felony charge: conspiracy to end-run Texas campaign finance laws.

Lord knows DeLay has had plenty of time to plan for this, so the transition of power in the Republican House was swift and smooth. (Well, almost smooth. Turns out that there are worse offenses in the GOP rule book than what DeLay's been charged with. But let's press ahead.) So majority leadership has, for the moment, passed to DeLay's right-hand man Roy Blunt, another architect of the GOP Iron Triangle of Congressional Leadership, K Street Lobbyists, and big-dollar campaign donors. (That's in case you expected anything to change in the House while DeLay is indisposed.)

There is a chorus we'll be hearing over and over again from DeLay's apologists, and it's true: An indictment is not a conviction. So much the better; let's see this last a while. Let's see the drip-by-drip water torture of daily revelations extend well into the 2006 congressional election season.

We'll also be hearing a lot--it's started already on CNN--that the Ronnie Earle, Texas prosecutor who's pressing the charges is a "Democratic partisan" (or as DeLay himself put it, "an unabashed partisan zealot.") Utterly false. You can commit the details to memory if you want, but here's all you really need to remember: 11 of 15 politicians he's prosecuted were Democrats.

Say it with me: Eleven out of fifteen. This is the thing the GOP dreads most: A level prosecutor.)

As Joe in DC points out on Americablog, "partisanship" is indeed behind the Hammer's current embarrassment, but not in the way the GOP talking points are already desperately trying to spin it:

So, the maestro has given all his lackies the talking points. It's all partisanship. In a way, he's right, but he's got it backwards. He is in trouble for partisanship. But the partisanship that got him in trouble was his own. He's so obsessed with GOP rule, that he was willing to break the law. That's what partisan fanatics do.

At this point, it's wise not to bet the farm on a DeLay conviction, delicious as that does sound. Influence being what it is, there's always the chance that DeLay will simply leave the House and move seamlessly into a lobbying job where he'll be engaged in the same sleaze, but with even less oversight.

Still, there is that lovely "Midnight Special" fantasy:

'Cause the sheriff he'll grab you
And his boys'll bring you down.
And the next thing you know, boy--
You're Sugar Land bound.