"DeLay-gate" In A Nutshell

NRO has an outstanding summation of the desperate Democrat smear campaign against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

To distill their comments even further....

1) The frenzied charges against DeLay are bogus;

2) Because of (1), Republicans should stand with him and tell the Donks to stick it;

3) There are four broad categories of allegations:

-Overseas trips funded by outside groups, a ubiquitous practice (on both sides of the aisle) on Capitol Hill, and which DeLay fully disclosed to the House Ethics Committee at the time he took them;

-Recycled charges lodged by a disgruntled Democrat who lost his seat to DeLay-orchestrated redistricting in Texas, which the House Ethics Committee already examined and dismissed last year;

-Politically motivated indictments of DeLay associates in Texas by a Donk prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, who is notorious for using his office for partisan hatchetry, as when he filed frivilous charges against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison when she first ran for the Senate in 1993;

-Still more recycled charges in the Extreme Media about purported nepotistic payments to DeLay's wife and daughter, even though hiring family members is a common Capitol Hill practice and perfectly legit as long as they perform actual jobs, which DeLay's wife and daughter do;

4) A cautionary note that, while the Right should defend the HML and put down this naked PR coup attempt, we should not lose sight of the fact that "the Hammer" may have become a little too comfortable with the perks of power, and would be well advised to return to his mid-90s era "insurgent" roots.

Definitely recommended reading, and a primer to have on hand as the Dem scandalmongering rolls infuriatingly along.