Damn Nice Of Him

So Tom DeLay has officially resigned his leadership position at the U.S. House of Representatives because of the unfolding scandal with Jack Abramoff. What a guy.

I though this post from the blog called Just One Minute was interesting. Tom Maguire seems to support his suppositions with facts pretty well – I couldn’t detect any obfuscation on his part. As he points out, it is important to note that DeLay instituted the rule by which he ultimately had to give up his post some years earlier in response to a scandal involving Democratic House Majority Leader Dan Rostenkowski. There are times when the Dems overplay their hand, as Karl Rove has pointed out (I don’t want to give him credit for anything, but I have to admit that he’s right, unfortunately), but the Repugs did big time in this case.

Another thing… Howard Dean appeared on Wolf Blitzer’s CNN program yesterday and had a lot of good stuff to say about this issue and other topics (this links you to the entire transcript, but I’m providing an excerpt below so you don’t have to wade through the whole thing – first hat tip of the day to Atrios).

BLITZER: Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, who has now pleaded guilty to bribery charges, among other charges, a Republican lobbyist in Washington, should the Democrat who took money from him give that money to charity or give it back?

DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true.

BLITZER: But through various Abramoff-related organizations and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.

DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either. There is no evidence...

BLITZER: What about Senator Byron Dorgan?

DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth. They have misled the American people. And now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.

BLITZER: Unfortunately Mr. Chairman, we got to leave it right there.

Good one, from Wolf (“So Poor And So Black”) Blitzer.

Update 1: Great digging by Brendan at Brandoland to come up with this little item about Tommy Boy's little adventures in the Marianas involving Enron, among others (still unfolding...I think HuffPo has something on this also).

Update 2: By the way, the next time you hear of Newt Gingrich pontificating about corruption in Washington (re: Delay and others), keep this in mind (courtesy of David Sirota).