Tom DeLay Tidbits

Badass Austin attorney Cris Feldman has an oped in WP asserting that DeLay is Out of the House, Not Out of Trouble.

In announcing yesterday that he was dropping out of the race to keep his seat in Congress, Tom DeLay said he now intends to "engage in the important cultural and political battles of our day from outside the arena of the House of Representatives." Before he does that, though, he still faces a more immediate battle in another arena -- a Texas courtroom.

Badabing!

Some more coverage of the machinations:

Under siege from state and federal probes into his actions and those of his closest aides and advisers, Rep. Tom DeLay had considered resigning on several occasions over the past four months. But he waited until after he had vanquished his challengers in the Republican primary to deny them the chance to become his successor, associates said.

Awwwww, pobrecito:

They also cited what the Texas Republican has privately described at his frustration at no longer being a part of the House leadership, and his diminished satisfaction with rank-and-file congressional life.

What a petty punk:

DeLay was determined to hang on to his seat at least through the primary, said Carl Forti, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. That was because he considered his three Republican challengers gadflies and traitors and he was determined to try to block them from succeeding him.

Hehe:

An additional impetus for putting off the resignation until now was suggested by John Feehery, a former aide to DeLay and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.). "He needed to raise money for the defense fund. That was the bottom line," Feehery said. "He wanted to make sure he could take care of himself in the court of law." Under federal campaign rules, any reelection money a lawmaker raises can be used to pay legal fees stemming from official duties.

[...]

Friends and associates of DeLay say they think he can make a prosperous future for himself as a corporate-paid legislative strategist, book author and speaker.

Wasn't that the problem -- that he already was a "corporate-paid legislative strategist"?

And this is hilarious. "I am the federal government" calls someone else arrogant:

''Cynthia McKinney is a racist,'' Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said on Fox News Channel, a day after abandoning his reelection bid under a cloud of ethics charges. ''She has a long history of racism. Everything is racism with her. This is incredible arrogance that sometimes hits these members of Congress, but especially Cynthia McKinney.''

What we are losing.