DeLay Cronyism Bits Tom in Ass

Gosh, you'd think when the Republican Majority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives stacks the ethics committee with his best buds ... you'd expect it to STAY stacked, wouldn't you?

But under the increased public scrutiny that DeLay has drawn of late, two of his congressional friends that just got added to the ethics committee in January -- expressly to protect DeLay from ethical challenges -- have had to recuse themselves from participating in the upcoming investigations into their leader. (NYTimes coverage here.)

Both Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma have agreed to take no part in any action relating to Mr. DeLay. Why? Because they both gave $5,000 each to a Tom DeLay "defense fund." Would sort of make their objectivity in judging the man slightly questionable, no? Interestingly, it appears that Mr. Smith and Mr. Cole were forced to recuse themselves by their own Republican committee chair, Doc Hastings of Washington state, who is justifiably concerned about appearances. (But get this: two other Republican members of the ethics committee -- Melissa A. Hart of Pennsylvania and Judy Biggert of Illinois -- have received political contributions from Tom DeLay, but so far they're claiming their independence.)

With the recusal of Smith and Cole in any DeLay investigation, the Democrats would have a decided majority on the committee. What will deter Democrats, however, will be the other Republican "nuclear option" of mutually assured destruction, the circular firing squad, for the Republicans will insist on launching investigations on two Democrats for every one Republican brought to the bar.