The Fun Is Watching

What were we saying yesterday about Tom DeLay's operating like an imprisoned crime boss? Check out the WashPost this a.m.: "As DeLay fights charges that he was involved in a fundraising conspiracy, [House Speaker Denny] Hastert told him that he will remain among the speaker's closest advisers. Significantly, DeLay's large staff will remain on the majority leader's payroll -- working for [Rep. Roy] Blunt, but also in position to keep watch on him."

Trying to track where Madame Virginia Foxx stands among all the in-fighters becomes somewhat interesting, though all eyes are on DeLay's replacement, Roy Blunt of Missouri: "...there were clear indications that he is rubbing some of his colleagues the wrong way. Several lawmakers, who said they could speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity, said the 55-year-old former teacher has a reputation for being too overtly ambitious, and must work hard to win over skeptical colleagues. 'He's the kind of guy always looking over your shoulder when you are talking to him,' looking for something better, a top House Republican leader said."

Blunt is being allowed to hold simultaneously his Majority Whip position along with DeLay's vacated Majority Leader position. Who died and made him king? conservative rebels want to know. But Denny Hastert has apparently persuaded his restless troops to allow Blunt to run things at least until January, to see if DeLay can return.

Foxx has a history as an avid in-fighter when she was an academic administrator at Appalachian State University. She's bound to be in that rumble, shivving SOMEBODY.