Virginia Foxx, Partaker of a "Criminal Enterprise"

So Tom DeLay is out. What that has to do with Madam Virginia Foxx needs some discussion. But first, this line from the excellent reporting done on this story by Jonathan Weisman and Chris Cillizza of the WashPost: "[Delay's] decision [to resign] came three days after his former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices."

Rudy has either rolled over on him or is about to. "A criminal enterprise."

From which The Madam has benefitted mightily. DeLay has given Foxx a total of $15,000 (that we know about). JDub over at Appalachian Voices' new blog has posted a complete run-down of the money DeLay-the-Racketeer has spread around to congresspersons from the Appalachian region.

The Madam's appetite for that cash is both shameless and evidently boundless. Not satisfied about lashing herself to the sinking DeLay yacht, she brought DeLay's protege Roy Blunt, no slouch himself at shaking the money tree, to Mt. Airy a few days ago to help her raise even more.

The embarrassment for such a gawd-almighty Christian to be exposed as a criminal syndicalist is evidently not so huge as the potential embarrassment for DeLay of being beaten in his race for reelection from his Texas district: he wants his name off the ballot, badly enough to change his residence to Virginia: "Under Texas law, DeLay, who will turn 59 on Saturday, must either die, be convicted of a felony, or move out of his district to be removed from the November ballot. DeLay told Time magazine that he is likely to change his official residence to Alexandria, Va., by the end of May."

Did you ever hear the one about the Texas congressman who decided to die rather than have his name on the ballot?

ADDENDUM: Mike Allen in Time magazine, in the scoopiest piece we've seen so far on the DeLay death dive, says that DeLay is talking defiantly about going public on his pet causes, particularly "promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government."

Just what Jehovah needs ... more tarnishing by Tom DeLay.