Well, it looks like Congressional Republicans have thought better of their move to insulate Tom DeLay from their ethics rules. Darnit. As I wrote here back in November, that decision was actually very good news for people who hate DeLay (and the GOP in general):

This is a sitting politician, and thus the story has what folks in the PR biz call “legs” – that is, it has staying power, it can be counted on to dominate the press’ attention indefinitely, etc. Instead of being able to sweep the scandal under the rug, high-level GOP corruption is on TV every freakin’ night. The neocon power elite, which would rather be involved in something more productive like chiseling away at the Bill of Rights, now has to attend to saving Delay’s butt from the hounds (and, depending on how events unfold, saving the GOP’s butt from DeLay).

Now, I’m not at all sure I buy the spinmongery of Republican spokesman Jonathan Grella, who says that “Once again, Tom DeLay outsmarts Democrats.”

No, “outsmarting” the Democrats would have involved never taking such a stupid feckin’ step to start with. Were Grella a man more dedicated to the truth than the partisan game, he’d have said something to the effect of, “in the end, good sense trumped Tom’s personal ambition. We have a lot of smart folks in the party who saw no reason to piss away our current advantage by whoring the ethics process simply to save one corrupt butt.”

Or something like that.