This story came out yesterday and it merits repeating:
US Republicans calling for elections to
replace DeLayWASHINGTON (Reuters) – About two dozen Republicans have promised to sign
a petition calling for elections to permanently replace Rep. Tom DeLay as
majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, aides said on Friday.
“We have commitments for about 25 signatures. The letter calls for a
leadership election for a permanent majority leader,” said Matthew Specht, a
spokesman for Rep. Jeff Flake, a conservative Arizona Republican.Fifty House Republican signatures are needed to call elections, which
would occur after the House reconvenes on January 31.A source close to House Republicans, who asked not to be identified, told
Reuters that the signatures were being collected from conservative and
moderate Republicans. The source said Rep. Charles Bass, a New Hampshire
moderate, was working closely with Flake.DeLay, a Texas Republican, was forced to resign as House majority leader,
the number-two leadership job, in September after he was indicted in Texas
on money laundering and conspiracy charges.At the time, DeLay said the move was temporary and that he would return
to the majority leader job after he believed he would be cleared of the
accusations. DeLay said the felony charges were engineered by Democratic
opponents in Texas.But more recently, DeLay’s political future has been further clouded by
his association with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
View Reuters article
here
Here’s the deal on this. This has been rumored for awhile so it really is no
big shock. With the Abramoff plea deal this week it just added an extra nail in
the coffin of Delay. There is however something more to read into this.
Currently there are two people rumored to run for the Majority Leader seat.
Those are the current acting Majority Leader, Roy Blunt and Jim Boehner of Ohio,
who represents my district. Both of these men are facing possible implications
in the Abramoff scandal. For the Democrats that is a good thing. Let one of them
get it, then in a few months we get more indictments in the Abramoff scandal and
that person is listed. What could be better than another Majority Leader having
to resign from the Republican party because of legal problems?
What I see happening here is another person possibly getting it. Someone who
is safe from the Abramoff scandal. This very person is also going to run on a
platform of cleaning up corruption, or at least make it look that way.
The Republican party is hurting right now very badly. All the spin in the
world can come out about them doing good and what not but the fact of the matter
is they are not. Their numbers are way down in the polls and 49% of the people
surveyed in a recent AP-IPSOS poll wants the Democrats to regain control this
fall as opposed to 36% who want the Republicans to stay in control. The
remaining 15% is the ones both parties need to fight for.
If the Republicans present a new leader and that leader is later indicted
then they can wipe that remaining 15% out. Those people (or a majority of) will
now go to the Democrats. This is why one of the keywords you will here in
campaigns this season is “corruption”. It will be said over and over again how
we need a change in Congress to wash out the corruption that is going on.
This is also going to make it harder for incumbents to get re-elected. They
will most likely loose those undecided votes. The good news for the Democrats is
they are beating the Republicans out when it comes to finding new candidates.
The Republicans have numerous districts where the Democrat incumbent is going
unopposed and the Democrats have numerous districts where they have found
someone to run against the Republican incumbent. This could possibly be the one
thing that breaks the strong hold the Republicans have had on the House, which
was given to them by some crafty redistricting.
So watch the revolt in the House and watch the election of a new Majority
Leader even closer. That can turn into something that helps out the Democrats
more than you think.