Delay drops out of race--so much for redistricting

This one's spreading like wildfire: Tom Delay is dropping out of the Texas 22nd race. Citing polling numbers far below his usual safe zone, Delay is claiming he's doing this for the good of the party--that the race has become a referendum on Tom Delay rather than on the Republican platform. While that statement may be true in and of itself, Delay is the embodiment of the Republican platform, and of all the problems of the Republican party. A referendum on Delay is a referendum on the GOP.

My personal belief: this has less to do with Republican values than it does with the investigation into his shenanigans with the redistricting battle here a few years ago. At least two of his former aides are involved in the Abramoff scandal, and while he doesn't appear to be involved in that particular debacle, the investigation into his PAC illegally funnelling corporate money into Texas House races is still going strong, and I'm betting somebody in the Austin prosecutors office knows something Delay wishes they didn't. Maybe I'm just mudslinging here, but frankly, I can't think of anyone in Texas more deserving of it, except perhaps Tom Craddick or Rick Perry..

I find no small degree of irony (and pleasure) in noting that his polling numbers are also directly linked to Delay and his cronies divving up his district to run Nick Lampson out of his former district.