I don’t know Steve Sturm or his blog Thoughts on Line, but from the blogroll (Instapundit, LGF, Powerline, Luskin, nothing to the left of OxBlog) he would seem to be reliably of the right. So Sturm’s detailed comparison of Tom DeLay to Bill Clinton, and his prediction that if the Republicans insist on defending the indefensible they will suffer the fate of the Democrats, can’t be cheerful reading if you’re on Sturm’s side of the aisle:
As with Clinton, it doesn’t – and shouldn’t – matter if what DeLay did was illegal. It was wrong. You’re not supposed to take trips from people looking for favors (as I’ve posted earlier, I’ve fired people for doing just that). You’re not supposed to put your family on the payroll. You’re supposed to use the power of your office to make America’s life easier, not your own.
The question is whether Republicans will turn a blind eye to his misdeeds, whether they will do for DeLay what the Democrats did for Clinton. Will they stand by him because they can’t stand to see the Democrats ‘win’? Or will they move him aside because it is the right thing to do?
Right now, it doesn’t look like the GOP will do the right thing. Like the Democrats did with Clinton, the GOP is rallying around DeLay.
For me, it’s simple. DeLay must step aside. If he doesn’t, then the Bush Administration and Hastert have to push him aside. If they don’t, then they deserve to lose every election for years to come.
Glenn Reynolds comments: “That’s gotta hurt.”
Heh. Indeed.