His primary problem is that - on the national PR stage - he is a schmoe.

To the people that matter, he is a very effective leader - and it appears his constituents aren't going to toss him anytime soon.

If you look at the notable Republicans that openly speak against him (e.g. Newt Gingrich), they all have a personal axe to grind. Otherwise, they all stand in line.

But for Spanky and other Blue State GOPers [like myself], his needless and constant sound bites make our party much, much harder for moderates or Reagan Democrats to swallow.

But . . .

Wasn't the redistricting essentially an unfair Dem result, followed by an unfair Rep result? Granted, it was out of time when Delay accomplished his, but both sides gleefully went after an essentially undemocratic result that favored themselves - Delay et al just violated one procedural rule doing his. I see the Tex redistricting as a bunch of coniving assholes sticking it to each other serially, with equal lack of morality.

Aren't you as mad as the anti-abortion people as at Delay on Schiavo? Both issues involve a conflict of very basic, foundational moral beliefs, and so I'm not surprised you're outraged, but I think what you're outraged at is not what you think. I think it's such a basic belief to people that his comments about the judges didn't surprise me. In his mind (note that phrase, please), they're murderers.

And (finally), isn't trading votes for votes what our system is built on? Isn't that what the "son" chapter involved?

What do we gain by bringing in all of those Reagan Dems or moderate R's if we lose Delay's influence? I think you discount his importance too lightly. We'd be better off hiring an aide to follow him with a Taser, zapping his balls whenever he starts talking to reporters.

Every time he opens his mouth more Republicans drop their registration. The former President of the California Republican League (before me) resigned and switched parties after Delay, on ABC This Week, said that "why does the Columbine massacre surprise anyone when we teach are children that instead of being descendants from Adam, that we crawled out of some primordial ooze."

I am betting a lot of time and money on that they will.

You are right about that. The Democrats stuck it to us in California. And now that the Governator is suggesting that some non-partisan group draw the lines, the Dems are screaming bloody murder.

0

80% of the voters thought the Federal Government should stay out. Not 60, not 70 but 80%. He needs to just shut up.

And (finally), isn't trading votes for votes what our system is built on? Isn't that what the "son" chapter involved?

What has he gotten through? Anything that counts. Tax Reform? Social Security? No - that is the tough stuff. All he has done is gotten legislation through that has exploded the budget. He didn't stop the farm bill and railroaded the Medicare drug thing through. Hell the guy is an economic liberal.

I don't know and I don't care. Like I said, partisan and personal. I hate Tom DeLay and I've hated Tom DeLay long before it was fashionable to do so. I said that the issues that are going to sink him are the gaming scandals and TFARMPAC. It's up to ya'll to decide what you're gonna do with him.

Slave, he was polling at 45 percent in his district three weeks ago. I don't think his constituancy is too happy with him right now.

An awful lot of people on both sides of the aisle voted for that dumb bill. A bunch more didn't even show up, scared how a vote either way would look later. How much of this now is just looking for a way to stick Delay with that price tag alone? It's not a problem - we didn't do anything wrong - look, we canned Delay for it!

(ETA - RT's take on him is at least honest. She's from there, she's a Dem, she hates him, and I have to admit he's not a loveable guy. But if the R's turn on him at this juncture, it just seems to me to be nothing more than a very public showing of a loss of balls.)

Pete McCloskey
 

BTW: Pete McCloskey was the guy who derailed Pat Robertson's Presidential campaign. Robertson was claiming that he had seen combat in Korea. McCloskey was in the same Regiment, and he remembered that on the boat ride to Korea, Robertson was bragging that his father, who was a US Senator, was going to get him out of combat. Sure enough, Robertson spent his tour as the liquor officer behind enemy lines. McCloskey disclosed this, and then Pat Robertson sued him. They interviewed the other guys on the boat and they all agreed with McCloskey's story. Robertson dropped the suit. McCloskey, by the way, received two silver stars and the Navy Cross in Korea. Robertson pulled out of the race right after he withdrew his law suit.

I wouldn't be surprised if Republican angst over DeLay is a byproduct of realization that in getting all those religious wacakdoos to vote Republican, you have to throw them rather unpalatable bones every now and then.

Republicans have gotten by for four 1/4 years without having to do much for the religious right except the partial birth abortion bill (which would be settled law if they hadn't deliberately left out the health of the mother language to force the issue into court for a long drawn out battle).

This fight was bound to happen sooner or later. Goodhair v. KBH (v. Keaton-McClellan-Rylander-Strayhorn?) is just one incarnation. Ya'll have a lot of people in your camp that can't stand each other.

RTs may hate him, but he is the best friend the Democrat party has ever had. They needed a replacement for Jesse Helmes and they got one in Delay. Not a Democrat fundraising letter goes out without a quote from Delay. The Democrats could not pay him enough for the help he gives them in raising money and influencing swing voters. If he would just shut up, and do his whip stuff behind the scenes, it my be OK. But he has done to much damage. He needs to go or he may lose the Congress that Gingrich worked so hard to take.

You're missing the pattern. Gingrich ended up demonized and vilified after being so effective, for "transgressions" equally as weighty, but, in reality, because he just pissed off the Dems in his accomplishments. We jettisoned him because of that. Now, history repeats. It does no good to mourn the loss of a Gingrich as you boot a Delay. Each time we get an effective ramrod, a role that requires nerve and arrogance, we chicken out and fire him because the Dems cry out that he has nerve and arrogance. There's no election coming up, Delay has 45% even after the biggest MSM campaign since November, and I'd predict he'd win by his usual margin when the time comes. I don't care what the score is now, months after the last election - and I'm not too concerned that Kerry thinks Delay is mean.

strategic bombing
 

Yes. And for that reason I think the morality of nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be -- at the least -- fairly questioned.

Did your Contracts casebook not contain cases from the UK? Mine did.

Maybe you never looked at that roll of papyrus.

Did your ConLaw casebook speak of how French magisterial rulings are considered primary controlling authority supporting sweeping changes in legal direction?

Mine didn't.

But Kennedy didn't look at foreign precedents as "controlling authority" for anything. If he thought that, we'd all agree that he could be impeached.