DeLay Out
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Breaking News, General PoliticsColor me surprised. DeLay saw the writing on the wall and back down from his majority position. But blaming it on Dems?
WASHINGTON – Embattled Rep.Tom DeLay on Saturday abandoned his bid to remain as House majority leader, clearing the way for leadership elections among Republicans eager to shed the taint of scandal.In a letter to rank-and-file Republicans, DeLay said, “I have always acted in an ethical manner.”
At the same time, “I cannot allow our adversaries to divide and distract our attention,” the Texas Republican wrote.
But really, DeLay has proven pretty stubborn in the past. Why would he do this now? Could it have anything to do with these polls?
An Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that 49 percent of those surveyed said they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress, and 36 percent said Republicans.
Quite possibly…
I’ll have more details if any come down.
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 7th, 2006 and is filed under Breaking News, General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 8th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
I doubt if the poll gives us much insight here, partly because democrats almost always do better in faceless, nameless hypothetical matchups like that, and have for many years. More to the point, however, I suspect a guy like Delay would go ahead and ride his party right down into the ground and the minority so long as he got to keep his leadership position, i.e. he’d probably rather be Minority Leader than just another congressman in the majority. Indeed, if that happened he’d be in a perfect position to shout, “see, with their trumped-up charges against me they brought us into the minority but now that I’m vindicated I’m going to take us back to the majority where we belong!”
I find it more likely he simply saw the writing on the wall: there were Republicans who never liked him, and there are people without the baggage he’s got who are talented and want the job.
I find it most likely that regardless of what happens with his court case, 2006 will be his last congressional race, and he’ll decide to retire in ‘08.
January 8th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
Of course polls have very little meaning beyond a month from now, but I can’t help but think that Republicans are more than a little concerned. That’s why they do polls in the first place…to show trends. The country is trending more towards getting rid of the Republican majority. It probably won’t happen this election cycle, but I predict there will be a much closer balance, which I think will be better for the country in general.
But in the end it’s all speculation anyway…