Democrats, here's your campaign ad

This morning on AAR Mark Riley took calls from listeners opining on whether the Bug Killing Dwarf King, etc.'s departure from the House helps or hurts the Democrats. If this were actually something representing an opposition party*, it would find a way for this to help them.

One way would be to quite the CURRENT House leader, John Boehner, who obviously has somewhat of a warped idea of exactly what constitutes "integrity":

"He has served our nation with integrity and honor," said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, who succeeded DeLay in his leadership post earlier this year.

DeLay's official reason is his tough re-election race against Nick Lampson, but when have we ever known DeLay to shy away from a tough fight? Of course, it may very well be that like must bullies, he can't handle an opponent who fights back. My guess is that something big is about to come down the pike, and it may very well be related to aide Tom Rudy singing like a canary last week and DeLay's other good friends Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon similarly cooperating with the Justice Department. But a guy like DeLay doesn't step down just because he's "only a few points ahead" of an opponent. So rather than this being the end of the story, it's just the beginning.

Now, if the Democrats were smart, they would tar the entire Christofascist Zombie Brigade with the DeLay brush, for he's been Their Guy in the House of Representatives. I can't imagine they'll do that, so I recommend that they play the tape of the CURRENT House leader calling DeLay a leader with "integrity." Because that shows quite plainly that with or without DeLay, nothing in the Republican Party has changed. Indeed, the "tough race" is DeLay's story and he's sticking with it, using his particular brand of "clean slate" Christianity to absolve himself.

TIME:

Asked if he had done anything illegal or immoral in public office, DeLay replied curtly, "No." Asked if he'd done anything immoral, he said with a laugh, "We're all sinners." Asked what he would do differently, he said, "Nothing."