The Austin American-Statesman runs an op-ed this morning by Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck, the filmmakers who followed Ronnie Earle for two years as he sought the truth about what happened with TRMPAC, DeLay, his associates and the 2002 election.The movie they produced, The Big Buy, was finished in August, but events in late September (a few indictments) conspired to encourage them to film a new ending.

A number of recipients of the indicted former Majority Leader's ARMPAC contributions are refusing to give back money.

From The Facts, a Brazoria County-based newspaper, in a signed editorial from Michael Morris, assistant managing editor:

In the quick defense of freshly indicted Rep. Tom DeLay by Republican talking heads on the conservative talk-show circuit last week, more than one revived the long-employed question: Where does DeLay get his reputation back when he is cleared?

The conservative Manchester Union-Leader/New Hampshire Sunday News editorialized today that former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is bad for the Republican party and must leave office.

They argue that whether or not the indictment has merit, DeLay's argument that Earle is playing politics simply doesn't pass muster.

There is no end of verbiage about Tom DeLay in today’s editorial pages, but while most of these pieces are good at making zingers about the House Majority Leader, none are calling for major reforms that would guard against future Tom DeLays taking power. The Los Angeles Times comes closest, noting that:

There's a lot of news out there on the DeLay indictment from all sorts of angles. This, folks, is wall-to-wall saturation media coverage.

The big outlets are doing two, three, four parts of this, or some combo of the following themes:

"We'll stop short of calling for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to resign from Congress altogether. It's up to the good people of Texas, after all, to decide whether DeLay is what they want representing them (or not) when he comes up for re-election," editors for The Times Leader begin their editorial today.

"We do feel, however, that DeLay should relinquish his post as majority leader for the good of the Republican Party," they continue.

David's editorial concerning the recent, mostly unnoticed Congressional pay raise has been posted on CommonDreams.org.

It has this gem from Republican House Majority Leader Tome DeLay (R-TX): "It's not a pay raise," claimed DeLay, who will now make $183,500 a year. "It's an adjustment so that [we're] not losing [our] purchasing power."

Interesting, considering one of the areas where Congress has failed America's working families is the abysmal minimum wage.

Remember how cozy Tom DeLay is with manufacturers of MTBE, the gasoline additive that has polluted groundwater throughout the nation? DeLay was one of the lead supporters of a provision in the House Energy bill approved last April that protects these manufacturers from lawsuits filed by communities with drinking water fouled by this poisonous chemical.

On Tuesday the Senate has passed its version of the energy legislation without the MTBE provision.

Following yesterday's revelations about Ethics Chairman Doc Hastings' close relationship to the lobbying firm that hosted Jack Abramoff sleazy dealings, the Seattle P-I weighs in and says it's not credible that Hastings can impartially oversee an investigation into Tom DeLay.