From the AP story on the Republican reversal on ethics rules:

Republicans leaving their weekly meeting in the Capitol basement generally praised Hastert for pivoting on the issue. DeLay seemed annoyed at the crowd of reporters.

"You guys better get out of my way," he said. "Where's our security?"

The first comes on the heels of the announcement yesterday that House Ethics Chairman Doc Hastings and House Speaker Denny Hastert will allow a new vote on restoring the old rules of ethics investigations. Jim Drinkard of USA Today looks ahead to whether the Ethics Committee can actually do its job in investigating DeLay without the appearance, at least, of conflict of interest. You see, Drinkard reports,

Why do I continue to be shocked by this?

About ten years ago, colleagues of mine sat down with a very prominent Democratic Party operative after Bill Clinton had won the 1992 presidential election. My colleagues argued that the public was increasingly cynical about how legislation was bought by the biggest donors. The prominent operative interrupted and said, "If the American public really knew what happened in Washington, they'd come and burn the place down."

The WSJ (no link) cites the letter we helped organize last week from 10 former GOP lawmakers urging House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to reinstate old ethics rules overturned by the GOP last January: "Their home states represent every region in the nation, and the letter demonstrates how badly Republican leaders have fared in the public-relations war over House ethics." The article reports that Hastert "shows no willingness to reverse himself but compromises are being discussed." Why?

Oh, how the details are indeed sleazy. This next TIME magazine piece, out on newstands and in mailboxes soon, unveils how Jack Abramoff was DeLay's travel agent and lined up his clients to pay for it. There has to be stronger word for this kind of sleaze. Whatever you call it, it's damning.

(TIME also adds the letter to Hastert from former GOP reps!)

Here's a snippet:

We're helping to distribute this powerful, strongly-worded letter to Republican leaders in the House demanding that they stop acting like they're defending Tom DeLay and restore integrity to the House.

The NYT's Shenon and Stolberg pick up the story in this morning's newspaper:

House Speaker Denny Hastert (finally) defends DeLay. Mostly, anyway.

Bloomberg News reports today:

One of the surest paths to riches in Washington is to have these five words on a resume: "Office of Representative Tom DeLay."

In its entirety:

It's incredible that he's even being asked. From Congress Daily:

ETHICS

Bush Lends DeLaySupport; Hastert Defends Rules Changes