Newsweek published an article entitled "DeLay: More Cash—And More Questions." It seems that DeLay, in addition to cramming his war chests full of cash, has been filling his legal defense fund with "donations" from lobbyists (which, according to Public Citizen, is another violation of the House ethics rules but DeLay's office has already promised to return those).

Okay, you’re Tom DeLay and you have pretty good reason to believe you’re under investigation for raising illegal corporate contributions. Three of your associates have been indicted for raising money for a state Political Action Committee modeled after your national PAC, and eight corporation have been indicted for giving the contributions. Lots of people have spilled a lot of ink on whether you will be indicted and, if so, when.

Here is how the Republicans in Congress are spinning the rule change... For the first time, a member of leadership who is convicted of a felony must step down from that position.

From Rep. Chris Chocola (R-IN), via constituent E.J., from a letter dated November 23rd:

Updates below on votes on the DeLay Rule. Demand a recorded vote on DeLay Rule.

Tell House Speaker Hastert to schedule a recorded vote on the DeLay Rule when the 109th Congress convenes.

What we know today.

The letters to the editor page is generally known as the second most read part of a newspaper. It is a good place to shape and frame a debate.

With the DeLay rule change focused primarily on the GOP selfishly moving to protect its own, and newspaper stories appearing in every major daily paper in the country, with opinion pieces along side, we have a golden opportunity to deepen public awareness of Tom DeLay and his corrupt pay-to-play politics.

Congressman Henry Bonilla (R-TX) is proposing a change in the House rules to get House Majority Leader Tom DeLay off the hook for an impending indictment. DeLay has been implicated by press reports as the architect of a scheme to illegally raise and launder corporate contributions to advance his Texas redistricting plan. Under current rules, if DeLay (like three of his associates and eight of the corporations that gave contributions) gets indicted he would have to resign his Majority Leader post.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times penned an article a few days back about DeLay. Here's how it starts:

As the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, celebrated his election victory in Texas Tuesday night, the theme song playing in the background had been selected by his aides to send a message: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot."

I guess our work and the ethics committee charges did not go unnoticed.

I received the following:

An Open Letter to your campaign & supporters:

As someone who lives in Delay's district, let me tell you and all others who you wish to share these thoughts with: Thank you.

1. I've seen Delay hurt this country from his "strong-hold" for too long & really appreciate your efforts in taking him on.

It was great to see him sweat!

I will be taking some time to evaluate what we accomplished, where we should be going, and how to get there. If anyone has feedback on these, please feel free to post a comment or email me at ddonnelly [at] campaignmoney.org.

Here's my quick take on what we did:

Since being elected in 1984, Tom DeLay had never had a close race. Until now. On Tuesday, DeLay was re-elected with 55% of the vote. And he had to work hard to win. We should feel good about that.