Steve, BIG BIG mistake saying "keep Delay around longer" - when you got them down you go for the kill - throw them the anvil. Mark my words - if the dems don't go for the kill NOW, delay will survive and win. "keep him around" is such a stupid strategy - it also plays into the cowardly wimpy dems way of handling things. Very bad advise Steve and if its followed, delay will survive and be stronger.

the good news is that the Pentagon thinks they can reduce troop numbers in Iraq possibly 25% next year, due to an improving security situation.
If things keep going as they have been, they won't have to do much to make the reduction. They'll need a corporate doublespeak word to make it sound good. I suggest a candidate:
natural military attrition.

um, was this the same Pentagon that said we would be greeted with flowers and candy?? I agree, the security situation has improved, but whether troops leave or not, I'm not sure. As far as Delay, I dont know how to feel. Ditching him now, would be big news and everyone would know who Delay is. So I'm not sure how to handle him, as far as how long to keep him.

I also agree with jj. When you have a chance to kill a hydra, don't wait around until it grows another head. Even wounded DeLay is still DeLay.

Gingrich and Livingstone resigned to preserve at least some of their dignity and reputation. Gingrich ended up on the liar circuit. If DeLay sticks around long enough, he won't have a chance for a similar third career--and there is every sign that he has already stuck around long enough.

DeLay also has no sense of reality--he is certain he can beat the rap. Usually, there are two kinds of the accused who have such an attitude. Some are truly innocent and this clearly does not apply here--even if DeLay wants to pretend that this is the case, even some of his former allies have conceeded that it is not a possibility. The other group are very experienced con men who know that by offering up a minor contrition, they can protect much of their criminal enterprise. The trouble is, DeLay is an experienced arm-twister, but not an experienced con man. He's arrogant enough to believe that he can get away with anything solely because of the power he possesses.

He's exposed. Prolonging the agony will become a distraction from exposing other--perhaps similar--problems. His replacement, no doubt, will be no more squeaky clean than an average member of Congress--which is to say, not clean at all. So there is a good chance to go after him as well. Senators are harder to take down, but Cornyn has exposed himself already (even if he will be around for a while, don't let him--or his constituency--forget his comments). Others will surely follow. Instead of picking a narrow target, spread the net wider and expose the systemic problem, not just the individual extremes. Taking down Foley and Wright had nothing to do with Foley and Wright--they were portrayed as symptoms of the desease. DeLay is not the desease, which is why tying all problems to him is so risky. He is a major symptom and a contibuting factor to other symptoms. It is imperative to show that his removal does not cure the disease, so delaying the kill is not helpful.

I'd echo the idea that the Dems can flinch now and should move hard to take out Delay. Generally, there is a moment of weakness which can be either taken advantage of or lost. It'll move one way or the other.

For example, the national guard issue was at that point last spring, Kerry sent out the word not to go after it - and it died.

Second, not going after Delay assumes two things: one that most people care at this point and that there aren't more opportunities in the Administration. On the first the news will only really break when Delay falls, that's when most Americans will hear about it - and that's when the Republicans = corruption meme will take hold. Second, there are tons more targets, and once one person falls about the scandal then others will want to go for it too.

it is stupid to make Delay "THE issue" - get rid of Delay fast and keep attacking these nuts. After all, the bushies are chock full of nuts!

It's not just DeLay at issue here. He is the figurehead of a host of NutChristian crooks (using the Cloth to hide their evil). Get rid of him ASAP, and a message will be sent. The sunrise will wither them.

The passive cautiousness of Democrats has always failed. Instead of being reactive they should be pro-active. If they have the opportunity to take out DeLay then by god do it!

Hate say I told you so but with the security situation improving in Iraq it seems that those of us who said it will take time are no seeing are hopes start to bear out. Remeber Rome was not built in a day and a new Iraq will not be built in a week. So all you naysayers who doubt the power of an idea can gruse as much as you want but it doesn't hide the fact that things are changing. Only time will tell if we get a full swing to democracy in Iraq or some other form of government but itseems the best news is that the people themselves will be doing the deciding on what form they of government they want. I myself am optimistic.

avenger,
its about oil not democracy. the bushies want to steal Iraq's oil. will they succeed or will the people of Iraq stop this theft? time will tell.

AD-22: Could you please put the bottle (or pipe) down while typing? It'll make your idiotic ideas clearer and easier to shoot down. In Sunday's LA Times were a couple articles about how the "rebuilding" projects in Iraq are already falling apart - a combination of the slacker job Bechtel, etc. have done, and the lack of training of the Iraqi's to maintain and repair the water-sewage-electricity systems envisioned. But there's always more reconstruction money - hey, where's my wallet?

Several recent articles have touched on dwindling world oil reserves. Peak output may have already been reached. China and India are expected to need massive amounts of petroleum to bring billions of people into the 21st century. Both nations have the money, the know-how and the will to bid up prices on crude to the point the U.S. is strangled economically. Sure, that would hurt them as we buy much from both. But how are they going to deny their citizens the standard of living upgrade they demand, and the oil it will take to achieve it?

todays news contained the opinion that maybe oil has peaked and will start going down. Here is the deal, folks...it ain't going back to $1 a gallon. They raise the pump price, then lower it when the screaming hits a peak and Bush worries about his polls. Then it goes down a little and the geezers in the SUV's and MegaCab pickups settle down. But the price per gallon never goes back to what it was. That's how they raise it; up a lot, back a little. Repeat process next spring.

Hate say I told you so but with the security situation improving in Iraq it seems that those of us who said it will take time are no seeing are hopes start to bear out.

Let's say I'll believe it when I see it.

Boy you people haven't learned your lesson yet with the "I told You so"...how many times did we hear We Found the wmd's!

T2,
I enjoy laughing at the idiots driving SUV's!

Even though the are good points to both finishing off Delay now or later, I favor the coup de grace.
It's simple, if he's forced to resign that forces the GOP to defend his re-drawn and more competitive seat this year in a spiecal election rather than being able to hold the seat through this whole session of congress. Always try to pick up a seat when you can. Even if they win the spiecal election the new seatholder will be on the defensive going into 2006 in that they will have to point out how they are different from Delay. This also means that there is another shot at the seat in 2006. This district dropped from 63% GOP before re-districting to 55% last year and the stink from the scandal could be enough to tip it in a spiecal election.
Go for the throat when it's exposed.

North Korea is offended by the rhetoric coming from Washington? And you agree with this? These are the same totalitarian lunatics who routinely threaten the entire peninsula with radioactive death --and we're the problem? Get serious.

The Clinton-Albright-Richardson-Kerry plan is to bribe this psychotic fuck with loans and grain and even light-water technology ---all to keep him from doing what he has inevitably done. Is there some secret reason I don't know about that you would advocate bilateral talks with Kim when there is every reason in the world to force him into the sexpartite arrangement? The guy needs his sorry ass bullied into the pavement ---and his immediate neighbors have an incentive to do so that we can only dimly appreciate.

How about just admitting that Bush's approach to this situation is the correct one? You can do that, right? Not all of his ideas are bad, are they?

Yeah Toby, and Bush's plan was to ignore them and disengage, and have no inspectors on the ground so they could go nuclear and have 8-9 bombs.

Yeah, that sounds like a plan....

We've cooked our goose here and don't have really good options except to wait them out and use the multiparty option to get them back to the table. That doesn't mean we should exacerbate the situation and make it worse with juvenile replays like "outpost of tyranny." The problem with this foreign policy is that their testosteronic wordsmithing is a pathetic substitute for behind the scenes hard bargaining and doing the hard work of crafting deals.

It's time someone -- or rather everyone -- started attacking the "George Soros" code language in the Republican/conservative talking points on Tom DeLay's ethical lapses.

Over and over again, they talk about attacks "funded by George Soros."

Today on Crossfire, Republican campaing operative Barbara Comstock said it. And her Democratic counterpart said nothing about it.

In this morning's AP story about U.S. Rep. Chris Shays calling for DeLay's resignation, another GOP spokesman used the phrase. I wanted to add something to the story pointing out that the phrase was a racist, anti-Semitic smear, but I couldn't find anything on AP, or in the New York Times, or on Google News.

It is clear what they are doing and why. They are trying to link the criticism to Soros as part of a racist smear.

Remember last summer when they attacked Soros directly? Here's a reminder:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200406040004

Tony Blankley of the Washington Times saying Soros is a "left-wing crank," "a Jew who figured out a way to survive the Holocaust," "a robber baron," "a pirate capitalist," and "a reckless man." Attacks on Soros have been a tool of the Republicans since last June.

But Democrats are unwilling to call a racist, anti-Semitic smear a racist anti-Semitic smear.

If the Democrats were organized, then every news story in which the Republicans attacked the Democrats for pointing to the crimes committed by Tom Delay by claiming they are funded by George Soros could be countered by a Democrat attacking the Republicans for a "racist, anti-Semitic smear."

Can't we all do something about this? Can't we make this a major talking point of our side?

Soto:

The problem with this foreign policy is that their testosteronic wordsmithing is a pathetic substitute for behind the scenes hard bargaining and doing the hard work of crafting deals.

Steve, there is no military solution to the problem of North Korea. Kim will have to be brought down from inside. The Bush Administration probably knows this. Therefore, there almost certainly is some sort of behind-the-scenes stuff going on ---and, naturally, we're not going to be privy to it until the pay-off comes.

Soto:

It sure seems that the new Iraqi government will take extraordinary steps to unify the country, even if it means taking steps that the US wouldn’t approve of.

I've got no real problem with Talabani's amnesty deal. My favorite part is that it's not on offer to asshole murderers of civilians and little kids, nor to foreigners who are there to try their hands against Uncle Sam. Those sacks of shit will just have to be hunted down and burnt.

thats why the democrats and liberals are losers always negative. Never concede one point always try to attack a person not the issue always crying about the problems but never trying to find a solution my how the party has change from the working man to the cry baby party. Now I kow why I rejected it and my mom left it and 80% of blue collar Amercia is leaving it. It is held slave to special interests more than th the Republican Party ever was.

DeLay is off balance. Keep him that way and his counterattacks will do great damage without waiting - which might be seen as condoning this behavior.

Why do I have visions of Toby skipping blissfully through the poppy fields of Afghanistan? Such bright red dotted fields swaying in the wind....

The Turkmen, Arabs, Turkey (and a few others) will not be pleased to see the Kurds gain Kirkuk, let alone more power. Congratulations, I think you just bought yourself a buffer force - our sons and daughters.

When you have a snake by the head, never never let go. Make the kill clean and fast.

Advenger D-22: "Never concede one point always try to attack a person not the issue"

Excuse me, but which Party is it that only attacks the opposition on a personal basis? Actually, I can't believe you would post such a ridiculous thought.

Advenger D-22: "It is held slave to special interests more than th the Republican Party ever was."

Yeah, those Democrats call the elite "their base."
What a crock.

Judith:

Excuse me, but which Party is it that only attacks the opposition on a personal basis? Actually, I can't believe you would post such a ridiculous thought.

Is it possible that any adult doesn't know that ad hominem attacks are made by all segments of the political spectrum against all others all the time? Be serious, Judith.

No Toby, I don't agree with you. The Republicans can't win elections without destroying their opposition with lies and personal attacks, i.e., Max Cleland, Kerry, Gore, etc. Hell, they can't even talk issues because they are so hate filled and determined to win at any costs. And, if that doesn't work, well, they always have Diebold to help them win.