Tom Delay is Out

Tonight is not turning out into a very good night. As I was watching my Bruins get schooled on the finer aspects of the game of basketball, I flipped the channel to MSNBC and Fox News during one of the timeouts to find out that Rep. Tom Delay will not be running for re-election. This is not a good omen of things to come in November. Granted, Delay has been slipping in the polls lately, but this announcement to "spend more time with God and family" is totally disingenuous. He didn't want to lose in November. It was a cold political calculation. Like Gingrich before him, it seems that high ranking House Republicans have a fairly short shelf life in power before they start to get stale and it becomes time for a change. In that sense I think Delay is doing the party a favor, but I have no allusions of what we face in the midterm elections. If I had to guess right now, I'd say the GOP Congress is in for a good old fashioned ass whipping come November. I sure hope I'm wrong, but my gut says otherwise. We have had all the power for over five years and there are not many accomplishments to speak of. Budget discipline, spending, illegal immigration, are just issues of the top of my head that we have totally abdicated leadership on. It will be near impossible to turn things around IMO in the few short months left until elections. As far as I'm concerned, if Bush signs any guest worker program before giving border enforcement a chance to work first, that will be the final nail in our return to the minority.