So, let’s look at the latest Delay news.
First, the other shoe has already started dropping with regards to that little moment of optimism I had the other day. While it is true that “the Delay rule” was revoked, apparently the Republicans still managed to push through ethics changes that will make future probes much more difficult. Here’s a snippet from the Reuters article:
A day after backing off a rules change that would have allowed an indicted congressional leader to retain his post, the House of Representatives on Tuesday adopted a separate change that will make it harder to pursue ethics probes of members of Congress.
The vote on the rules package was 220-195 along party lines. The Republicans who control the House said the changes are needed to make the ethics system work better while the Democratic minority said it would “gut” the House’s main means of policing its members.
Five members of each party serve on the House ethics panel and under the current system, a tie vote would launch an ethics probe. Under the new rule, a tie or failure to make a decision within 45 days would mean no action would be taken.
Hmm. I wonder if the committee would ever be split along party lines in the case of an ethics complaint? I would be shocked; absolutely shocked.
And then, just to prove that he is a compassionate conservative, or something, Delay basically calls out everyone who is suffering from the tsunami. You see Tuesday morning was the 109th Congressional Prayer Service and Delay’s contribution was a reading from Matthew 7:21 – 7:27. If you don’t know your scripture, that passage basically says that people who are properly faithful are fine when the flood comes, and people who aren’t get their houses destroyed when the flood comes.
You can get the full scoop, including the biblical passages, and transcripts/MP3s of the event, from the post at American Coprophagia, which I was pointed to via Atrios.
I guess for people who have religion, of whom I most emphatically am not one, one way out of the theodicy problem is to decide that everyone who suffers must deserve it.
