The Moose is concerned because the party organ of the Central Committee of the Conservative Movement has given the Majority Leader a big thumbs down.
As the Moose feared, the right wing illuminati are bailing out on the Bug Man. The potentates at the most revered Wall Street Journal editorial page weighed in today,
"The problem, rather, is that Mr. DeLay, who rode to power in 1994 on a wave of revulsion at the everyday ways of big government, has become the living exemplar of some of its worst habits. Mr. DeLay's ties to Mr. Abramoff might be innocent, in a strictly legal sense, but it strains credulity to believe that Mr. DeLay found nothing strange with being included in Mr. Abramoff's lavish junkets.
"Nor does it seem very plausible that Mr. DeLay never considered the possibility that the mega-lucrative careers his former staffers Michael Scanlon and Mr. Buckham achieved after leaving his office had something to do with their perceived proximity to him. These people became rich as influence-peddlers in a government in which legislators like Mr. DeLay could make or break fortunes by tinkering with obscure rules and dispensing scads of money to this or that constituency. Rather than buck this system as he promised to do while in the minority, Mr. DeLay has become its undisputed and unapologetic master as Majority Leader.
"Whether Mr. DeLay violated the small print of House Ethics or campaign-finance rules is thus largely beside the point. His real fault lies in betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office, and which, if he continues as before, sooner or later will sweep him out."
The Moose is extremely disappointed in these would be Bravehearts. At DeLay's moment of peril, the cowardly cons are turning their backs on the individual who is emblematic of their rule. Notice how the editorial feebly attempts to personalize the "betraying of the broader set of principles" to one individual. The truth is that Tom DeLay is not alone in discarding the pursuit of "limited government" for the allure of corporate cronyism. The entire Republican establishment in Congress and the Executive Branch have their fingerprints on that one. Brother DeLay profoundly represents GOP rule - the sanctity of the marriage between big money and big government favors for the comfortable.
So the Moose implores his dear elephant friends - don't let old Tom to be the scapegoat on this one! As you used to be fond of saying - In your heart, you know he's right! -- | 
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