The Moose observes that the right is falling out of love with the Bugman.
David Kirkpatrick has a lovely unintended satirical piece in today's New York Times titled, "Conservatives Wonder How to Fill Hole Left by DeLay."
It seems that the right wing is just one Lonely Hearts Club now that they are discovering the manifold faults of their old lover. You see, the Old Bugman from Sugarland thought he could resume his love affair with his conservative bride after his fall from grace. But, evidently he is no longer a heart throb with the right wing!
Golly gee, DeLay is corrupt!
Kirkpatrick,
"But several prominent conservatives balked at Mr. DeLay's assertion in an interview, posted on Time magazine's Web site, that "the conservative movement is leaderless" and that he aimed to become "a strong leader to pull the movement together." Some said his legal problems showed how his work incorporating the conservative movement into Washington's power structure was already carrying the movement away from its principles.
"We have seen this cycle before," said Marvin Olasky, editor of the Christian conservative magazine World, invoking Psalm 107's account of the Israelites' decline into decadence before they turned back to God. "The question in my mind is whether conservatives will look at this situation and realize there has been a corruption by power, and try to return to their decentralized, small-government roots."
Goodness gracious, DeLay is a big spender!
"Michael Franc, vice president for government relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Mr. DeLay had built an "unparalleled" track record at pushing through conservative legislation. But he argued that Mr. DeLay's victories had often come at the expense of the conservative call for small government and tighter federal spending.
"He was a master, and developed, in many ways, the art of earmarking," Mr. Franc said, referring to the process that allows a lawmaker to add local projects to a big spending bill. "He saw the political value in that. He justified it in conservative terms, saying it was a form of local control and individual members knew best what was best for their district rather than the judgment of some nameless, faceless bureaucrat. And he drove it as far as he could, to the point where we now have about 14,000 earmarks, up from below 5,000 when Republicans took over in 1994."
Lord forgive us, DeLay might not be the righteous one!
"Mr. DeLay has also hinted that he intends to start a career as a speaker for conservative Christian audiences, saying that it was the warm response to a speech about the country's Christian heritage that had persuaded him to give up his seat. But Wes Yoder, president of the Ambassador Agency, a major booking agency for Christian speakers, suggested that such a move might be premature.
"When you have questions of ethics circle around someone as they have around Tom DeLay, I think the church needs to pause a moment before they start inviting someone to speak," Mr. Yoder said. "When someone's been in Washington in the corridors of power, sometimes their ethics need to be refreshed."
It such a sad moment when a relationship goes bad. Mooseketeers, please be gentle to our conservative brethren - they are going through a traumatic time.
Breaking up is hard to do. -- | 
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