Happy Dance

Those are my feet, poised to do the "Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Way, Out" happy dance for Tom DeLay. My punditry is as reliable as, well, the average blogger's but I'll tell you this: The Hammer never gives up without a fight and he was scared of being beat by a Democrat. More to the point, he's saying that the Abramoff scandal has nothing to do with him and that those aides of his that just pleaded guilty to evil-doing were the exception, not the rule. But aside from believing none of it, I don't think he'd cede an election this early in the game unless he knew that there are more indictments headed his way.

There are those in the GOP who are claiming to be breathing a sigh of relief. They seem to think that with DeLay out of Congress his stench will go with him. But as Lynard Skynard famously observed, "Ooh, that smell". DeLay is a symbol of the "culture of corruption" and there's plenty of blame to go around. I don't think DeLay's resignation is going to do anything to ease the burden the GOP is toting around.

I was at Maria's this morning, sticking labels on "thank you" cards, and met a guy who recently moved here from Texas. He is so happy to be living in a blue state. Giddy, even. Nice guy. Anyway, we got talking, as volunteers tend to do, about '08 and who we think should run. Everyone talks about Hillary as the front-runner, even before she's declared anything. But J and I were in agreement that she isn't really the best we can do. I like her fine. I'd vote for her. But I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't know how anyone can look at the electoral map from '04 and think she has a snowball's chance in Hades. If she did run it would be an ugly and divisive race. So ugly as to make the swift boating of Kerry look like a prom coronation. I don't think a lot of Dems understand the deep-seated hatred that the GOP has for the Clintons.

J was telling me about the governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer, who is apparently getting a lot of press lately. I don't know much about him but found this blog post interesting. I'm starting to think that the best chance the Dems have is a new face, someone not connected to the previously failed vision of the DNC, someone plain spoken and genuine who can come out of nowhere on a breath of fresh air. I don't know if this guy is the ticket but it's a notion worthy of consideration.