Tough week for the hammer

From this week's Top 10 Conservative Idiots.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Shit Creek) received yet more bad news last week after a judge dismissed conspiracy charges against him, but upheld more serious money laundering charges. Oh dear. Not that you'd know about the alleged money laundering if you're a Fox News fan, of course - courtesy of BradBlog, here's how three different media organizations broke the news via their email alert system:

Yahoo News Breaking News: AUSTIN, Texas (AP) A Texas judge has refused to dismiss money laundering charges against Rep. Tom DeLay but threw out conspiracy charges.

CNN: Breaking News - Judge tosses conspiracy charges against ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, but allows money-laundering charges, according to AP.

Fox News: Texas judge drops conspiracy charges against Rep. Tom DeLay.

Oh my rolling eyes. Anyway, the fact that DeLay could still go down for money laundering hasn't made one jot of difference to George W. Bush's "honor and integrity" administration - Vice President Dick Cheney popped out of his undisclosed hidey-hole last week to raise funds for the Former Hammer in Houston. Classy.

Mind you, it's no wonder that DeLay is still in trouble - it turns out that his argument for dropping the money laundering charges was that "the statute did not include the use of checks,"according to the AFP. Yes, according to DeLay only people who launder cash can be convicted of a crime. Nice try.

And with polls now showing that 49% of registered voters DeLay's district would vote for an unnamed Democrat compared to 36% who would still vote for DeLay, it looks like Hammertime may be finally drawing to a close...