Just how bad would have the Hammer lost in November?

Well, it appears one of the reasons DeLay decided to back out of the District 22 race was because:

Delay's internal polling had Lampson with a 15% lead and he did not want to risk being defeated.

This seems high but a it came from a source that is usually pretty reliable. Regardless, his approval rating among D-22 Republicans was steadily dropping and wonder what the actual variance would have been. To bad.

Charlie Howard: DeLay tag team partner enters District 22 race

Texas House Representative Charlie Howard, a supporter of Tom DeLay, a friend of polluters and failed job creation plans will throw his cowboy hat in the District 22 Senate race. Can you say Tom DeLay lite?

Mayor Wallace credits several local politicians with helping to line up the funding, including DeLay and state Representative Charlie Howard, a Sugar Land Republican. "Tom and I are basically a tag team," Howard explains. "He tries to get money for the state. I try to get it to Fort Bend County."

DeLay was actively involved with the energy center plans. "He's active in anything that goes on in our county," Howard says.

I consider the tag team dead and Howard not much of a threat. Also did I mention Howard was also Texas Monthly's Worst Legislator 1999 and 1997. Being the worst and tied to the hip of Tom DeLay...Now that progress!

DeLay not done with Ronnie

On an interview this morning on Fox News Radio’s Tony Snow Show, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) revealed a plan to have the Texas legislature oust district attorney Ronnie Earle, the prosecutor who charged DeLay with money laundering:

TP has the story.

We'll see how much political capital he has by then.

Money for nothing

If you are a wingnut and donated money to DeLay's campaign, you can rest assured it will go to a good cause. His Legal Fees!

Talk Left has the scoop.

Wallace website goes blank

The David Wallace for Mayor website goes blank and now "under construction". Again thanks to BOR.

One pin at a time

Josh Marshall thinks worst not over yet

I haven't seen anything but the headlines yet. But I think the story here is clear. Prosecutors knocking down one pin at a time. Paul Kiel and I were talking about this before I left the office early this evening: Rudy, to Buckham, to DeLay. They're each going to down. And the road map was clear -- though largely implicit -- in the Rudy plea documents.

DeLay's lawyers must have sat him down over the last 72 hours and explained to him that he needs to focus on not spending most of the rest of his life in prison.

More soon.

Update: Lampson Release:

"From day one I have been running because this district needs a Congressman who will make headlines for the right reasons and work for the mainstream values I share with the people of this district... No matter who I face in the general election, I am going to fight hard and I am going to win in November."

Good as time as any to donate $$ to his campaign.

Update: MyDD wants us all not to forget this person:

Chris Bell, who is running for Governor of Texas, deserves some credit for this. He filed an ethics complaint against Delay in 2004, and received a great deal of ire from fellow members. The complaint led to Delay's admonishment, which helped in his downfall. Individual members can make a difference.

Update: Per Evan, Tom Campbell and David Wallace both say that they will be running in the special election. He also has a list of possible repacements.

Update: And to think, I was just in his Capital Hill office last Thursday lobbying to restore healthcare funding.

Tom DeLay out!

Rep. Tom DeLay, whose iron hold on the House Republicans melted as a lobbying corruption scandal engulfed the Capitol, told TIME that he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months. Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress," DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. "I'm very much at peace with it." He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. "This had become a referendum on me," he said. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district."

read on...

BOR does what I don't have time for here. Quorum Report is throwing Sugar Land Mayor, David Wallace, as a prospective favorite. Where is Tom Campbell in all this?

Be frightened...be very frightened

A plan to wage war against you.

IMAGINE a world where wars are fought over the internet; where TV broadcasts and newspaper reports are designed by the military to confuse the population; and where a foreign armed power can shut down your computer, phone, radio or TV at will.

In 2006, we are just about to enter such a world. This is the age of information warfare, and details of how this new military doctrine will affect everyone on the planet are contained in a report, entitled The Information Operations Roadmap, commissioned and approved by US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and seen by the Sunday Herald.

On DeLay's Trail—The E-Mail Factor

From Newsweek:

Federal prosecutors investigating the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal have obtained a road map to the workings of the Republican-controlled House: 1,000 internal e-mails from the office of Rep. Tom DeLay during his time as majority leader. The e-mails were turned over quietly by DeLay late last year as part of an unpublicized effort by the embattled Texas congressman to show he would cooperate with prosecutors. "We didn't hold anything back," says Richard Cullen, DeLay's lawyer, who tells NEWSWEEK the e-mails date to at least 1998 and involve all aspects of the probe. He says the e-mails weren't subpoenaed but were offered as a "Christmas present." Still, it's unclear if thee-mails will clear or help implicate DeLay.

Hide the Burritos

If you are in South Texas, be on the look-out for these guys.