Talking Points Memo and the Daily DeLay are trying to count up which Republican Congresspersons will own up to voting for the 'DeLay Rule' that would let indicted members retain their leadership roles….a category that appears likely to include Rep. DeLay any day now.
Since people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, I don't actually have a terrible problem with the substance of this rule — just the hypocrisy of it, since it was put into place only a few years ago in a noisy fashion as a political point-scorer aimed at Democrats.
So I've done my part, writing to my Representative, one of the most far-right members of the House with a very safe carefully-drawn seat. I'm sure she voted for it, but will she admit it?
If you are a reader in the US, and you are represented by a Republican member of the House, you can email your representative and ask how he/she voted on the DeLay Rule. If you get an answer, or even a non-answer, let TPM know.
It would be amusing if a majority of the members of the Republican caucus claimed to have voted against, wouldn't it?
More likely, though, they'll own up. But that's fine: it's one more step to painting the GOP as the party of sleaze. Hey, it worked for the UK's Labour Party, running against Tories in 1997, in circumstances not unlike today's Dems running against the GOP.
So I live in CA-2, another safe red seat. The staff of my rep will not give me the info…they claim they don’t know. Since it was a closed-door session and done by a voice vote, if one was done at all…what is the next step in finding out if our elected official supported DeLay?