The Feld-Blog

Well..... In a way. Tom Delay announced this morning that he will not be running for relection to the House of Representatives. Citing his motivation for such surprising and seeminly drastic measures, DeLay vowed, "I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign."

We were all thinking it and maybe you didn't even notice the sudden and equally surprising outbust of honesty, but DeLay completely skipped the requisite "I beleive this is what is best for my party" or even "I want to spend more time with my family." He short circuited the talking heads, all dying to attribute political motivations to every step politicians take.

In 2004, Republicans pulled off a virtual coup by unseating the Democratic Minority Leader, Tom Daschle. Presumably DeLay wants to avoid any kind of reciprocal attack, espessially since, in light of recent Republican corruption scandals, Democrats have newly energized resolve and new strategies of attack.

With a new majority leader already in power and DeLay having already been arrested allong with its obligatory media feeding frenzy, DeLay's descision not to return to Congress will likely fade peacefully into memory. His loss will likely change very little in Congress as the midterm elections roll around, and by announcing this descision early enough, he alleviates much of the political weight Republicans might otherwise have felt during the run up to November. All in all, however, I found it pleasantly surprising to hear truth drop from Tom DeLay's lips.