So much love to give

Judging by today's edition of The Note, they still don't get it. They spend their opening remarks highlighting a WSJ story that reportedly ( I don't have a WSJ subscription and don't plan to ever get one since some tiny percentage of my money would end up in John Fund's pocket) details the number and frequency of corporate sponsored travel for Congressman and their families and close aides. They seem to want to treat DeLay's transgressions as if it were just one of many but that misses the point.

First of all, there is only 1 Majority Leader. Therefore, DeLay is in a unique position to do the bidding of his corporate paymasters. Secondly, there is almost no evidence that DeLay has ever done anything but his best to fulfill the wishes of his corporate benefactors. Lastly, the amounts of money involved ($100,000 here, $5,000 a month to his wife over there) are truly eye-popping and if this leads to a full airing of all such corporate sponsored travel for members of Congress, even better. However, DeLay put blood in the water long ago by screwing with district lines in Texas and only made it worse with his recent comments about Terri Schiavo and the judiciary. With several close aides in Texas already under indictment, there is little to hold back Democrats looking for a convenient symbol of GOP overreach heading into the midterm elections.

ABC's The Note spent the first months after the November election joking about the Democrats' lack of focus and confusion over who should lead the party. It's unfortunate that they can't at least give props to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi for giving the Republicans and President Bush a pretty thorough drubbing so far - something they can hardly contend they expected.