All You Need to Know about Tom DeLay

Joe Conason writes in the NY Observer: The two individuals most responsible for the end of his political career are Senator John McCain, whose committee hearings on Indian gaming drew attention to the Abramoff scandal; and Emily Miller, the press flack who squealed on Mr. Scanlon to the Justice Department after he jilted her for a younger woman. Both happen to be conservative Republicans.

In an interview with Time magazine on the eve of his resignation, Mr. DeLay boasts about the virtual monopoly of jobs and contributions that his party enjoys on K Street, where lobbyists routinely purchased “access” to the Capitol by following his dictates. “Nothing illegal about that at all,” he says, claiming to have achieved “total domination” of the lobbying industry “legally and ethically.” He has forgotten that the House Ethics Committee, a toothless operation run by his fellow Republicans, admonished him on three separate occasions for the smelly appearance of his dealings with lobbyists.

With his associates singing, we may soon learn much more. The confession filed by Mr. Rudy in conjunction with his guilty plea includes mention of a certain “Representative #2” who was involved in his misdeeds and is known to be Mr. DeLay. (“Representative #1” is Robert Ney of Ohio, another probable target of the corruption probe.) The Rudy confession ominously notes that its narrative “does not include all of the facts known to me concerning criminal activity in which I or others engaged.”