The anti-Ronnie Earle campaign is kicking off on the Texas Republican party website, along with a petition to strip Earle's office of jurisdiction over DeLay and Co.'s campaign finance and other in proper use of public office shenanigans.

Breaking the law has consequences. And Tom DeLay is going to do everything in his power to avoid them -- with the help of the House GOP caucus, the Republican party of Texas, and of course the DeLay Machine, which David Brooks rightly compares to the machine Boss Tweed ran in New York during the Gilded Age.