Interesting. Already seeing lots of Republicans putting out the talking point that DeLay’s departure ends or sharply diminishes 
the salience of the corruption issue in this year’s midterm — and plenty in the media are picking it up and running with it.
Now how exactly, the resignation and probable indictment of the architect of the DC GOP political machine helps the GOP is an open question. But as we’ve been saying, they can’t shed him so quickly. Over at TPMmuckraker.com, we’re going to be posting links to which members of the House GOP caucus voted for the DeLay Rule. We’re also going to be posting constituent letters various members of Congress wrote supporting the DeLay Rule and seeing whether they still stick by what they said.
Just to refresh everyone’s memory. What was the DeLay Rule?
Sensing he was soon to be indicted by a District Attorney in Texas, DeLay got the House Republican Caucus to change its bylaws to allow him to stay in office even after he’d been indicted. Most of them happily complied. We’ll get you that list.
Relatedly, there’s the purge of the Ethics Committee and the change in the ethics rules (both to protect DeLay). Where does your Republican member of Congress stand on those questions now?
Don’t know? Why not give them a call?
Did they support the purge of the ethics committee in January 2005?
Did they vote for the DeLay Rule in November 2004? Need more details on the whats and whys of the DeLay Rule? Here’s an article from The Hill’s Jonathan Kaplan published the morning before the vote. He gives the basic run-down. Here’s the list of TPM posts on the topic. So you can see what happened after that.
We’ve got a list of what they told their constituents then. What are they saying now?
Join in. You can play from home.
