Of all the members of the House Republican caucus, the guy who seems to have heard from the most TPM readers (or at least high on the list) is Greg Walden of Oregon.

Oregonians who called, but weren’t from Walden’s district, apparently got a bit of a tongue-lashing. But those who were his constituents got either a ‘we don’t know how he voted’ or some version of ‘the person who answers that question is away from their desk’, etc. Pretty much all of Walden’s constituents got the run-around and none of them got a straight answer. Lots of them got promises of calls back. But nobody seems to have gotten one.

There was apparently at least one rather hard-boiled staffer in one of the Walden offices, though. Because, in at least two cases, callers were told that in the staffer’s opinion Walden almost certainly gave DeLay the nod.

Just to show they’re still on the case, the House Ethics Committee has now rebuked DeLay’s accuser, outgoing Texas Rep. Chris Bell (D-TX). Bell’s charges led to DeLay’s earlier admonishment. But the Ethics Committee is now cracking down on him for using “innuendo and speculative assertions” in levelling his accusations.

Bell was redistricted out of his seat in last year’s DeLay sponsored redistricting power-grab.

Even the Manchester Union Leader gives the DeLay Rule the thumbs down!

What will we tell the children?

Early on Thursday, staffers for Colorado’s Bob Beauprez were telling constituents that the DeLay Rule vote was either a secret or that they didn’t know how the congressman had voted. By mid-afternoon, though, Beauprez’s office had come clean: He voted for the DeLay Rule.

Alaska’s sole member of the House, Don Young, voted for the DeLay Rule. Says Young: “Everybody says it’s to protect Tom DeLay. That may be so. But it also protects anyone else from an elected attorney general, thank God Alaska doesn’t have one, that can use their position as a bully pulpit and prosecute an elected official.”

Red state editorials give the thumbs-down to the DeLay Rule: Springfield News-Leader, Roanoke Times, Charleston Gazette, Indianapolis Star.

On Deck for Tomorrow: Hardly any New York state Republican members of congress (beside Rep. Peter King) are willing to say whether they voted for the DeLay Rule.

“Regardless of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted — and they will be counted — we will continue to challenge this administration. This is not a time for Democrats to retreat and accommodate extremists on critical principles — it is a time to stand firm.

I will fight for a national standard for federal elections that has both transparency and accountability in our voting system. It’s unacceptable in the United States that people still don’t have full confidence in the integrity of the voting process.

I ask you to join me in this cause.”

That’s a passage from a message Sen. John Kerry will be sending out to supporters later this afternoon.

We were getting unconfirmed reports about this all yesterday afternoon. But now Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico makes it official. She says she was in the Shays Handful.

[ed. note: As you might imagine we’ve got a mound of emails and updates in from readers giving us information on their reps., new news reports, new awkward phone calls with congressional staffers, and so forth. (And please keep the updates coming.) But it will take us a bit of time to get through all the new information. Stay tuned; we’ll be providing more updates through the day.]

It took our readers a while to get the scoop. But it seems that Pennsylvania’s Melissa Hart was there when the Hammer needed her. She voted for the DeLay Rule, according to her staff.