In this AP story, we learn that Howard Dean has said that Democrats will absolutely use the actions of Republicans in the Terry Schiavo case in 2006 and 2008 campaigns:

"This is going to be an issue in 2006, and its going to be an issue in 2008 because we're going to have an ad with a picture of (House Majority Leader) Tom DeLay saying, 'Do you want this guy to decide whether you die or not? Or is that going to be up to your loved ones?'" Dean said in West Hollywood, Calif.

Dean, answering questions at an Access Now for Gay and Lesbian Equality event on Friday, went on to say: "The issue is: Are we going to live in a theocracy where the highest powers tell us what to do? Or are we going to be allowed to consult our own high powers when we make very difficult decisions?'"

So, of course, seeking "balance," the reporter turned to the RNC for comment. The RNC spokesperson, faced with the unpleasant truth that her party's overt politicization of the Schiavo case backfired completely, did what Republicans have done for the past eleven years: She denied that it ever happened, and said the other guys were the ones doing what her own party had done:

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said Dean, a physician who practiced internal medicine, was the one politicizing the issue.

"It's disturbing that Howard Dean would plot to use the life of Terri Schiavo for political gain," Schmitt said Saturday. "This demonstrates a troubling lack of sensitivity and one would hope that Democrat leaders in Congress would reject such a strategy.

"The American people expect their leaders to provide solutions and principled leadership rather than overt partisan politicking."

I've been reading a lot recently that progressives should give Tom DeLay enough rope to hang himself, and not worry about getting him out of Congress. The idea is that DeLay is so wounded that keeping him around for 2006 will help guarantee GOP defeats.

This might work if Republican leadership had any kind of sense of shame, or felt that when caught lying, that stopping the lies might be good for their careers and their movement. They don't. They haven't for many years. Whether it's Ann Coulter's McCarthyite rant accusing everyone else of McCarthyism (after she denies that it existed at all), or the RNC's ongoing campaign of flatly lying and accusing Democrats of doing what Republicans have been caught doing, they have no shame. You can't embarrass them.

On the other hand, DeLay has been an embarrassment to his party, to true conservatives, and to people who live a life of faith for a few decades now, and he's still in power. He knows he's never going to be Speaker of the House, and he doesn't care. He succeeds despite his corruption because he uses that dirty money to get Republicans elected. He masterminded the policy of telling all special interest groups (from the Sierra Club to the MPAA) that unless they hire only Republican lobbyists, they'll never get their legislation or issues heard. It was his leadership that tried to bribe a Michigan congressman with $100,000 in campaign money for his son - on the House floor - to get the Medicare bill passed (while, simultaneously, flagrantly illegally keeping the 15-minute vote open for over three hours).

He will lie, cheat, and break any law or rule to get what he wants, and this has been abundantly clear since his ascent to the leadership. No one in the GOP likes DeLay, but they keep him in his post because he's ruthlessly effective.

Why do you think the GOP is mounting a defense of such a sad character right now? I suspect that it's because DeLay has gone to them and said, "Look, asshole, you're going to support me because if I go down, you go down. You got elected with my money, and if the American Progress Action Fund gets a hold of all the books, you're going to be sitting right beside me in Club Fed."

Then, I suspect, he went back to his donors and said, "You're going to give me as much money as I ask for, and you're going to burn the receipts, because you paid for those bills you got in 1999. If I go down, you're going down."

Every day Tom DeLay is in Congress is a day he can use his massive experience at bullying and corruption to entrench himself. Saying that progressives should "leave him in place" until 2006 is like a boxer saying he shouldn't knock out his opponent in the 4th round because waiting until the 12th round will completely wreck the guy's career. That gives him eight rounds to hit you back, legally or not, and take the fight.

You take out your opponent when he's weak. Every day that Democrats "choose" to leave DeLay in Congress (not just in "leadership" - get his ass completely out of Washington) is a day he has to come back. Stop declaring victory before the damn fight is over and knock him out. Those are DeLay's rules, and as long as Democrats play by "more civilized" rules, they're going to lose.