Without DeLay?

Tom "The Hammer" DeLay is blaming a "fanatic" partisan District Attorney, Ronnie Earle, and also insinuating (perhaps more) that there is a Democratic effort to get back at him for redistricting Texas, Houston Chronicle.

Reax in the Chronicle:

"Congressman DeLay is a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people. I think the president's view is that we need to let the legal process work." — White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

"I believe that there are good, honest members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. It's time for them to make a clear break with Mr. DeLay's style and tactics." — Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

"Tom DeLay is a tremendous public servant. It is our sincere hope that justice will remain blind to politics." — Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.

Tom DeLay's remarks also in the Chronicle:

This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history.

Ronnie Earle was interviewed on 60 Minutes in March of this year. Excerpts:

"Being called vindictive and partisan by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog," says Earle. "It sort of comes with the territory. But that’s my job. That’s what I’m supposed to do."

AND

"The fact is he is worried. Republicans in the house are worried that this could be a huge flameout for Tom DeLay," says Norm Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and a recent critic of Tom DeLay.

Ornstein says the Republicans are worried because DeLay has already been admonished by the House Ethics Committee for questionable conduct.

"Tom DeLay was rebuked on three separate matters by the House Ethics Committee in the last Congress, an extraordinary slap at the leader," says Ornstein. "But they left open pending a fourth issue, which was the Ronnie Earle case in Texas. So what did the House Republicans do? They fire the chairman of the Ethics Committee. They removed two members."