So You Want to Nail "The Hammer"? Get in Line

There's a saying that goes "the worm has turned". It comes from an old proverb: "Tread on a worm and it will turn". The meaning was that "even the most humble creature tries to counteract rough treatment". Washington has truly been Tom Delay's worm so to speak. He isn't called "The Hammer" and "one of the most powerful Republicans to come down the pike in a long time " for nothing after all. He has humbled and squashed a great number in Washington in a way reminiscient of his pre-politics employment as an exterminator.

But now Washington is turning on a wounded Delay. Delay of course says it is a liberal media plot against him. He made a similar claim in 1994 when he was sued by a business partner to pay off old debts, though that time he "blamed a Democratic cabal" for his problems. He came out of that one alright and focused on revenge. (which of course he denies). The lawyer of the plaintiff in the case and several others were audited by the IRS the next year. Then the plaintiff's wife who had been active in the GOP was stripped of her party posts. But Delay wanted her out of the party and when a Republican elected official (a sheriff no less) wouldn't do his bidding, Delay tried to unseat him.

But I digress. The point is Delay's blaming of liberal media just doesn't wash. (in reality of course does it ever?). It was conservatives who have opened this barn door:

• March 22: Conservative columnist David Brooks strikes close to Delay with a scathing column about powerhouse lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his lobbying involvement with an Indian tribe. This is the same man who paid for an expensive junket for Delay and his staff.

• March 28: Conservative Wall Street Journal has an editorial that strikes a direct blow at Delay and his faulty principles that brought him to office and will take him out too. A good analysis is at Eschaton.

• March 30: Conservative Howard Fineman of Newsweek and MSNBC contributor pens The Disassembly of Tom Delay in which he looks not only at Democratic" K Streeters" who'd love to see Delay go down, but the Republicans waiting in the wings to take his job or at least steer clear of the coming fall out.

And now that the horse is out of the barn everyone is jumping on for the ride.
Today we have the NYT article disclosing "the wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees.

And also today the Washington Post did a story on an expense-paid trip by DeLay and four of his staff members (which) cost $57,238. Further from WaPo:

"DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit."

Delay stories were repeated regularly today on CNN and MSNBC also.

Two questions:
1) Who let those early conservatives columnist out of the barn anyway?
It sure looks as though someone (a Republican) gave the green light to columnists that otherwise are usually loathe to criticize conservatives.
2) Can the Ex-exterminator turn around
a worm that has turned?