so why bother nominating anyone but a fire-breathing conservative.

Right now, we need more boundaries.

They are very much afraid that if DeLay comes back in the leadership and then this stuff explodes all around them, the shrapnel is going to hit all of them. Even those who admire his...

This is a place where oversight matters,

You can help, but the credibility is not going to come from HHS. Some of it could come from [Homeland Security] and FEMA, but a lot of it has to come from the president himself.

I think he’s going to fall back on what he didn’t want to do, what he swore he wouldn’t do, but almost all second-term presidents do, which is being in a kind of caretaker status.

After 40 years, the verdict is still out.

It turns out to be more important than we thought, … We’re at a stage now in the modern media where everything is so fragmented that the only things that bring us together in the...

The spectacle of a mayor and a governor throwing mud at each other while the city and the area were floundering was not a pretty one. That’s another area where it’s going to take some...

They want a group of people on the House Ethics Committee who are going to go to extraordinary lengths to keep Tom DeLay from going down or being embarrassed yet again, which embarrasses them all,...

I don’t expect a lot that are forced by the president.

You’ve got a lot of people who privately view DeLay as so radioactive. It’s not just the Texas stuff, in some ways the Texas stuff is the least of it.

We’re not talking about Mother Teresa here who gets caught for turning right on a red light in a state that doesnt allow such a thing, … The history of Tom DeLay in Congress is...

What makes this different is it’s not just a few bad apples. It’s that people at the top decided to build in a kind of systemic corrupt process. That is different from what we had...

This is going to be one of the real critical Senate races. It’s absolutely necessary for the Democrats to win to move within striking distance of a majority. If Republicans can bag the seat, it...

Off-term elections are more idiosyncratic, but they’re affected by the larger political environment. You do have some demoralization among Republicans and that can mean a lower turnout. … It’s been an awful time for Republicans.

It’s not in the backs of their minds about Jim Wright, it’s in the front of their minds, … They see the parallel here and they want to be sure this doesn’t happen.

We now have a situation where billions of dollars of federal funds are allocated not on the basis of where it is most needed and can be spent most effectively, but according to who’s sloshing...

[The administration, he said, has tried to rebound from the widespread criticism of initial recovery efforts with a stepped-up federal response and regular visits to the Gulf region.] The president has been all over the...

Any spate of news stories from now on about corruption in contracts, etc., will hurt – people will resist a major taxpayers’ commitment if they think much of it will be wasted or lining the...

The fact is he is worried. Republicans in the house are worried that this could be a huge flameout for Tom DeLay.

It’s not what you really want at a time when the public is not very happy with you.

This week, I think, makes our case … that Congress is not the deliberative body it is supposed to be.

It strikes an emotional chord.

He’s putting a marker down that an awful lot of his colleagues have been unwilling to do.

giving aid and comfort to their adversaries.

Tom DeLay was rebuked on three separate matters by the House Ethics Committee in the last Congress, an extraordinary slap at the leader, … But they left open pending a fourth issue, which was the...

Before election night or the next morning, I would have said the chances for a rematch are zero, that the loser would be quickly forgotten. But we’re in a different world now.

I’m happy to place the lion’s share of the blame for this on FEMA and the feds. But I think a substantial dollop of the blame goes to the state and local level, and he...

It’s been an awful time for Republicans.