Delay bows out
As reported at National Review Online, Congressman Tom Delay has decided to bow out permanently as House Majority Leader. My feelings are mixed: morally, it was the right thing for him to do, politically, it's always bad to show weakness when your enemies behave like wolves. However, because of the moral dimension, he obviously did the right thing.
Tactically speaking, the best option would be for the GOP to elect a majority leader who's even more of a hammer than "The Hammer." The beauty of how the President handled the Harriet Myers debacle is that after bowing to pressure and criticism, Bush nominated someone even less congenial to the hardline left than Myers would have been. Speaker Hastert and the GOP caucus in the House could learn something.