"The smell of napalm in the morning" Dept.

The GOP ignominiously retreats on the changes it made to the ethics rules to protect its sleaziest members, above all, Tom DeLay.

With that said, I still have to agree with Kevin Drum and Jonathan Alter that the smartest thing the Democrats can do is keep DeLay twisting in the wind for as long as possible: the Democrats should do everything they can to make the midterms a referendum on the Bug Man's America. Let's investigate this guy to death.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to blog yesterday, but I remember thinking how odd it was that the press was buying the President's line that his plane ride with the Bug Man was meant as a show of support for his embattled Majority Leader. For me, though, I couldn't help but wonder if the real conversation that Bush planned on reminding DeLay about Pentageli's explanation to Tom Hagen in The Godfather, Part II, about how goodfellas sometimes have to go home and take a hot bath....

And indeed, today, less than twelve hours after President's "show of support" for the Bug Man, the GOP retreats on the ethics issue, which likely spells a political death sentence for DeLay....