by TChris

CBS gave conservative analyst Norman Ornstein a chance to talk about Tom DeLay. Here's his take:

"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. ... "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 Ronnie Earle case in Texas. So what did the House Republicans do? They fire the chairman of the Ethics Committee. They removed two members." And two of the replacements had contributed to DeLay’s legal defense fund. Adds Ornstein: "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, they believe, with what’s been going on down in Texas."

CBS explores "what's been going on down in Texas" in the linked article.