Good News Tonight

Mind you, the source for this is Time magazine. Recall that Robert Heinlein once said it was notorious in his experience for having the most inaccurate reporting of anyone on several notable events he had happened to witness himself. (Did Asimov's use of its archives in one of his tales presage the later hawk-dove split in SF over Vietnam?) Anyway, here's the scoop:

Rep. Tom DeLay, whose iron hold on the House Republicans melted as a lobbying corruption scandal engulfed the Capitol, told TIME that he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months. Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress," DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday.

Now I'm delighted that he will be gone, but notice that later after Time mentions

"DeLay got a scare in a Republican primary last month, and a recent poll taken by his campaign gave him a roughly 50-50 shot of winning, in an election season when Republicans need every seat they can hang onto to avoid a Democratic takeover of the House"

Delay says

"I just felt like I didn't want to risk the seat...."

and adds

"I want to continue to work for a Republican majority."

He's making a sacrifice play to keep the seat in GOP hands. Now does that mean the party gets to replace him, or are we in even worse shape -- would this mean *shudder* that Stockman could go back to the House? Damn, we knocked him off once, and with Lampson, too, but that was a more Democratic district. We can be glad Tommy's biting the dust, but maybe we shouldn't congratulate ourselves too hard just yet. I can only quote Kaufman's translation of a note of Nietzsche's ("On the mythology of the historical"):

--as if a blind hunter fired hundreds of times in vain and finally, by sheer accident, hit a bird. A result at last, he says to himself, and goes on firing.