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Every new day seems to bring with it a new ethics problem for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. So far, House GOP members are still lined up behind him, but... today the WaPo details what appears to be the first cracks in his wall of support. Given everything this man has done, I cannot see how any principled Republican can continue to support him.

For those of you living in a cave these past few months, here, via Daily Kos, is a short summary of just some of DeLay's most controversial actions:

Delay tried to shield himself from the deluge by making the House ethics committee his puppet, but the flood came anyway: The National Journal reported that DeLay may have violated House ethics rules when a Swift-Boat/USA Next lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, shelled out $13,000 for DeLay's stay at the London Four Seasons hotel Raw Story revealed that DeLay has taken a huge London trip funded by an anti-Social Security lobbyist org connected to the SVFT Two Sundays ago, CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a 12-minute segment reminding a national audience that a Democratic district attorney ("Being called vindictive and partisan by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog") in Austin is continuing to suggest he might indict DeLay as part of an investigation of the involvement of money from DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC) (scandal overview here) On Wednesday, a front-page story in the New York Times said documents entered as evidence in a civil trial in Austin "suggest that Mr. DeLay was more actively involved than previously known in gathering corporate donations for" the committee On Thursday, DeLay admitted to the Houston Chronicle that he actively raised funds for TRMPAC On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that DeLay (and some other Rs and Ds) accepted trips from the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, which had registered as a foreign agent, in violation of House rules On Saturday, the Post reported on another London trip by DeLay, this time funded by gambling interests and Indian casinos (with the help of Abramoff) The Post reported today that Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Tex.), one of the ethics committee's new members, was co-host of a 2002 fundraising breakfast to benefit TRMPAC The New York Times reported today that DeLay's been pullling in massive donations to his legal defense fund, with tens of thousands of dollars coming from corporations indicted in the Texas DeLay investigation

If I were a House GOP member I'd try to get this guy out sooner rather than later. The closer his resignation comes to the 2006 elections, the better this will play for the Dems.

UPDATE: I've moved this back atop the list of posts to highlight a great post by Chris Bowers over at MyDD - use DeLay's ethics violations as the backbone for a nationwide 2006 Congressional election campaign. American history is littered with examples of a minority party riding to power on an anti-corruption campaign, the most recent being Gingrich and his "revolutionaries" of the early 1990's. Corruption is bad. Complicity in corruption is worse. Given everything the GOP has done to gut the House ethics process in an effort to protect DeLay, this issue could be a legitimate gold mine for the Democratic Party. Let the planning begin!

UPDATE II: Want more details on DeLay? Here ya go!

UPDATE III: Seems there's one more to add to the list, this one involving a missing $2.5 million that may have been illegally funneled to... well... read the Newsweek article for yourself.

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