Tom DeLay or a ham sandwich. Who would you vote for...

So the unscrupulous House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay is about to be indicted for campaign finance violations in Texas. This is the same DeLay who earlier this year orchestrated the completely partisan and unjustified redistricting effort in Texas that gained 5 seats in the House for the GOP and caused Texas Democrats to flee the state in protest. He's a terrible man who holds an awful lot of cards in Congress right now. He's an extremist who happens to be the leader of their party.

The House of Reps, though have a rule that any member o its leadership who is indicted must immediately step down. While DeLay has not been indicted just yet, it is coming down the line very soon. So what do the power-hungry fanatics that constitute the Republican leadership decide to do in the meantime? Why, change the rules of course!

Last week, DeLay's allies made a new rule enabling GOP steering committee to first review any indictment to decide whether it is politically motivated and has merit. Hmmm. I wonder if when asked if they think their boss who controls all the strings should be removed from his position of power, they will say no. It's awfully convenient to have the rules suddenly changed in your favor just moments before your post is in jeopardy. But as Ronnie Earle, the district attorney of Texas who is charging DeLay, wrote in today's New York Times, "there is no limit to what you can do if you have the power to change the rules."

In defense of this indefensible power play (when has that ever stopped Republicans?), Congress members are calling this change in the rules an effort to "raise the standard" and "protect the institution" from a ham sandwich!

"You have to look at protecting the institution," Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers told local paper the Anniston Star late last week. "I'm an attorney, and any attorney knows you can get an indictment with a ham sandwich. We’re trying to raise the standard, to make it so that you don't allow what is purely a political indictment to make someone step aside from a leadership role."

Idiots! The line isn't that you get an indictment by using a ham sandwich. It's that you "could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. The ham sandwich is no friend to a prosecutor. They are mortal enemies. All the prosecution has ever wanted to do is to send that dastardly sandwich to the big house. Prosecutors are notorious for their acid reflux disease.

I can't tell which is worse - devious political shenanigans that favor the corrupt, or the incorrect use of an adage.