Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will resign from Congress this summer according to reports in Time Magazine's website and the New York Times. At turns defiant and nostalgic, DeLay told Time that although he thought he could win in November, he didn't want to run in a race that would turn out to be a personal referendum:

"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. "I'm very much at peace with it." He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. "This had become a referendum on me," he said. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district." ...

The surprise decision was based on the sort of ruthless calculation that had once given him unchallenged dominance of House Republicans and their wealthy friends in Washington's lobbying community: he realized he might lose in this November's election. 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.

"I'm a realist. I've been around awhile. I can evaluate political situations," DeLay told TIME at his kitchen table in Sugar Land, a former sugar plantation in suburban Houston. Bluebonnets are blooming along the highways. "I feel that I could have won the race. I just felt like I didn't want to risk the seat and that I can do more on the outside of the House than I can on the inside right now. I want to continue to fight for the conservative cause. I want to continue to work for a Republican majority."

DeLay coldly calculated that in a strong Republican district, a GOP candidate unencumbered by the kind of baggage he carries could win easily, while his candidacy would likely require a lot of help from the national organization. In this election, that money and energy should go elsewhere to help the Republicans hang onto their majority in the lower chamber. Losing control in the House makes it more likely that the Democrats will pursue impeachment of George Bush, and DeLay may have taken one for the team here.

I'm sorry to see him go under these circumstances. The Hammer has never made it onto my list of favorites in DC, but up until recently he performed reliably in keeping the caucus focused on the agenda. This prosecution pursued by Ronnie Earle is the worst kind of political hackery, and to the extent that this weighed on his campaign, DeLay's withdrawal and resignation diminishes the political process.

However, no one can deny that DeLay carries baggage, and at least a significant portion is of his own making. Jack Abramoff may have disavowed any connections between himself and DeLay, but the former leader made it his business to engage K Street and turn it red. This is nothing different than what Democrats did for forty years prior to 1994, but the point was that the GOP promised us something different in the Contract With America. The Republicans, led by Gingrich with DeLay as one of his chief lieutenants, campaigned on a platform of fiscal responsibility in 1994. Last year, with the federal budget having grown a whopping 89% since 1994, DeLay managed to say with a straight face that Congress had cut all of the fat out of the budget.

Like Glenn Reynolds says, DeLay lost me there, and while I hoped he would bring his prodigious talents back onto the task of reducing the federal budget and government itself, it did not look promising. DeLay settled into the all-too-familiar role of brokering power by using our money as a tool, proving the allure of big government does not limit itself to one party.

The Republicans can now wish DeLay well and start to rethink their purpose and identity in national politics. They should start with 1994.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has an excellent roundup on all of the DeLay coverage. Keep checking in with her. Power Line says this is triumph of the politics of personal destruction.

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» DeLay Withdrawing From CD22 Race! from Rhymes With Right
BREAKING! If the currently breaking report form Chris Matthews is correct, my congressman, former house Majority leader Tom Delay, is withdrawing from the race for CD22 based upon falling poll numbers and recent guilty pleas by former staffers. It is... [Read More]

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» First Cup 04.04.06 from bRight & Early
The coffee is prepared in such a way that it makes those who drink it witty: at least there is not a single soul who, on quitting the house, does not believe himself four times wittier that when he entered it. ~ Charles de Secondat Montesquieu As yo... [Read More]

Tracked on April 4, 2006 5:05 AM

» The DeLay Factor from All Things Beautiful
It certainly marks the end of an era for a well respected and loyal Republican spanning some twenty one odd years, and marks the fall of "yet another victim of the Democrats' politics of personal destruction--the only politics they know." [Read More]

Tracked on April 4, 2006 11:22 AM

» The DeLay Factor from All Things Beautiful
It certainly marks the end of an era for a well respected and loyal Republican spanning some twenty one odd years, and marks the fall of "yet another victim of the Democrats' politics of personal destruction--the only politics they know." [Read More]

Tracked on April 4, 2006 11:37 AM