For one conservative it's deja vu all over again

Found this over at Joe Gandelman's place.
This is how one conservative feels about Tom DeLay. He says some things about Clinton I don't like to hear but have a hard time disputing. I suggest you go over to ThoughtsOnline and check it out but I'll give you a few snips.

But what bothered me the most about Clinton was the "because I could" attitude he brought to the White House. He screwed around with Lewinsky because he could. He held air traffic at LAX to get his haircut because he could. He rented out the Lincoln Bedroom to contributors because he could.

Even setting aside the question of whether what he did was illegal, it bothered me because I expect our leaders to adhere to a pretty high standard.... to not to use their office as a means of enriching themselves and otherwise helping themselves to the cookie jar. Clinton failed to meet that standard... and, as such, I deemed him worthless.
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Well, as Yogi said, it's deja vu all over again, but this time with Tom DeLay, the House Majority Leader. No, he's not the President, but he is someone in a leadership position who is failing miserably at meeting the standards one expects our elected leaders to meet. Whether it is steering dollars to family members or taking junkets paid for by those seeking government favors, DeLay has revealed himself to be nothing more than a hack using his office in order to enrich himself.

As with Clinton, it doesn't - and shouldn't - matter if what DeLay did was illegal. It was wrong. You're not supposed to take trips from people looking for favors (as I've posted earlier, I've fired people for doing just that). You're not supposed to put your family on the payroll. You're supposed to use the power of your office to make America's life easier, not your own.

The question is whether Republicans will turn a blind eye to his misdeeds, whether they will do for DeLay what the Democrats did for Clinton. Will they stand by him because they can't stand to see the Democrats 'win'? Or will they move him aside because it is the right thing to do?
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For me, it's simple. DeLay must step aside. If he doesn't, then the Bush Administration and Hastert have to push him aside. If they don't, then they deserve to lose every election for years to come. For they will have shown themselves to be no different than the Democrats...

Here is a conservative that remembers that the Gingrich revolution was allegedly all about, the Democrats doing all the things DeLay has done and in fact DeLay has proved to be significantly better at it. I always thought the ethics part of the Gingrich revolution was so much political hot air and the quite frankly the current Democratic uproar over DeLay probably is too, but DeLay's behavior certainly makes a mockery of what the Republicans said the "revolution" was all about. DeLay's current problems are not a result of his ethical lapses they are the result of his hubris. It's the hubris that will get you in the end, not the lack of ethics. The capitol would be a pretty empty place if you had to be ethical to work there.