Cross-posted from The Stakeholder, the DCCC's blog.
Since DeLay and his allies declared their litmus test, and even before, we've been discussing how the White House would handle the DeLay situation. We've noted that DeLay's strategy was to hijack the religious right base and use it as a deterent to any Republicans, including Rove, who might want to knock him off. The strategy seemed to be working.
So if you're Rove, what do you do?
First, you leak and you leak. That we've seen. But what if that's not getting the job done, and DeLay remains as defiant as ever? While Rove walked away from the Schiavo case and the right wing base that was invested in it, DeLay stuck around, and thus the White House risks losing its base if it attacks him.
You've got to find a wingnut every bit as nuts as DeLay...
The No. 3 Republican in the Senate said Sunday that embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay needs to answer questions about his ethics and "let the people then judge for themselves."
[...]
"I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," said Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.
"But from everything I've heard, again, from the comments and responding to those, is everything he's done was according to the law," Santorum told ABC's "This Week."
"Now you may not like some of the things he's done," Santorum said. "That's for the people of his district to decide, whether they want to approve that kind of behavior or not."
So how will DeLay react? How will people like the ACU and others react, having aligned themselves so whole-heartedly? What will become of Chris Shays?
The answers may come sooner rather than later, it appears.