Tip'o'the iceberg

In the event you haven't read it yet (and with this detestable new "Times Select" thievery in place, chances are you haven't), the New York Times' Frank Rich launched this salvo Sunday, targeting not only The Hammer himself, but also the "vast Boschian canvas of depravity" our government as a whole has become.

Mr. DeLay's arrogant, irresponsible style of "governance" was just the most visible tip of a cancerous iceberg known as modern-day Washington. Mr. Rich writes,

It's a government that has spent more of the taxpayers' money than any since L.B.J.'s... even as it rewards its benefactors with tax breaks and corporate pork. It's a government so used to lying that Mr. DeLay could say with a straight face that the cost of Katrina relief could not be offset by budget cuts because there was no governmental fat left to cut. It's the government that fostered the wholesale loss of American lives in both Iraq and on the Gulf Coast by putting cronyism above patriotism.

With today's second DeLay indictment on charges of money laundering, there is some genuine hope that Tommy's race is finally run. But with the wake of political corruption he'll leave behind him, we all have to temper our joy and continue to ask ourselves...

What then?