Demagogue

You just know that the World's Biggest Asshole is not going to take this well.

A coalition of conservative and moderate Republicans launched a formal bid yesterday to replace Representative Tom DeLay of Texas as House majority leader, as lawmakers scramble to cope with the fallout of a widening ethics scandal on Capitol Hill.

The group's leaders said more than 15 House Republicans signed the petition within hours of its circulation yesterday afternoon, and said they hoped to gather as many as three dozen signatures by day's end. Organizers said they would continue to gather signatures over the weekend, aiming for the 50 they need under House Republican rules to force a closed-door discussion and call for leadership elections.

The reaction from House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's office was notable: Spokesman Ron Bonjean said the power-sharing arrangement Hastert crafted to fill Delay's shoes wasn't meant to last. ''This is consistent with the speaker's announcement that this would only be a temporary structure and House Republicans would revisit this matter at the beginning of this year," he said.

That suggests that a leadership change is all but certain. Some Republican aides speculated that elections could be arranged as early as Monday.

It appears that the number of congresscritters with troublesome ties to Abramoff is growing-- I've seen numbers as high as 60-- which means that WBA's head on a platter is just the beginning.