A brand new DeLay

Since initial pick David Dreier was too G-A-Y for the G-O-P (not to mention the fact that his coronation as Majority Leader would entail an ethics committee rearrangement), Roy Blunt of Missouri was tapped to replace DeLay.

Which is more or less what was expected of a shoeshine boy like Dennis Hastert.

But Blunt is no John Roberts. His paper trail is longer than Ann Coulter's claws and you have two perfectly valid avenues by which to explore it. The more literary: Stirling Newberry's takedown of Blunt whom he calls the "hill-billy huckster" or the systematic, from CREW's Beyond DeLay website.

From Newberry:

"The other thing about Roy Blunt that gets whispered out there is how he rose to power. You see, it isn't normal for a man to jump from clerk to congress, and many out there in Southwest Missouri believe that Roy Blunt fixes elections. They talk about how it is strange that in many close races, the 'right' person always wins. This isn't just in the general, but in the primary."

"In 2003, Rep. Blunt divorced his wife of 31 years to marry Philip Morris (now Altria) lobbyist Abigail Perlman. Before it was known publicly that Rep. Blunt and Ms. Perlman were dating – and only hours after Rep. Blunt assumed the role of Majority Whip – he tried to secretly insert a provision into Homeland Security legislation that would have benefitted Philip Morris, at the expense of competitors."