Sure, it's the easy way out...

...but it's so tempting, so I'll indulge myself again. I have to give Tom DeLay credit for one thing. Whenever together a Scandal Scorecard update starts to seem like hard work, all I have to do is turn my attention to the scoundrel from Sugarland and my work's practically done. This week, the Hammer offers up a two-fer for the



Although news like this...

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's footing among his constituents has slipped drastically during the past year and a majority of his district disapproves of how he handled the Terri Schiavo case, according to a Houston Chronicle poll.

...makes it seem that DeLay should be spending more of his off-hours back home shoring up his dwindling support, it appears that he can't find anyone to pick up the tab. So off he goes to more exotic climes...

A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.

DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.

That's right. More illegal travel for the majority leader. And you'd think he could afford his own tickets. After all...

The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas.

Eric Boehlert thinks these may be fatal blows, offering this quip in Salon's War Room...

If Tom DeLay can survive this, they'll have to change his nickname from "the Hammer" to "Houdini."

...and Nancy is outraged.

"When politicians, the Republican majority, decides it is above the law, the American people are now seeing that they have a price to pay - at the pump, for their pharmaceuticals, and in the absence of initiatives that would help grow our economy, and to feed our children, provide for the health of our people, protect our environment, and, indeed, even provide for the common defense."

Me? I say it's a scandal.