Republican effrontery

Texas Republicans are busy providing further proof for my assertion that the modern Republican Party is chockablock full of the slimiest, most dishonest, feckless bunch of imbeciles, liars and criminals to participate in politics since the days of Tammany Hall. Seeing as the national Republican leadership has done everything it could to protect Tom Delay short of declaring money laundering legal, I suppose it was just a matter of time before Texas state Republicans got in on the game.

My favorite quote from the woman sponsoring the bill to give the State Ethics Commission a veto over local prosecutors' decisions regarding ethics complaints:

"Why would they want to pursue something when there is no wrongdoing?"

Nice. Let's permit partisan political appointees determine whether crimes have been committed, instead of juries. If that's not a recipe for purity and wholesomeness in Texas politics, I don't know what is.