Delay's parting gift?

I'm really hoping that today's news about Tom Delay is a sign of the end for him. Sadly, before he goes, I think he'll have time to craft a little election-time parting gift for all of us, H.R. 10, the intelligence reform bill. The Republican version of this bill, though it's supposedly implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, actually only implements 11 of the 41 Commission recommendations, and adds 50 extraneous provisions, according to an analysis(pdf) from Rep. Jim Turner, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee.

It includes the language about sending people to countries which torture that I posted about some time ago, and lots of other doozies. The Senate has a different, better version of the bill, but after reading that Boston Globe article on the Congress, I'm very afraid. Lately it seems bills come out of conference committee looking a lot like what the House Republican leadership wanted, and not much like the version either house passed.

And I have a sneaky feeling that such a conference report version might come up for a vote during the last week of this month, in a "I dare you to vote against Intelligence Reform just before the election" kinda way.

Meanwhile, Delay scandal watchers are waiting to hear about more action from the prosecutors in Texas, who haven't ruled out actually indicting the "Hammer" himself, and the form of the Ethics Committe action this week suggests they were, perhaps, expecting that to come. Meanwhile, it's been revealed that Delay shaped legislation to punish a lobbying group for hiring a Democrat to replace a Republican. This is pretty much what earned him his first Ethics Committee rebuke some years ago. I'm guessing the folks on the Ethics Committee might find that more than a bit annoying, and take stronger action this time. Maybe, just maybe, the "Hammer" will be going down. It would be a godsend for our country.