The Godfather, Part IV

Josh Marshall, amongst others, is wondering whether the sudden surge in well-sourced newspaper revelations about the corrupt House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is a sign that the White House is washing its hands of him. It's certainly convenient that Dubya is out of town while his nominal favourite Texan gets the shaft.

And it's hard not to think of the scenes from The Godfather where Michael Corleone is at the baptismal Mass while his goons dispatch his enemies. And where is Dubya headed during all this dirty work: to Mass at the Vatican! The Church may be in decline by some measures. But its imagery reigns supreme.