Thanksgiving Day Angst

Tom Friedman appears to have decided Thanksgiving Day is the day he can be thankful for the American right to blow your top and breath fire in your righteous anger. I don't agree with everything he says, but he captures my own disgust with the recent GOP move to protect Tom DeLay in one part of his screed.

If I can't be Tom DeLay, then I want to be one of the gutless Republican House members who voted to twist the rules for DeLay out of fear that "the Hammer," as they call him, might retaliate by taking away a coveted committee position or maybe a parking place...Yes, I want to be a Republican House member. At a time when 180 of the 211 members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iraq who have been wounded in combat have insisted on returning to duty, I want to look my constituents and my kids in the eye and tell them that I voted to empty the House ethics rules because I was afraid of Tom DeLay.

It appears that the House Republicans have gotten away with this move with little to no public outcry, but it is just wrong. Especially for a party that alleges it won the election on "values issues." I am a values voter people, and this disgusts me.