Short Takes

- Jonathan Weisman reports in the WaPo that calls for changes in the House GOP leadership next year continue to grow, with some lawmakers expressing greater reticence about restoring Tom DeLay's leadership post in the next session of Congress ... but not officially. Weisman quotes one aide as saying "No question, there's considerable discontent in the conference about DeLay's return, but nobody's talking on the record. If he beats this rap in Austin, he will be back as majority leader, because nobody's going to tell him no."

As regular readers know, I think it's more than high time someone did tell Tom DeLay no. The Republican caucus could only be improved by new leadership, preferably leadership which is not implicated in the wave of scandals washing over DC at the moment. I know I've had enough of trying to deal with Tom DeLay's shenanigans as a leader of the GOP, and I think - I know - that we can do better.

- After his meeting with Pentagon officials yesterday, Senator John Warner said he remains "gravely concerned" about the insertion of disinformation into the Iraqi media by coalition information operations. He said he'll continue to examine this program and will take further action if necessary.

- Senators Lugar and Obama have an important op/ed in the WaPo outlining a new bill they're cosponsoring that would implement a program to "seek out and destroy surplus and unguarded stocks of conventional arms in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East." There's more to it than that, of course, so be sure to read the whole piece - certainly seems like a good idea to me, and good to see bipartisan cooperation on something this vital.

- New York's Republican party continues to spiral into the pit of irrelevancy: after meeting with Governor George Pataki yesterday morning about withdrawing from the race against Hillary Clinton, hapless Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro emerged and told reporters her campaign is "going extremely well." Of course she also told Pataki that she would "consider" switching races and running for attorney general instead.

- Whew. Bees can fly.