DeLay Out On a Limb

WASHINGTON: Did Tom DeLay just wake up from a three-month nap? Dissatisfied -- like pretty much everybody -- with the quality and clarity of Bill Clinton’s 81 answers to the Judiciary Committee, the head-hunting majority whip boldly went Sunday where no one else has been willing to go: He predicted that the House will impeach the President. "I don't know of 20 Republicans who would vote against impeachment," he said, predicting that the rank and file would do whatever the Judiciary Committee told them.

While DeLay hopes his prophecy is the self-fulfilling kind, he and other hard-core types are working to beat down the swelling support for censure. Also, please note that the vote-counter extraordinaire admits he hasn’t done any actual counting -- it’s just "a feeling." But DeLay may be banking on GOP censure supporters' not getting what they want from Clinton, which is a public come-clean. Although Clinton lawyer David Kendall promised Friday’s answers would be augmented soon by "a further memorandum on behalf of the President," anyone who’s expecting a full and satisfying confession at this point has been asleep longer than DeLay has.