It’s a beautiful day here in Oregon, and a great day in America.

Tom DeLay, one of the biggest crooks in modern American history, has fallen. In order to appreciate the importance of this I want to link to a couple of articles I think have been really good at laying out the full extent of the criminal enterprise that has bilked this country for billions, of which DeLay was the architect.

Nicholas Confessore’s Washington Monthly article on the K Street project is a must-read for anyone fuzzy on the details about how the GOP gamed the lobbying business to fund its illegal enterprises by hoovering up every tax dollar in sight, and quite nearly got its hands on the "prize pig" of the Social Security trust fund. And Sarah Posner’s article in The American Prospect is a searing expose of how lobbyists like Barbara Comstock set up a clearing house for companies wanting to bilk the government in the wake of 9/11, capitalizing on Republican fear-mongering and making sure that copious amounts of cash made their way back into GOP coffers and insured the perpetuation of the system.

The result? The government bought a bunch of expensive, useless shit it didn’t need. DeLay and the GOP were very good at ripping off the nation but they left the country vulnerable, weakened and poor, ill-equipped to meet the challenges of a new century. National and economic security were the furthest thing from their minds. Every man, woman and child in America now carried $30,000 worth of government debt on their backs. And thousands have died in their expensive, futile, graft-laden war.

Tom DeLay has fallen today. He’s not in chains (yet) but he’ll soon be out of Congress off the House Appropriations Committee where he has stolen so much for so long. And the justice system has him in their sights.

It’s a great day in America.