Et tu Nancy?

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz notes that the Wall Street Journal has joined the wall of noise attempting to bury House Majority leader Tom DeLay. Here's an excerpt:

"By now," says the Journal, "you have surely read about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ethics troubles. Probably, too, you aren't entirely clear as to what those troubles are--something to do with questionable junkets, Indian casino money, funny business on the House Ethics Committee, stuff down in Texas. In Beltway-speak, what this means is that Mr. DeLay has an 'odor': nothing too incriminating, nothing actually criminal, just an unsavory whiff that could have GOP loyalists reaching for the political Glade if it gets any worse.

Despite the fact that there is "nothing actually criminal" about DeLay's activities, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi today chastised Republicans for believing they are "above the law." But, is there any difference between what DeLay is being drawn and quartered for and the following revelation from the Washington Times, reported yesterday?

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi helped secure $3 million last year for a nonprofit transportation-research organization whose president gave money to her political action committee as the group was paying for a European trip for one of her policy advisers. Transportation adviser Lara Levison's nine-day, $4,475 trip to Spain and Germany last April to learn about hydrogen-fuel cells for buses was primarily paid for by WestStart-CALSTART.
But just days before the trip, WestStart-CALSTART announced that Mrs. Pelosi had helped the nonprofit group secure $1 million from the Federal Transit Administration for a bus rapid-transit program. A month after the Levison trip, the group sent out a press release thanking her for a $2 million grant for a fuel-cell program. According to campaign records, WestStart-CALSTART Chief Executive Officer John R. Boesel also gave $1,000 to one of Mrs. Pelosi's political action committees in 2003 and $1,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

DeLay's actions have not violated house rules or risen to the level of criminal activity. He is being trashed by the left and the media solely because he is an effective Republican leader, using tactics reminiscent of those used against Newt Gingrich in the 1990's.

Perhaps if Pelosi were a Republican, or an effective leader, she would be subject to the same level of over-scrutiny to which DeLay has been subjected.

Of course she is neither, so the question is moot.