In all of the bantering back and forth about the future of House Majority Leader Tom Delay one vital question seems to be increasingly forgotten: just what is the man accused of? The most you get from most Democrats is vague blather about Delay being “unethical” and, in general, you’ll hear even less from the GOP.

The central accusation against Delay involves a political action Committee that he controls, the Texans for a Republican Majority. Under Texas law, corporate contributions to political candidates are banned. So far as I can tell, his PAC moved along the edge of the law, much like most of the Democratic 527’s did in the last Presidential campaign. For example, fundraisers affiliated with TRM solicited money to be sent to specific candidates and so on.

It’s all close to the line, and perhaps over it from time to time, but it’s pretty standard stuff so far as political fundraising and spending goes. Most of it is tiny, in any case, and it’s doubtful if any of it directly involved Delay. The whole amount spent by the PAC was reportedly $250,000. If we can believe that a certain Senator from New York didn’t know anything about a fundraiser where literally millions were concealed, it’s not a far stretch to believe that a few thousand dollars (with $1200 to pay for lawyers for one Texas State Representative, which isn’t really a campaign contribution in any sense of the word, being the largest individual sum I’ve seen mentioned) might be spent somewhere without the direct knowledge of the House Majority Leader.

All of the “illegality” of this has come into public awareness mostly as a result of the actions of Travis County DA Ronnie Earle who is, so far as I can tell, something of a rogue prosecutor with a long habit of prosecuting Republicans under strange circumstances, most notably his strange attempt to prosecute Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson for, of all things, assault. Just coincidentally this occurred during the middle of her re-election campaign. Of course, as certain liberal Democrats are fond of pointing out, he’s prosecuted many Democrats as well. But, of course, it’d probably be more helpful (in view of the organization of Texas politics until very recently) to have an ideological breakdown of those Democrats.

The rest of the charges against Delay are, if anything, even flimsier. The newest revelation is that he’s employed his wife and daughter in various capacities on his campaign staff over the last four years totaling around $500,000. That’s a lot of money until you recall that it involves two people stretched over four years. It comes, overall, to something like $60,000 per person per year. Not unreasonable for senior-level jobs at a Political Action Committee. And it’s a common enough practice.

I know, I know, it’s a horrible affront to democracy, nepotism is. I mean, imagine, if we let Delay get away with this the Senate Majority Leader might have his wife working as a lobbyist! It’s not like Democratic Congressman Pete Stark started paying his wife $2400 a month for consulting right after she had twins, or Joe Lieberman had three different family members on his campaign payroll.

Other major complaints against Delay fall into the narrow range between the laughable and the moronic.

For example, Delay is accused of going on junkets overseas. I know, we’re all shocked at the idea that a Congressman would go on a junket. In other news: there’s gambling in casinos.

Most of the rest of the accusations against Delay seem to have been mostly pushed by defeated Texas Democratic Congressman Chris Bell, who field a series of ethics complaints against Delay last year, presumably as a result of redistricting rage. These included that Delay promised to endorse a Congressman’s son for office if the Congressman voted for a bill (politicians trade votes for support! Unthinkable!) and that Delay asked the FAA to track a plane which was fleeing Texas with Democratic state legislators onboard.

So: why are the Democrats so determined to defeat Tom Delay?

It’s simple: he gets things done. He’s a fighter. He’s the sort of man that the Republicans need.