I've seen several takes on this NYT story on the waxing and waning of Tom DeLay's role in the Schiavo affair and how his front-and-center appearance may affect his name ID in 2006. Obviously, Democrats would love nothing more than to be able to run against him in '06 as they did against Newt Gingrich in 1996 and 1998, but up until now he's been mostly a backstage presence. There's some evidence that both his name ID and his overall negatives are on the rise lately, but I don't think they're at the point yet where his invocation would make much difference. I stress the "yet".

I'm not up to an involved analysis here. Two takes on the subject that I recommend are those of The Daily DeLay and Julia. For further reading on the Schiavo case and DeLay's involvement, try this LA Times story, which was mentioned in less detail in the book "The Hammer". It'd be nice if the Chron picked this one up; not as nice as if they'd done the work themselves, of course, but still better than nothing. Via Greg.