"Tom DeLay has got to be thinking: Et tu, Wall Street Journal?"

In media terms, it's an earthquake almost as loud as Walter Cronkite turning against the Vietnam War.

Let's be clear: The Journal's editorial page, champion of conservatives and scourge of liberals, has a biblical quality for many on the right. They look to it for guidance, if not divine inspiration.

And the page, run by Paul Gigot after the long reign of Robert Bartley, does not come from the we-believe-this-but-the-other-side-has-a-good-point school. In sharp, sometimes caustic language, it almost always backs conservatives and Republicans over liberals and Democrats.

The Journal ran so many anti-Clinton editorials on Whitewater that they were turned into several books.
Which is why yesterday's editorial slapping the Texas congressman is likely to reverberate for some time to come, and perhaps embolden DeLay's critics.

Cont.