Breaking news: CNN just reported that U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay will announce at a news conference on Tuesday that he’s abandoning his bid for re-election. (Insert “sweet justice” gloat here.)

According to CNN, DeLay, who has been indicted on campaign finance and money-laundering charges in a master scheme to boost the Republican majority — and thus himself — in the House of Representatives told Time magazine that “This had become a referendum on me. So it’s better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what’s important for this district.”

Ah, yes the good of the party. Such a noble sentiment! We might even be able to believe that a prick as big as DeLay was being sincere, if he’d dropped out before the Republican primary, which was held last month! Then, another, presumably less prickish member of the GOP, might have had a better shot at the party’s nomination.

Instead, DeLay put his own vainglorious hope to retain his seat ahead of principle, party and the ideas he claims now to value. And, big shock, Republican voters in the district said they’d stick with the prick they know rather than a person who has at least the potential to be an honest representative. (So, we suppose, they deserve the pickle DeLay’s just handed them.)

Don’t be fooled; this decision wasn’t motivated by anything other than the fact that DeLay knew he couldn’t win. He saw poll numbers showing that, or perhaps just realized that the Jack Abramoff scandal (which just ensnared a former top aide, Tony Rudy) was too much for him to overcome. (By the way, there’s a totally cute picture of DeLay and Abramoff together at DeLay’s annual golf outing in this month’s Vanity Fair. Check it out — it’s one for the scrapbook.)

Perhaps now, the GOP in Texas and Washington will see what the Republicans have become: People who love power more than anything else, and people who will do anything — regardless of the impact to the country, the Constitution, and their own constituents — to keep it. Perhaps now the reflexive, unflagging, rote loyalty to the GOP will end.

Yeah, we doubt it, too. The silver lining is, DeLay’s actions have harmed his party, and his ignominious end (assuming CNN is right) will end up helping Democrats in elections this year. DeLay may be gone, but he certainly shouldn’t be forgotten. Because, alas, his spirit lives on. And so, thank God, does DeLay’s criminal trial.