Josh Marshall is on the hunt

Josh Marshall may be at it again. You may recall that he was widely credited for sticking to the Trent Lott story late last year, ultimately resulting in Trent Lott stepping down from his leadership position in the Senate. Now he’s picking at the threads of a story that may result in Tom DeLay getting the same treatment.

The basics of the story are this: Texas Democrats, in an attempt to prevent state House Republicans from successfully forcing a redistricting act through the House, left the state. The result? The Republicans didn’t have a quorum, and they ultimately lost their window to introduce the legislation. It is widely known that this redistricting package was orchestrated by fellow Texan House Speaker Tom DeLay.

But they didn’t go down without a fight. No, the Republicans (apparently through DeLay’s office, maybe DeLay himself) called Tom Ridge at the Office of Homeland Security and asked for help tracking down a plane. The OHS claims they were lead to believe the plane was missing or hijacked; DeLay and the Texans are vague as to what exactly they said.

End result: the OHS interceded on behalf of a state agency when no criminal conduct was alleged, and certainly for which no terrorist threat existed. If you’re interested, be sure to head over to Talking Points Memo.

Question: hypothetically speaking, anyone care to guess what happens to Josh’s career when he’s responsible for bagging the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House – in less than twelve months?