Tom DeLay is defiant in the face of criticism and scandal, writes George Will in today's Washington Post. We knew that, but it's still interesting to read just how defiant he is.

"I'm very proud of [the K Street Project]," he told Will, of the plan he fashioned after the GOP takeover in the mid-1990s to bully Washington trade associations and lobbying firms to hire Republicans and get rid of Democrats.

And he's not sorry about all those earmarks, either. Will points out that:

Congress under Republican control has increased earmarks 873 percent in a decade and validated the axiom that the more solicitous government becomes, the more servile it seems and the more scorn it receives. Congress has not been so unpopular since 1994, when Democrats lost their 40-year grip on the House.

But

To a visiting columnist who waxes censorious about earmarks for highway projects, DeLay responds with a notable lack of repentance: "You just drove out on one."

The world according to Tom DeLay: If I do it, it must be good.