As rapper MC Hammer proved himself economically bankrupt, House Majority Leader Tom “Hammer” Delay, R-Texas, has proven himself ethically bankrupt. Sadly, when the majority of the public thinks of a politician, it thinks of a die-hard partisan who’d do anything to grab more power and use it. Often, politicians are compared to the biology at the bottom of a pond. Delay fits that comparison nicely.

Dubbed “Hammer” for his power brokering ways, Delay was rebuked two days in a row last week by a bipartisan House ethics panel for his most recent improprieties. Delay, a man of sickening partisanship, has compiled a long list of unethical and unlawful behavior during his time as House majority leader. Delay should resign his post.

During the debate on the health-care bill, Delay tried to make a deal with an uncooperative congressman by promising the congressman’s son election help. When Texas legislators fled the state in protest of appalling gerrymandering of district lines, Delay used Homeland Security forces to track them down.

He has been engaged in fund-raising activities that would make Enron executives blush. An investigation into his financing activities was delayed because a state investigation in Texas is currently ongoing and three Delay aides have already been indicted. The energy bill currently in the works has multiple favors for an energy company that hosted a golf tournament Delay fund-raised at.

As an aside, Delay once blamed the Columbine High School shootings on the teaching of evolution. Granted, this isn’t unethical, but it is pretty stupid. Delay is a man dangerously blinded by his own power. Delay’s example of leadership is not one of cooperation but of division. The House of Representatives is bitterly divided. Such a body of government cannot do the work necessary to benefit the U.S. public.

The House will remain a bull-headed arena of two-party bickering as long as its leader adheres to a win-at-all-cost ideology. As such, Delay should step down.