Why Roy Blunt should NOT lead the House GOP

It's not often that I listen to anything that Howard Dean says, but this is one time where Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives should pay careful heed to his comments. Dean was speaking yesterday in Kansas City, where the lede in the Kansas City Star read:

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said today that his party relished the thought that Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt might soon become majority leader.

“If you like Tom DeLay, you’re going to love Roy Blunt,” Dean said at a Democratic rally at the Uptown Theater. Blunt, he added, is ethically challenged.

I don't know much about any of the candidates -- Blunt, John Boehner or John Shadegg -- though I like what I've heard about Shadegg. Regardless, it seems to me that electing Blunt as the successor to DeLay is inviting more Democrat accusations of corruption, and will do nothing to help the GOP shed its reputation as bought and paid for by Jack Abramoff.

Republicans would be well served to select a leader who puts as much distance as possible between their party and Abramoff, and Dean's comments make it clear that Roy Blunt is not that leader.