***update: video clip of journos who broke the story here***

Time magazine reports (hat tip: Kathryn Lopez):

Rep. Tom DeLay, whose iron hold on the House Republicans melted as a lobbying corruption scandal engulfed the Capitol, told TIME that he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months. Taking defiant swipes at “the left” and the press, he said he feels “liberated” and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

“I’m going to announce tomorrow that I’m not running for reelection and that I’m going to leave Congress,” DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. “I’m very much at peace with it.” He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. “This had become a referendum on me,” he said. “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.”

Newsmax has more and notes that DeLay told MSNBC host Chris Matthews (strange choice, eh?) the news shortly after 10pm EST:

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay announced Monday night that he was retiring from Congress, telling MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that it would be better for the party for him to end his reelection bid.

DeLay broke the news to Matthews in a phone call shortly after 10 pm.

“He told me that although the polls showed him going down - losing - he thought he had a 50/50 chance of wnning,” the talk host told MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country.”

“But he said that the beating he’s going to take between now and November made it very hard for him to win but it would be very hard to reverse the polling trend. “He said that it was very important for Republicans to hold this seat and that he believed that another Republican had a very good chance - in fact, could walk into this seat. And he’s going to allow that to happen tomorrow by withdrawing from the election.”

Bruce Armstrong notes confusion about whether DeLay is simply withdrawing from the congressional race, or whether he will in fact resign from his seat immediately.

The Galveston County Daily News had an exclusive interview with DeLay today and clarifies:

“It is obvious that this district is very polarized,” said DeLay, whose district includes part of Galveston County.

“It was obvious to me that the 22nd District deserved more than an election that was turning into a referendum on me rather than what was important to the district.”

DeLay said he and his staff scrutinized internal polls in December and again after the March GOP primary and didn’t like what they saw.

Those polls showed him beating Democrat Nick Lampson in the general election but in a race that would be too close for comfort, DeLay said.

“Luckily there were more people that loved me than hated me,” said DeLay. “Even though I thought I could win, it was a little too risky.”

…[A]fter a speech last week at a conference of the Christian group Vision America, he decided he could be more effective pushing the conservative agenda outside of Capital Hill, DeLay said.

“I can continue to be a leader of the conservative cause,” he said. “I can do more to grow the Republican majority, rather than spend the next eight months locked down in running a campaign.”

The congressman, who informed party leaders of his decision late Monday, said his departure from office would depend on the congressional schedule, but he said he expected it would be in late May or mid-June.

DeLay said he planned to move to a house he has in Virginia near Washington, D.C. By doing so, he would no longer be eligible to run for Congress in Texas.

With the primary already past, party leaders will have to select a candidate to run against Lampson, Libertarian Bob Smither and perhaps former Republican congressman Steve Stockman running as an independent.

DeLay said that decision would be up to the Texas GOP’s executive committee. “I should not play the role to play kingmaker,” said DeLay, who first was elected to public office as a Texas House member in 1978. Whoever is tapped will get his support, DeLay said, and that candidate will win because Lampson’s No. 1 issue will be gone.

WaPo follows up - posted 1106pm EST:

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the House Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, told House allies tonight that he will resign from the House rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable.

The decision came just three days after his former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay’s leadership offices. Rudy’s plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities, but by placing the influence-buying efforts of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff directly in DeLay’s operation, the former aide may have made an already difficult reelection bid all but out of reach.

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