DeLay, Flake, Craddick, Dietz, and SandersU.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert: "I am writing to inform you of my decision to permanently step aside as majority leader, and of my belief that the best interests of the conference would be served by the election of a new leader as soon as possible. The job of majority leader and the mandate of the Republican majority are too important to be hamstrung, even for a few months, by personal distractions." U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, quoted in The New York Times: "Rightly or wrongly, Mr. DeLay is seen as the public face of Washington, and it is not healthy right now. We need a course correction." Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, quoted by the Houston Chronicle from a speech to the Texas Public Policy Foundation: "If we don't start looking at the reforms that change the districts as well as just money, you and I might as well put our heads in the sand." District Judge John Dietz, quoted in The Dallas Morning News after one judicial candidate knocked another off the ballot for technical errors in his application: "That is not something that is dirty or vile. That is just politics." From Mark Sanders, in a press release after Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams decided spelling Strayhorn as Strahorn wasn't a fatal mistake: "As the Press Secretar_ for Carole Keeton Stra_horn, I wanted to sa_, 'With a correct spelling of her actual signature, we are extremel_ pleased that the Secretar_ of State has determined that the leaving off the '_' on one part of the form will not affect Carole Keeton Stra_horn's candidac_ for Governor of the State of Texas.'"