House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, still reeling from the many ethics-related scandals surrounding him these days, has once again decided to step into the middle of a debate over the "culture of life." And once again, he's on the opposite side of the issue from the vast majority of Americans. The Hill's Patrick O'Connor reports:

Tom DeLay is back.

After months fending off negative press, the embattled House majority leader will thrust himself back into the national debate today as a vocal opponent of a bill to expand federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research.

Rep. DeLay (R-Texas) has kept a lower profile since March, when he orchestrated an emergency Sunday vote to reconnect a feeding tube to Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman at the center of a heated ethical and legal debate.

That episode was followed by a steady stream of reports questioning three trips DeLay took abroad and examining his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

While these tactics might help DeLay reconnect with the extreme right base of the Republican Party, it's not clear that this move will actually help him in the long run.

As we've noted here numerous times, Tom DeLay's great quality as leader was that he -- unlike Newt Gingrich -- was unknown to most Americans. Thus, his far right policies would largely go unnoticed. With the ethics scandals finally hitting the national news, DeLay jumped into the middle of the Terri Schiavo case, alienating millions of Americans. Now, by working to block embryonic stem cell research, DeLay is moments away from offending millions more. If he continues these tactics, his party won't just be down eleven points in polling of generic Congressional ballots...