Because Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is only going to be a congresswoman for a few weeks, we suppose she feels the need to make the news as often as possible: Earlier this week, Tom DeLay's staffers walked out on Sekula-Gibbs, and now Shelley is accusing those staffers of inappropriately wiping all the office computers clean before they left. We smell a developing Capitol Hill smackdown — no, not the one between Shelley's people and DeLay's people; we're talking about when Sekula-Gibbs' fellow Republicans get fed up and lock her in her office closet.

According to the AP, the flaxen-haired Sekula-Gibbs released a statement yesterday accusing ex-DeLay workers in Washington and Stafford of "[deleting] records and files without my knowledge or permission." The D.C. staff's mass resignation Tuesday was "suspicious," Sekula-Gibbs said, because the staff of her Washington office took the time to delete files before their walkout. But it was far from suspicious, former CD22 Chief of Staff David James said in a statement: "In accordance with the rules of the House of Representatives related to incoming new Members, and under the direct supervision of the Clerk of the House, the computers in the office were scrubbed and reconfigured by an outside vendor in the days immediately prior to her assuming office. This is a mandatory function of every transition."

James went on to elaborate a bit about Tuesday's staff walkout, saying that, during the staffers' combined 30 years working at the Capitol, "never has any Member of Congress treated us with as much disrespect and unprofessionalism as we witnessed during those five days" working with Sekula-Gibbs. The last straw, according to Robert Novak via Wonkette, was when Shelley asked the staff to make sure President Bush and Vice President Cheney were seated in the gallery when she was sworn in (we heard earlier that she was mad when Bush and Cheney didn't show up to her new member's open house, despite the fact that there were, you know, other full-term members to visit). "Sekula-Gibbs’s conduct raises doubts whether she will be the Republican nominee whose name will appear on the 2008 ballot in the strongly GOP Texas district," Novak writes — barely a week into her term, we'd say that's some legacy Sekula-Gibbs is creating. (We guess she'll take on lowering taxes, resolving the Iraq problem and dealing with illegal immigration next week.)