Tom Delay wasn’t even a very conservative; he was just very partisan. (That’s a hell of a lot better than not very conservative AND being a RINO, mind you.) He was a solid vote, but he used his power to build party conformity, not to push for new conservative goals. Gingrich had more of an independent streak, (and, unfortunately a couple liberal turns as of late) but was much less afraid of challenging liberal orthodoxy. Delay was even just fine with the Clinton-Bush unfunded mandates requiring federal-funds recipients to adopt illegal aliens’ languages.
Well, thank goodness we don’t have to worry about Tom Delay anymore. The administration sure put up a fight for him didn’t they? /s :^)