September 29, 2005

Do I have to start believing in a god? Tom Delay has been indicted for criminal conspiracy
by Liza Sabater

Yesterday I went to the museum with the kids; something we had not done in a while. I left the laptop because New York City is still in the digital stone age; shamefully barren of wireless internet connection at most public places like parks and museums. And ... well ... my hands hurt from so much coding and typing. So what do I get back to? Fifty emails screaming with 'TOM DELAY GOT INDICTED' :

Indicted DeLay leaves House leadership post - Yahoo! News | DeLay was indicted by a Travis County grand jury for criminal conspiracy in a scheme with two alleged co-conspirators, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, to launder $190,000 in corporate donations through the Republican National Committee for distribution to Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature.

The money was funneled to the RNC from Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee, or TRMPAC, which was created by DeLay and associates for the 2002 state elections.

Texas law does not permit the use of corporate money in political campaigns.

"The Texas law that prohibits corporate contributions is a vital link in Texas democracy," Earle told reporters in Austin.

"And I think the great issue before the American public is the large aggregation of wealth, corporate or private, that may be being used in the political process," he said. "Texas makes that a felony."

DeLay, who has represented a Houston-area district since 1984, said Earle's three-year investigation into TRMPAC was part of a "coordinated, premeditated campaign of political retribution" by Earle and Democrats.

Excited? Check out the laundry list of DeLayisms The Campaign for America's Future has put out.

--DeLay allegedly used illegal corporate donations to influence Texas state elections.

--DeLay associates charged with money-laundering.

--Congressman Nick Smith claimed he was pressured to vote for the 2004 GOP Medicare Prescription Drug Bill by DeLay.

--DeLay received campaign contributions from executives of the Westar Corporation, in exchange for his help with the House Energy Bill.

--According to the complaint filed by former Congressman Bell, DeLay's Texas-Based PAC, TRMPAC, solicited funds from Westar executives.

--DeLay traveled to London and stayed at the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel in 2000, paid for by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company.

--DeLay used a federal agency to further a partisan gain, an action prohibited by House Standards of Official Conduct.

--DeLay accepted an expense-paid trip to South Korea, paid for by a South Korean lobbying group, The Korea-US Exchange Council.

--DeLay was the driving force behind the decision by House leaders to abandon an 11-year-old party rule that "required leaders to step aside temporarily if indicted."

This is amazing to say the least.

The corruption unleashed upon this country by the GOP has been unprecedented and for a moment there I thought the were becoming unstoppable. Is like someone wrote recently at a blog (sorry people, can't remember) : The GOP knows their fucked up liars and they just don't care. The country knows they are fucked up liars but most people believed they could do nothing about it.

I truly believed that cynicism had won out.

The problem with that political attitude is that it does not account of something like that weather nor, needless to say, a natural disaster of epic, if not biblical proportions.

Posted by Liza Sabater in Accountability, Corruption, Government, Law, Republicans, Tom DeLay
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Found inSeptember 29, 2005 02:16 PM

Say it loud, say it proud!