The Hammer Is Going To Be Nailed

oh pleezepleezepleeze don't be a cruel hoax.

We won't know what the real news is is until tomorrow, if it exists at all(Drudge is a bigger liar than Dubya, after all).

But if the facts bear out, the big news is not the DeLay/Enron connection, necessarily. The big news would be a direct link between DeLay and efforts to solicit corporate funds for Texas legislative races. Texas law explicitly prohibits such donations, and a wide-ranging investigation by Travis County DA Ronnie Earle threatens to put several people behind bars.

The Hammer has lawyered up:



There's no doubt DeLay was involved; the only question is whether Earle has enough evidence to indict DeLay.

The article is upat washingtonpost.com.

It does not read too dangerously for the Majority Leader.

s-h-i-hockey stick.

It's still not over:



Houston Chronicle

Now the deal is, with four out of five of the House ethics committee members having received campaign funds from the Bugman, they could have easily just tossed this in the Dumpster.

They didn't.

At this point it seems more like Chinese water torture, but should an independent investigation get ramped up within a couple of months of Election Day... :wink:

...Tom DeLay's challengerstands to benefit greatly.

It's hard to imagine a DeLay supporter voting for any Democrat, in my mind, no matter what DeLay is guilty of.

With a history like this, I don't think the Dems are gonna make a big deal out any dealings Delay has had with Enron:

1. -From 1990 to 1994 Enron gave 42% of their donations to Democrats.
Source: The Center for Responsive Politics

2. -Florida's state pension fund, which lost $325 million on Enron, is examining what role Frank Savage, a major Democratic donor, may have played in the state's loss. The fund's investments were directed by Alliance Capital Management, where Savage was a senior executive and chairman at the same time he sat on Enron's board. He donated $100,000 to Democrats and raised money for New York gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall.
Source: Time Magazine

3. -Lloyd Bensten, Clinton's first treasury secretary, was a recipient of Enron's money. At the time of his campaign for Senate, he received the second largest donation from Enron.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

4. -Robert Rubin, Bensten's successor, was involved with Enron while he worked as an investment banker at Goldman & Sachs. Clinton first hired Rubin to head his National Economic Council. Soon afterwards, Rubin wrote on Goldman Sachs stationery to former clients, including Enron, that he ''looked forward to continuing to work with you in my new capacity.''
Source: WorldNet Daily

5. -In the days when Franjo Tudjman was Croatia's dictator and pretending to be both a reformed communist and best friend of America in the Balkans, poor Franjo had a problem. He and some of his very best friends were wanted as war criminals by the Hague's International Court of Justice. Enron wanted a power contract with Croatia. Enron offered a deal to Tudjman. Sign up with us and we will use our gang in Washington to make sure you and your friends don't go to jail.

Tudjman signed. Enron made a heap of money. Nobody went to jail. Everyone was happy - until Tudjman died of cancer. Then the lid was off, his Croatian Democratic Union was defeated and the new boys in power in Zagreb could not believe how much of their budget went to pay the electricity bills from Enron.
Source: Pittsburg Tribune-Review

6. - In August 1993, McLarty, Clinton's former chief of staff, arranged an invitation for Lay, Enron's CEO, to play golf with Clinton in Vail, Colorado. This date irritated Oscar Wyatt, chief executive of Coastal, another natural gas company that had helped the Clinton election campaign raise funds. These connections to the Democratic administration helped Enron considerably.
Source: Time Magazine

7. -Clinton officials publicly helped Enron win contracts in India as well as in Indonesia. Enron had received U.S. government funds to build power plants in China, the Philippines and Turkey. Enron also won contracts in Pakistan and Russia while accompanying senior U.S. government officials on state trips. In June 1996, four days before India granted final approval to Enron's project, Lay's company gave $100,000 to the DNC.
Source: Time Magazine

8. -Enron got permission to build a pipeline from Mozambique to South Africa after National Security Adviser Anthony Lake threatened to withhold aid to Mozambique if it didnt approve the project.
Source: Mozambique News Agency

9. -The bulk of Enron's alleged chicanery happened during the Clinton administration.
Source: Fortune Magazine

10. -Enron Corporation donated $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. Six days later, Enron executives were on a trade mission with Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor to Bosnia and Croatia. With Kantor's support, Enron signed a $100 million contract to build a 150-megawatt power plant.
Source: The Weekly Standard

11. -Kenneth Lay hired the firm of Clinton's former chief of staff Mack McLarty.
Source: Fortune Magazine

12. -Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer of New York, John Breaux of Louisiana, and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico--chair of the Senate Energy Committee--are among the top beneficiaries of Enron's political donations.
Source: Fortune Magazine

13. -Kenneth Lay retained Linda Robertson, a Democrat who worked for the Clinton Treasury Department, as his top D.C. lobbyist.
Source: Fortune Magazine

14. -Dynergy, an energy company which wanted to buy Enron and later sued them, donated $1,000 of dollars to Henry Waxman in the 2001-2002 cycle, one of the men leading the Enron investigation.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

15. -The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee received three checks from the Houston-based energy and trading giant totaling $100,000. Karen Denne, an Enron spokeswoman, said the company had a record of two checks written to the committee -- dated Sept. 24 and Nov. 2
Source: NY Post

16. -Joe Lieberman and Tom Daschle's Largest Contributor in the 2000 election cycle was Enron's Largest Creditor, Citigroup.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

17. -Enron was apparently a big backer of some parts of the Kyoto Treaty.
Source: Enron.com

18. -Ken Lay slept in the Clinton White House and served as an adviser to the Clinton White House on energy issues.
Source: Drudge Report

19. -Enron's lead Washington lawyer is Robert Bennett, who represented Clinton in the Paula Jones case.
Source: NewsMax.com

20. -Neil Eggleston, a former White House associate counsel under Clinton, represents Enron's outside directors.
Source: NY Post

21. -David Boies, Al Gore's lead lawyer in the Florida recount, is representing former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow.
Source: NY Post

22. -Former Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards appointed Ken Lay ,the Enron exec, to the Governor's Business Council and received contributions from Enron.
Source: Washington Post

23. -Enron introduced the Clinton team to Lippo Industries and thence to China's People's Liberation Army (a wonderful source of political cash), and John Huang, another good provider.
Source: Pittsburg Tribune-Review

24. -Tony Lake, then Clinton's national security adviser, persuaded the impoverished, war-torn country of Mozambique to sign a $770 million electric power contract with Enron.
Source: Pittsburg Tribune-Review

25. -Al Gore and Bill Clinton introduced Enron to market managers in Russia, China, Indonesia and India. In India, Enron quickly became involved in one of that country's most massive corruption investigations, contracts were canceled and Enron was out.
Source: Pittsburg Tribune-Review

26. -Just days before Enron Corp. landed in bankruptcy court, the one-time political powerhouse may still have been funneling campaign dollars to Democratic lawmakers, federal election records indicate.
Source: Houston Chronicle

27. -Enron contributed some $682,000 to the DNC during the 2000 election.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

28. -Ken Lay hired Betsy Moler, Clinton's deputy energy secretary, as a consultant. She was accused of stopping Energy Department counterintelligence chief Notra Trulock from briefing Congress early on about Chinese espionage and security lapses at Energy's nuclear weapons labs.
Source: Houston Chronicle

29. -Government records show that, during the Clinton years, Lay and other Enron executives got seats on at least four Energy Department trade missions and at least seven Commerce Department trade trips.
Source: WorldNet Daily

30. -The congressman who recieved the most money from Enron in the past 12 years is Ken Bentsen (D-Texas) who received $42,750. The second largest receiver was Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) who received $38,000
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

31. -The ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, John D. Dingell (D-Mich), is the 10th largest receiver of Enron contributions totalling $9,000.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

32. -71 House Democrats received $257,140 Enron Contributions.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

33. -Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) was the 20th member of the Senate to have received the most money from Enron. He received a total of $6,000.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

34. -29 Senate Democrats, not including those that are retired, were unseated, or died, received a total of $110,513 in the last 12 years from Enron.
Source: Center for Responsive Politics

35. -To help push through energy initiatives in Africa, Clinton's Energy Secretary (and Monica Lewinsky's job counselor), Bill Richardson, visited Nigeria in August 1999. "As a result of Secretary Richardson's visit to Nigeria in August, we have embarked on a bilateral cooperation program. The Department is developing an action plan with the Government of Nigeria, which will be coordinated with USAID. Cooperation could include: restructuring and privatization; rural electrification; deployment of clean energy and renewable energy technologies; promotion of energy efficiency; and development of an independent regulatory authority.

This initiative, coordinated by Richardson, led to $882 million dollars in power contracts for Enron from the government of Nigeria:
Enron, an oil and gas firm in Houston, has signed a power purchase agreement to supply emergency electricity to state-owned power utility Nigerian Electric Power Authority (NEPA) through 30MW power barges located on the coast of Lagos State. Enron and its Nigerian joint venture partner signed the $82 million deal with NEPA and the power ministry in the capital Abuja. Enron and the Lagos state government entered a joint venture earlier in 1999 to build an $800 million gas-powered plant with capacity for 540 Megawatt (MW) to augment supply to the city. Unfortunately for Enron, the Nigerian Government cancelled these contracts in April 2000. As a further reward for their generosity to the Democratic Party, Clinton Administration Special Envoy Thomas Pickering hustled off to Nigeria (on the taxpayer's dime) to plead Enron's case.
Source: Several Sources/FreeRepublic.com

36. -Texas Democrats received more Enron contributions than Texas Republicans.
Source: CBS Affiliate KTVT in Texas

37. -Hillary Rodham Clinton ordered the destruction of documents, which Enron is now accuse of doing, of four files in 1988 from her work on the failed savings and loan that's now at the heart of the Whitewater affair.
Source: NewsMax.com

38. -During the 1991-92 election cycle, Enron gave $28,525 to the Democratic party while former Clinton Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown served as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Enron gave $42,000 to the Democratic party in the 1993-94 cycle.
Source: PublicIntegrity.org

39. -According to internal Enron documents and the recollections of former employees, Chairman Kenneth L. Lay had the ear of top Democrats in the 1980s and '90s. He and his colleagues used that access to promote the company's interests with the Clinton administration and key congressional Democrats.
Source: Washington Post

40. -According to another Enron memo, Lay met with former Clinton Energy Secretary Federico Peña to urge White House action on electricity legislation favored by Enron. Peña "suggested that President Clinton might be motivated [to act] by some key contacts from important constituents."
Source: Washington Post

41. -Ken Lay was one of 25 business executives on Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development.
Source: Washington Post

42. -Enron's political action committee gave $10,000 in 2000 to the New Democrat Network, which was co-founded by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.). Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential nominee that year, now chairs the Senate Government Affairs Committee, which is leading an inquiry into Enron's collapse.
Source: Washington Post

43. -Several senior Enron officials spent election night at Vice President Gore's headquarters in Nashville.
Source: Washington Post

44. -Enron backed Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in his successful 1998 campaign to oust Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato. Schumer's views on electricity deregulation dovetailed closely with Enron's.
Source: Washington Post

45. -Two years later Schumer, who has advocated deregulation as a way of reducing New York state's high power costs, co-authored a bill to restructure electricity markets along lines favored by Enron.
Source: Washington Post

46. -Enron has supported Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), whose state is traversed by a major east-west Enron gas pipeline.
Source: Washington Post

47. -Former employees say Lay's friendships with other Democrats were based as much on rapport as pragmatism. This group includes former senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), whose brief 1992 presidential bid had Lay's backing, and Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), with whom Lay served on the Eli Lilly Co. board of directors in the 1990s.
Source: Washington Post

48. -In 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, stocked with Clinton appointees, helped Enron with a series of orders that weakened the monopoly of nuclear and coal-burning utilities. In July of that year, Enron gave $100,000 to the Democratic Party.
Source: Washington Post

49. -In 1992, a Democratic-controlled Congress approved a major energy bill that set the stage for a new wholesale electricity marketplace. Trading companies such as Enron could use the transmission lines of regulated utility companies to sell blocs of electricity to private customers.
Source: Washington Post

50. -Some officials in Enron's Houston and Washington offices backed Gore and Lieberman in the 2000 election.
Source: Washington Post

Well then, I guess the Republicans should pursue the investigation. Lay everything out in the open. Force the old, rotten/rotting wood out. Rotten Democrats/rotten Republicans. I can't say I have sympathy for any of them.

Well the Republicans are doing a damn good job of prosecuting Enron. All I'm saying is, its really tough to go after one guy when there are so many many many fingers in the pot. I said from the getgo that nobody had clean hands with Enron.

This isn't about Enron.

This is about Tom DeLay violating the campaign finance laws of the state of Texas, clearly explained in previous posts in this thread.

And in any event, "they did it too" is not a defense.

Would you like to try to again (for $200, Alex)?

I agree 'the they did it too' argument is an atrocious defense but that wasn't my intent. My point is, things like this are generally driven by sharks smelling blood in the water on one side or the other. Since everybody's blood is in the water re Enron contributions, and I doubt Delay is the only one potentially sullied, I can't see the Dems being too vigorous to push for prosecution here. I could be wrong.

And if there are a lot of dirty hands, Republican/Democrat or Tom DeLay, they should all be slapped (not in the mood to finish the metaphor properly).

I'd hope all Americans interested in the democratic process would be pleased that action is being taken.

There's taking money legally, then there's breaking the law with it, as DeLay has been so accused.

I hope that if he is guilty of any wrong doing that he is brought up on charges. Too many politicians think they are above the law these days.

Republican or Democrat, the ones proven guilty ought to pay.

Tom DeLay gots hammered in his own district yesterday.

After sending 7500 invitations paid for by the University of Houston for a reception honoring DeLay yesterday, less than 100 attended, 50 of which were staff or worked at the university.

Outside in the hot sun were 150 enthusiastic protestors changing "Don't DeLay. Indict today!" and "Hey hey ho ho, Tom DeLay has got to go". Despite operating at a disadvantage of air-conditioning and refreshments, three times as many protested Delay as those that came to honor him.

Only 2 elected officials from the city of Houston attended; no NASA employees or management, nor any other dignitary.

A counter-protest consisting of 6 (yes, six) supporters, 2 of them younger than 8 years old, was hastily convened close to the 150 protesters against DeLay. The 2 young children kept busy by building a fort with the 25 or so signs that were to be held by other protesters that didn't show up.

Inside the reception hall there were 3 large tables filled with food for 400-500 people that was untouched. Nametags of about 100 people were left on the table, from those who didn't bother to attend after making reservations.

And DeLay only spoke for about 3 minutes, including taking time to address students who disturbed his speech by singing.

This was to be an event to "introduce DeLay to his new district", according to an email sent from the U of H. Many believed this was a misuse of state funds and will be filing a complaint tomorrow in Austin.

It turned out to be a complete embarrassment for DeLay. He later went to Deer Park (a heavily industrialized, union part of the Houston suburbs)where again there were more protestors than those attending the event.

Tom DeLay's margin of victory has never been less than 20 percentage points every time he has stood for re-election. But in order to create new congressional districts that would strengthen the GOP's hand in the redistricting fiasco, DeLay had many Democratic voters drawn into his district.

He currently polls just 48-39 ahead of his challenger Richard Morrison in the 22nd Congressional District, which is eleven percentage points behind George Bush (Houston overall is a statistical tie in the Presidential race, 50-47, according to a SurveyUSA poll reported by the Houston NBC affiliate.

We are going to strike down the Hammer. You heard it here first.

I like the building a fort with the signs part.

Ever since the redistricting fiasco here in Texas DeLay has made a lot of enemies...

I rarely say this about politicians but DeLay is a true scumbag.

Cycloptichorn

Past relationships with Ken Lay mean nothing -- it's how much one knew and when they knew it regarding the accounting operation and the nefarious manipulation of funds.