Should DeLay resign

Timber, that is an opinion that seems to be getting close to being expressed as if it was fact. "Aid and comfort" is your opinion vs the 200 years of legal precedence. As long as you keep it as opinion, I'll refrain from hitting you over the head with the constitution. ;-)

To give aid and comfort, one must determine to whom one refers by the word enemy. Let's see, was a war declared? Well, no, not exactly, but there was the Golf of Tonkin Resolution . . . i see, and the War Powers Act which was subsequently passed in response to the aftermath of that Resolution, can that be considered to have ratified Johnson's action . . . weellll, once again, not exactly, you see, it's all more complicated than that . . .

Gen. Giap Thanks Kerry & Co. for Anti-war Protests

Celebrating the 29th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the North Vietnamese general who led his forces to victory said Friday he was grateful to leaders of the U.S. anti-war movement, one of whom was presidential candidate John Kerry.

"I would like to thank them," said Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, now 93, without mentioning Kerry by name. "Any forces that wish to impose their will on other nations will surely fail," he added.

Reuters, which first reported Giap's comments, suggested that the former enemy general was mindful of Kerry's role in leading some of the highest-profile anti-war protests of the entire Vietnam War.

Before the British wire service quoted Gen. Giap, it noted:

"The Vietnam War, known in Vietnam as the American War, has become a hot issue in the U.S. presidential race with Democrat John Kerry drawing attention to his service and President Bush's Republicans disparaging Kerry's later anti-war stand."

North Vietnamese Col. Bui Tin, who served under Gen. Giap on the general staff of the North Vietnamese army, received South Vietnam's unconditional surrender on April 30, 1975.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal after his retirement, Col. Tin explicitly credited leaders of the U.S. anti-war movement, saying they were "essential to our strategy."

"Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9AM to follow the growth of the antiwar movement," Col. Tin told the Journal.

Visits to Hanoi by Kerry anti-war allies Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and others, he said, "gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."

"We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war," the North Vietnamese military man explained.

Kerry did much the same thing in widely covered speeches such as the one he delivered to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971.

"Through dissent and protest [America] lost the ability to mobilize a will to win," Col. Tin concluded.

The actions of Kerry, as well as Jane Fonda, emboldened Hanoi. His 1971 testimony and anti-war protests created the appearance of a disunity that caused Hanoi to not surrender as they would likely have done had they not lead their protests. This is not mere opinion, but based upon the statements of POW's experiences, and comments of North Vietnamese military leaders.

May 2 issue - The pitch from superlobbyist Jack Abramoff was hard to resist: a good way to get access on Capitol Hill, he told his clients a few years ago, was to contribute to a worthy charity he and his wife had just started up. The charity, called the Capital Athletic Foundation, was supposed to provide sports programs and teach "leadership skills" to city youth. Donating to it also had a side benefit, Abramoff told his clients: it was a favored cause of Rep. Tom DeLay.

The pitch worked especially well among a group of Indian tribes who, having opened up lucrative gaming casinos, had hired Abramoff to protect their interests in Washington. In 2002 alone, records show, three Indian tribes donated nearly $1.1 million to the Capital Athletic Foundation. But now, NEWSWEEK has learned, investigators probing Abramoff's finances have found some of the money meant for inner-city kids went instead to fight the Palestinian intifada. More than $140,000 of foundation funds were actually sent to the Israeli West Bank where they were used by a Jewish settler to mobilize against the Palestinian uprising. Among the expenditures: purchases of camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager and other material described in foundation records as "security" equipment.The West Bank security payments are not the only foundation expenditure being eyed by investigators. The bulk of the foundation's money, about $4 million, was used for a now-defunct Orthodox Jewish school in suburban Maryland that two of Abramoff's sons attended. Buffalo says his tribe had no idea its donations were being used for this purpose, either. A spokesman for Abramoff vigorously defended all of the expenditures. Abramoff, says spokesman Andrew Blum, "is an especially strong supporter of Israel and has tried to find ways to help Israelis and others to be less susceptible to terrorist attacks." Still, the increasing attention from the news media and investigators is causing even old friends like DeLay to back away. A spokesman last week vigorously disputed that DeLay had anything to do with Abramoff's charity. Although he had been scheduled to attend a planned gala fund-raiser for the foundation two years ago, DeLay never went. As for the security shipments to the West Bank, DeLay knew nothing about it, the spokesman said.

With Dan Ephron in Jerusalem

"Those S.O.B.s," Abramoff said last week about DeLay and his staffers, according to his luncheon companion. "DeLay knew everything. He knew all the details."

I loved the opinion piece that used INNUENDO to try to claim that Kerry was thanked by anyone in Vietnam. Not much evidence of any actual statement by them to cite Kerry. Makes as much sense as those that claim McCain blamed Kerry in his 1973 US World and News article. A lot of smoke blowing and no facts. It all dissappears when you look at the REAL statements by the person quoted and not just the selected quotes with a lot of made up stuff about what they meant.

North Vietnamese Col. Bui Tin, who served under Gen. Giap on the general staff of the North Vietnamese army, received South Vietnam's unconditional surrender on April 30, 1975.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal after his retirement, Col. Tin explicitly credited leaders of the U.S. anti-war movement, saying they were "essential to our strategy."

"Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9AM to follow the growth of the antiwar movement," Col. Tin told the Journal.

Visits to Hanoi by Kerry anti-war allies Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and others, he said, "gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."

"We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war," the North Vietnamese military man explained.

Kerry did much the same thing in widely covered speeches such as the one he delivered to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971.

"Through dissent and protest [America] lost the ability to mobilize a will to win," Col. Tin concluded.

edgarblythe wrote:

The examples mysteryman brings up are superfluous. Ed Kennedy? Settled long ago, whether or not one agrees with the resolution. Clinton? He has already been punished/harrassed and is beyond the fray. Byrd? He recognized the error of racism many years ago, confessed his wrong-ness and changed his ways. DeLay continues with his shady activities and refuses to recognize his crimes, at least publicly.

I bring Clinton up because he was the last President,and a known base of comparison.

Tell me,exactly what crimes has DeLay been CONVICTED of?
What legal authority brought him to trial,and what were the charges?
Since all of you are saying he is guilty,what was he found guilty of,and when was he convicted?

As Parados pointed out, Big Bird, there is no direct attribution of this "aid and comfort" on the part of the North Vietnamese spokesman to Kerry . . .

. . . don't let that stop ya, though, have at it . . .

"We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war," the North Vietnamese military man explained.

Kerry did much the same thing in widely covered speeches such as the one he delivered to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971.

Visits to Hanoi by Kerry anti-war allies Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and others

Kerry did much the same thing in widely covered speeches such as the one he delivered to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971.

Investigate them all- we pay for it, no? Background checks, records checks, bank accounts, income taxes, overseas accounts, condom preferences, morning cereal, and so on. The works...

They "represent" us, so I believe it is fitting.