Should DeLay resign

"Finn d'Abuzz" false advertising?

2 juries of 12 people both brought an indictment. Read my statement Finn. I said they found it that he likely committed a crime which is the basic standard for an indictment. I didn't once mention the word guilty. Don't worry Finn, just trot out your straw man and ride him til the straw turns to dust.

I'm not questioning you honesty Finn, just your reading comprehension. :wink:

Haven't been hearing from DeLay about this being another left-wing conspirary. Anybody know why?

Source

Delay has said it is a "do over" by Earle. He is playing the same card, claiming he is a victim.

I love the fact that Delay claimed he was never asked to appear before the grand jury and the grand jury said they held off on the first indictment hoping he would come before them like they requested. Delay has an ax to grind. The GJ doesn't. It makes Delays protestations seem shrill.

BBB, There's still that big question about whether all this will actually hang DeLay.

DeLay Team Asks Court to Dismiss Indictments

By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: October 8, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 - Defense lawyers for Representative Tom DeLay asked a court to dismiss the indictments against him on Friday, claiming that the prosecutor in the Texas case had taken "extraordinarily irregular" steps in trying to bring charges against the former House majority leader.

The two-page motion, filed just before the close of business in district court in Travis County, asserted that Ronnie Earle, the district attorney, had "attempted to browbeat and coerce" jurors into bringing a second indictment against Mr. DeLay after the validity of an earlier indictment was called into question. The motion accused him of prosecutorial misconduct.

"It's one of those things that really needs to be seriously investigated," said Bill White, an Austin lawyer who is participating in Mr. DeLay's defense. "In all fairness, it doesn't sound good, but let's air it out, let's see how serious it is and what's really there. It's certainly confusing."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/08/politics/08delay.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1128791317-qNpy4OnJX1AlTXinyLOcNg

At this point, it would seem that the $190,000 illegal transfers would look like pocket money compared to the legal expenses necessary to protect DeLay from prison.

Waiting for the House to appropriate a "defense fund" for DeLay. Actually not, what I expect is that the House will never allow DeLay to return to his former position, too many others are vying for positions and he is an embarrassment to the party.

Dys


I agree. Party loyalty only goes as far as personal power ambition allows.

BBB

And then there is Blunt...
link

Why indeed! But we are all aware that the media of today are all chicken-littles with little guts the size of a turkey's brain. The majority of media in this country is no better than what they have in China.

DeLay Launches Media Blitz
DeLay Launches Media Blitz
By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer
Published: October 11, 2005 10:17 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP)

Long before his criminal case gets a hearing in a court of law, Rep. Tom DeLay is fighting in the court of public opinion. With his trademark zeal, he assails the prosecutor in one sentence and portrays himself as a victim in the next. And the media -- often distrusted by fellow conservatives -- is his bullhorn.

"I know when you stand up for what you believe in, this kind of thing is going to happen," DeLay boasted on a Houston radio show. "It's part of the fight. I know Democrats hate me and they hate what I believe in and they hate the amazing things we've been able to accomplish ever since we've been in the majority."

Setting aside his own aversion to the media, DeLay has waged a blitz on radio, on TV and in print as he tries to shore up support in his suburban Houston congressional district while assuring fellow Republicans he plans to return to power.

Grand juries in Texas have indicted DeLay on charges of conspiracy and money laundering, forcing him to give up the No. 2 post in the House while the charges are pending.

His lawyers have challenged the indictments in court, raising questions about the law and the prosecutor's motive.

But their filings in court -- which formally accuse prosecutor Ronnie Earle of misconduct -- pale in comparison to the verbal barrage DeLay launches every time Earle's name comes up in an interview. DeLay already has made more than 20 radio and TV appearances since the first indictment Sept. 28.

Prosecutors accuse DeLay of engaging with colleagues in a conspiracy to launder corporate donations -- that are forbidden by Texas law -- through the Republican National Committee in Washington, sending them back to Texas state candidates.

The transactions occurred during the crucial 2002 election, which gave Republicans full control of the Texas Legislature.

DeLay argues the prosecutor, a Democrat who over the years has prosecuted members of both parties, is misrepresenting the facts and misapplying the law.

Earle answered DeLay's complaints by saying, "They often accuse others of doing what they themselves do." Put on the defensive, Earle has retreated to the secrecy of the grand jury.

The back and forth may be confusing to constituents in the short term.

Kathleen Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said DeLay has adopted a standard public relations strategy of proclaiming innocence and shoring up his base.

"If you are Tom DeLay, you don't want your constituency to believe the indictments," Jamieson said. "You are reassuring them that this is bogus and you are innocent and you are being hunted by people with partisan objectives."

She said DeLay is helped in his strategy by the larger presence of conservative talk radio and TV, where listeners are sympathetic. Keeping them from losing faith is critical, she said.

"Historically, when people on your side decide you need to go, you go," Jamieson said. "At that point, you can't argue you are innocent."

DeLay hasn't been known for media openness. He's not one to linger in Capitol hallways to chat with reporters. He isn't a regular on the Sunday news show circuit, although he did appear on "Fox News Sunday" the weekend after the indictment. Washington reporters competed to question DeLay at the weekly briefings he held as House majority leader.

His media machine kicked into gear in similar fashion last year after he was admonished by the House Ethics Committee on a complaint brought by former Rep. Chris Bell, D-Texas.

The ethics committee found DeLay created an appearance of impropriety by meeting with members of an energy company while legislation they were interested was pending. DeLay also was accused of offering to back the campaign of a lawmaker's son in exchange for his vote for the Medicare bill and using the Federal Aviation Administration to track down Democratic Texas state legislators who had fled to Oklahoma to prevent a quorum on a redistricting bill DeLay supported.

DeLay, fellow Republican lawmakers and his supporters claimed victory, saying the committee exonerated him, even though the committee actually admonished DeLay and warned him in a letter to "temper your future actions."
------------------------------------------------------

On the Net:
Rep. Tom DeLay: http://tomdelay.house.gov/

Abramoff Used DeLay Aide to Defeat Anti-Gambling Bill
How a Lobbyist Stacked the Deck
Abramoff Used DeLay Aide, Attacks On Allies to Defeat Anti-Gambling Bill
By Susan Schmidt and James V. Grimaldi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 16, 2005; Page A01

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his team were beginning to panic.

An anti-gambling bill had cleared the Senate and appeared on its way to passage by an overwhelming margin in the House of Representatives. If that happened, Abramoff's client, a company that wanted to sell state lottery tickets online, would be out of business.

But on July 17, 2000, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act went down to defeat, to the astonishment of supporters who included many anti-gambling groups and Christian conservatives.

A senior aide to then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) helped scuttle the bill in the House. The aide, Tony C. Rudy, 39, e-mailed Abramoff internal congressional communications and advice, according to documents and the lobbyist's former associates.

Rudy received favors from Abramoff. He went on two luxury trips with the lobbyist that summer, including one partly paid for by Abramoff's client, eLottery Inc. Abramoff also arranged for eLottery to pay $25,000 to a Jewish foundation that hired Rudy's wife as a consultant, according to documents and interviews. Months later, Rudy himself was hired as a lobbyist by Abramoff.

The vote that day in July was just one part of an extraordinary yearlong effort by Abramoff on behalf of eLottery, a small gambling services company based in Connecticut. Details of that campaign, reconstructed from dozens of interviews as well as from e-mails and financial records obtained by The Washington Post, provide the most complete account yet of how one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists leveraged his client's money to influence Congress.

The work Abramoff did for eLottery is one focus of a wide-ranging federal corruption investigation into his dealings with members of Congress and government agencies. Abramoff is under indictment in another case in connection with an allegedly fraudulent Florida business deal.

Abramoff had deep roots in the conservative movement and rose to prominence by helping Republicans tap traditionally Democratic K Street lobbyists for campaign dollars. But in the eLottery fight, he employed a win-at-any-cost strategy that went so far as to launch direct-mail attacks on vulnerable House conservatives.

Abramoff quietly arranged for eLottery to pay conservative, anti-gambling activists to help in the firm's $2 million pro-gambling campaign, including Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, and the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. Both kept in close contact with Abramoff about the arrangement, e-mails show. Abramoff also turned to prominent anti-tax conservative Grover Norquist, arranging to route some of eLottery's money for Reed through Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform.

At one point, eLottery's backers even circulated a forged letter of support from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R).

Rudy declined to comment for this report. A spokesman for Reed -- now a candidate for lieutenant governor of Georgia -- said that he and his associates are unaware that any money they received came from gambling activities. Sheldon said that he could not remember receiving eLottery money and that he was unaware that Abramoff was involved in the campaign to defeat the bill. Norquist's group would say only that it had opposed the gambling ban on libertarian grounds.

Abramoff's lawyer declined requests for a comment.

Long article continued)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/15/AR2005101501539.html

How good to see that my Liberal friends apply the notion of innocent until proven guilty to powerful Republicans as well as disadvantaged minorities.

Prediction (which you can throw back in my face if it is wrong): Delay will not be convicted of any crimes. In fact, I would bet (albeit not predict) that the case will be thrown out before it reaches trial.

When Delay's legal entanglements are resolved will, largely, determine whether or not he resumes his leadership position.

We can rest assured that he is not, currently, sulking in the shadows. While he may not wield the same heft of hammer as before the indictment, he has not gone out to pasture.

DeLay Ex-Aide to Plead Guilty in Lobby Case




By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
Published: November 19, 2005
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 - Michael Scanlon, a former top official for Representative Tom DeLay and onetime partner of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has agreed to plead guilty in a deal with federal prosecutors, according to his lawyer. The deal reveals a broadening corruption investigation involving top members of Congress.

Criminal papers filed in federal court outlined a conspiracy that not only named Mr. Scanlon but also mentioned a congressman, identified only as Representative No. 1, as part of the exchange of favors from clients funneled to lobbyists and officials.

This was the first time that a member of Congress, identified by lawyers in the case as Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, has been implicated in criminal papers as part of the inquiry, which has sprawled from Indian casinos to the lucrative lobbying firms of Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon and then reached to the Republican leadership.

Federal prosecutors announced a single conspiracy charge against Mr. Scanlon on Friday, in advance of a Monday court hearing at which he is expected to plead guilty in exchange for his cooperation. Investigators accused Mr. Scanlon of conspiring to defraud Indian tribes of millions of dollars as part of a lobbying and corruption scheme.

Mr. Scanlon, 35, is a former spokesman for Mr. DeLay. News of his cooperation with law enforcement officials sent a jolt through the Republican majority in Congress

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/19/politics/19lobby.html?th&emc=th

Damnit! was literally going to post that same article.

This is really, really big news, folks; Scanlon is a big player in the Kstreet-DeLay racket.

It is intersting to note that Scanlon supposedly agreed to testify against a whole range of people; expect there to be large fallout from this.

Cycloptichorn

The wheels are falling off DeLay's cart as well as some of the other political prostitutes in congress.