The Trial of Tom DeLay

meanwhile Delay , is saying that he eagerly anticipates the opportunity to clear his good name.

I wish these trials would come out on DVD.
I would love to be a juror for this show or the Enron trial (yeah, I'm one of those freaks that actually likes jury duty).

I am waiting for GWB = George Waits on Bench, to go on trial after proceedings begin for Impeachment.

I'm pretty sure Earl's action was aimed more at public opinion than any real expectation the Republican Party would comply. It helps set the public notion that DeLay is not forthcoming with information that if benign could clear him. One is set up to perceive him as hiding this relevant evidence, and therefore behaving suspiciously.

Mark

Editorial




Feb. 2, 2006, 8:04PM
What corruption?
Despite scandals, the GOP old guard in the U.S. House opts for minimal reform.


Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

FITTINGLY, but only because it was Groundhog Day, House Republicans were scared by the shadow of real ethical reform Thursday and jumped back into their burrow. Unfortunately, they probably will remain there far longer than six weeks.

Their election of Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, to succeed Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, as majority leader was only one manifestation of the determination of many House Republicans to bull past lobbying scandals with as small a measure of reform as possible.

This is the same John Boehner (pronounced bay-ner) who in the mid-1990s was caught handing out contributions from a tobacco political action committee on the House floor. Yes, the House floor. According to reports at the time, he stopped only when challenged by reform-minded Republican first-termers.

As one indignant Republican said at the time: "If it's not illegal, it should be."

In other words, don't get your hopes up that Boehner will play Moses, supplying Congress with new commandments against sin.

The only worse result would have been the election of Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who was DeLay's handpicked deputy and became acting majority leader when DeLay was forced to step aside after the spending of corporate dollars for political campaigns led to DeLay's indictment. At least Boehner, to his credit, had parted ways with DeLay some time ago.

"More of the same," a House Democratic staffer said before the vote.

It would, in fact, take a finely calibrated scientific instrument to discern differences between DeLay and Boehner or Blunt.

Boehner, despite making reformist noises in the leadership campaign, is a member in good standing of the Republicans' Business as Usual Caucus, whose adherents can be counted on to do the bidding of corporate lobbyists and who depend on those representatives and their well-heeled clients to fill their vast re-election kitties.

A first test of Boehner will be the role he plays in developing the lobbying reform package promised by House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Disclosure of the Republicans' full proposal has been delayed, in part because of members' resistance to anything that will keep them out of the trough.

The sense of many House Republicans seems to be that if they're going to get in bed with the lobby anyway, they might as well get the string of pearls that goes with the affair ?- or the free golf junket to Scotland and skybox seats at sports arenas.

Resistance formed against even the most basic reform, be it a ban on private funding for congressional travel or the merely cosmetic proposal (which the House adopted Wednesday) to kick former colleagues who have become lobbyists off the House floor and out of the members' gym. DeLay, for the record, voted against the measure.

This resistance undermines Hastert's pledge of far-reaching reform.

The stage for a nonreformer's election was set Wednesday in a closed-door session of House Republicans in which irredentists voiced pent up aggravation at the prospect of losing lobbyist-related perks.

The most hopeful sign ?- and we're grasping at straws here ?- was that 85 of the 200 or so House Republicans at the meeting were willing in a secret ballot to call for a fresh vote on all leaders except Speaker Hastert.

After that rebuff of even pro forma contrition, election of a less-than-compelling advocate for reform seemed ?- and was ?- foreordained.

Until I saw this article, I had never heard of Creators Syndicate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Creators Syndicate) -- Forget the freebie trips across the Atlantic and the Pacific. Forget the casinos and the allegedly illicit contributions -- they represent only degrees of avarice.

To grasp the moral bankruptcy of the public Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, you only have to know about Frank Murkowski and Saipan.

Today, Frank Murkowki is the governor of Alaska, but from 1980 to 2002, he was a conservative Republican senator from Alaska. How conservative? His voting record earned him zero ratings from organized labor's AFL-CIO and the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, and perfect 100s from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Conservative Union.

But as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Frank Murkowski became furious at the abusive sweatshop conditions endured by workers, overwhelmingly immigrants, in the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, of which Saipan is the capital.

Because they were produced in a territory of the United States, garments traveled tariff-free and quota-free to the profitable U.S. market and were entitled to display the coveted "Made in the USA" label.

Among the manufacturers that had profited from the un-free labor market on the island were Tommy Hilfiger USA, Gap, Calvin Klein and Liz Claiborne.

Moved by the sworn testimony of U.S. officials and human-rights advocates that the 91 percent of the workforce who were immigrants -- from China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh -- were being paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage and were forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, without any of the legal protections U.S. workers are guaranteed, Murkowski wrote a bill to extend the protection of U.S. labor and minimum-wage laws to the workers in the U.S. territory of the Northern Marianas.

So compelling was the case for change the Alaska Republican marshaled that in early 2000, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Murkowski worker reform bill.
But one man primarily stopped the U.S. House from even considering that worker-reform bill: then-House Republican Whip Tom DeLay.

According to law firm records recently made public, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, paid millions to stop reform and keep the status quo, met personally at least two dozen times with DeLay on the subject in one two-year period. The DeLay staff was often in daily contact with Abramoff.

DeLay traveled with his family and staff over New Year's of 1997 on an Abramoff scholarship endowed by his client, the government of the territory, to the Marianas, where golf and snorkeling were enjoyed.

DeLay fully approved of the working and living conditions. The Texan's salute to the owners and Abramoff's government clients was recorded by ABC-TV News: "You are a shining light for what is happening to the Republican Party, and you represent everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free-market system"
Later, DeLay would tell The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin that the low-wage, anti-union conditions of the Marianas constituted "a perfect petri dish of capitalism. It's like my Galapagos Island."

Contrast that with what then-Sen. Murkowski told me in a 1998 interview: "The last time we heard a justification that economic advances would be jeopardized if workers were treated properly was shortly before Appomattox."

The "Made in the USA" label means standards of quality and standards of conduct.
But more important than how a product is made is how the people who make that product are treated -- as human beings with innate dignity -- who are free to organize and entitled to a living wage.

DeLay mails 8-page letter to rally his GOP troops
Note cites bogus ethics complaints and spurious suits


By KRISTEN MACK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Tom DeLay is adding a personal note to his re-election campaign.

The Sugar Land Republican congressman has sent an eight-page letter to constituents, written in script and asking for their support as he contends with questions about his ties to an indicted lobbyist, an indictment of his own and political challenges from inside and outside his party.

DeLay sent the letter to thousands of Republicans in the 22nd Congressional District, saying he wanted to answer questions directly and personally.

In the letter DeLay distances himself from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whom he called "one of my closest and dearest friends," during a trip to the Northern Mariana Islands in 1997.

"The notion that Abramoff was a close friend who wielded influence over me is absolutely untrue," DeLay writes. "Jack Abramoff and I were not close personal friends. I met with him only occasionally, in fact less frequently than numerous others who brought issues before Congress ?- never did he receive preferential treatment. To be certain, I knew nothing about the crimes for which he has pled guilty."

Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption charges and is cooperating with a federal investigation.

DeLay's letter hits on familiar points, and addresses what he refers to as spurious lawsuits and bogus ethics complaints.

DeLay's spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty said the letter simply puts in writing what he's been saying all along to people in the district.

DeLay, who is seeking his 12th term, faces three challengers in the March 7 Republican primary.

According to polls, he is likely going to beat off challenges for the Republican nomination.

A Republican primary ... Isn't that held to find the most corrupt Republican Candidate available for that contingency??

Anon

Could be.

Edgarblythe
Sorry to jump in off topic - but I can't PM you (not enough posts)
Thought this would be a good place to catch you.
Wondered if you'd mind me using a quote of yours (below) for my signature?

It would really mean a lot to me - but if you'd rather I didn't,
that would be okay too. I chose them because they have character these quotes - and because they've kept me writing.

Anyway, I'll wait to hear

Endy

Feel free, endymion. Any a2k member that wants to use my words can feel free to do so. I like the attention.

That's great - thanks edgarblythe

Feb. 15, 2006, 2:46AM
DeLay campaign lashes out at a primary foe
Campbell called an 'outsider,' but an aide says he's a 'citizen politician'


By KRISTEN MACK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, forced onto the political defensive by ethical and legal charges, went on the offensive Tuesday, claiming one of his Republican primary opponents has overstated his GOP credentials.

DeLay's campaign said challenger Tom Campbell, a lawyer, has not been active in local party politics and has not voted regularly in Republican primaries.

"Every day he proves he's nothing more than an outsider who isn't concerned with conservative issues or fighting for the priorities of Texas taxpayers," DeLay campaign manager Chris Homan said of Campbell.

Campbell's campaign countered that no pure GOP insider would dare challenge the powerful DeLay, even if he has been weakened by a Travis County indictment relating to campaign finance and a federal investigation into his relationship with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"The fact is that Tom Campbell is like you and me. He is not a career politician like Tom DeLay. He is a citizen politician," said Michael Stanley, Campbell's campaign chairman. "Tom Campbell calls on Tom DeLay to get beyond the negative, immaterial distractions and get back to the real issues that are important to the people of the district."

Republican Party officials in Fort Bend and Harris County, who have close ties to DeLay, said they had neither seen nor heard of Campbell before he filed for office.

"We wouldn't have called him a conservative as far as being a Texas Republican," said Michael Wolfe, chairman of the Harris County Republican Party's candidate's committee.

Campbell is not in agreement with the Texas Republican Party platform, Wolfe said, citing Campbell's stance against a plank to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and another that states children born in the United States of illegal immigrants should be barred from citizenship.

DeLay, who was unopposed in the 2004 primary and won with 80 percent of the vote in 2002, has said he takes all political challenges seriously. His campaign's attacks on Campbell suggest that he wants to head off any groundswell of support for the challenger, an analyst said.

"Is Campbell a threat to DeLay? I find it hard to believe Mr. Campbell is going to win a primary against DeLay. But he doesn't have to win to do damage to DeLay," said Rice University political scientist Bob Stein. "DeLay needs to win with a substantial number of votes, so he can demonstrate that he is the standard-bearer for his party."

The other Republican primary candidates in the 22nd Congressional District are former school teacher Pat Baig and lawyer Michael Fjetland.

poor tommy. reduced to cannibalism. "ummm! tastes like hawk! " :wink:

Delay's Trip to Golf Resort Paid for by Abramoff
Delay's Trip to Golf Resort Paid for by Abramoff
March 2, 2006
ABC News' Gina Sunseri contributed to this report

The paper trail seems so obvious it makes you wonder whether anyone ever worried about getting caught. When Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and his wife flew from Houston to a golf resort in Scotland in June 2000, the first-class airfare cost $14,001, a big-ticket item for a public servant. But someone else paid.

The American Express bills of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January, show he footed the bill for the tickets, in an apparent violation of House ethics rules.

"The source of the travel expenses may not be ... a registered lobbyist," according to the House rules. Abramoff was a registered lobbyist at the time.

DeLay's attorney told The Washington Post last year that DeLay was unaware of the "logistics" of bill payments and did not believe Abramoff paid for the tickets.

"This is a classic example of why the ethics rules have to be reformed," said Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, a nonprofit watchdog group. "The Scotland trip was a trip to play golf, pure and simple, and private interests should not be allowed to finance those kinds of trips and gain influence with members in return."

Abramoff pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy, honest-services mail fraud and tax evasion. Officials said Abramoff had brought corruption to a new level at the Capitol.

"The corruption scheme with Mr. Abramoff was very extensive, and the investigation continues," said Alice Fisher, the head of the Department of Justice's criminal division.

One aspect of Abramoff's corruption scheme was the free trips he provided to politicians to the Super Bowl, a golf resort in Scotland and to the northern Mariana Islands in the South Pacific.

An ABC News hidden camera recorded Abramoff greeting and hugging DeLay as he arrived in the northern Marianas.

DeLay, the former House majority leader, was only one congressman out of dozens who accepted the lobbyist's trips and campaign contributions.

"There are many members of Congress who will not sleep well tonight," said Wertheimer at the time of the investigation. "This is a blockbuster of an investigation that will reach deep inside the power structure."

Federal authorities told ABC News that Abramoff began providing details of his dealings with DeLay and pinpointing a long list of senators and representatives more than a year ago.

At least nine have since returned Abramoff's campaign contributions, and all, including DeLay, have denied any wrongdoing.

Officials told ABC News that the first congressman to be indicted for bribery is expected to be Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio.

I hope every one of them, Democrat and Republican alike, get what's coming to them.

Yeah, but when does that ever happen?