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DeLay's Dodge

The Progress Report. Posted April 20, 2005.


DeLay ducks and covers in a misleading mass-mailing to his constituents.

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Yesterday, in an effort to "to deputize thousands of rank-and-file [supporters] to his cause," scandal-plagued House leader Tom DeLay mass-mailed a set of misleading talking points to his constituents in Houston. The letter signals the serious troubles DeLay is facing back in Texas over his numerous corruption charges. The Dallas Morning News notes that "polls [are] showing his support slipping back home," while DeLay stalwart Paul Weyrich, president of the right-wing Free Congress Foundation, admits that "he may have a problem ... in his district." One analyst calls it "remarkable that after 20 years in Congress, the No. 2 leader in the House would need to shore up support back in a district whose lines he personally approved during the last round of redistricting." (To see what you can do to hold DeLay accountable, check out www.DropTheHammer.org.) DeLay is desperate, and his deceptive memo tells the tale -- we pick apart some of the more misleading statements below.

Conservative Criticisms
DeLay's memo is misleading from the get-go. Its title reads, "Fact versus Fiction: The Left-wing 'Case' Against Tom DeLay." By ignoring high-profile criticisms from the Wall Street Journal, David Brooks, Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Reps. Christopher Shays and Tom Tancredo, and at least ten conservative ex-congressmen, the DeLay memo falsely suggests that the desire for open and honest congressional leaders is a strictly "liberal" concern.

Delay Admits Violations
The memo falsely claims that Tom DeLay "does not stand accused of any violation of any law or rule in any forum and has never been found to have violated any law or rule by anyone." DeLay himself has admitted violating House rules: in December, for example, DeLay acknowledged accepting contributions to his legal defense fund from lobbyists. The trust admitted that the lobbyist contributions violated House ethics rules and returned the contributions.

Scandals -- Numerous and Serious
DeLay's letter speaks of "a laundry list of unfounded attacks" and "unsubstantiated allegations." The truth is the list of DeLay's possible ethics violations is long and serious. DeLay was rebuked by the Ethics Committee three times (before he dismantled it) for attempted bribery on the House floor, using taxpayer money to track an airplane in which his political opponents were traveling, and promising a "seat at the table" to an energy company which contributed to his PAC. Recently, reports have surfaced indicating DeLay took at least two trips underwritten by foreign business interests (in a likely breach of House rules) and another financed by an Indian gambling interest which had been promised access to the House leader by corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. DeLay also took a $100,000 check from a private prison company that could have benefited from pending prison legislation and used a children's charity, Celebrations for Children Inc., as cover for collecting soft money from anonymous interest groups, some of which he intended to use for assorted fundraising events at the Republican convention in New York.

Delay's "Purge"
DeLay's memo claims that "Changes to the Make Up of the Ethics Committee Were in the Normal Course of House Business." Not so, according to the victims of those "changes." Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), chairman of the House Ethics Committee that publicly rebuked DeLay three times last year, was removed from the panel in February. At the time, ethics watchdogs protested, but "Hefley took the move in stride, saying it was not retaliatory." Hefley has since reversed his position, acknowledging that the move was "very much like a purge." Another dispatched ethics committee member, Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.), said the decision to remove him from the committee "was a direct result of our work in the last session."

Responsible For Crippled Process
DeLay's memo falsely claims that his opponents "refuse to let the Committee meet because they are still trying to politicize the ethics process and block the Committee from doing its work." True, the House of Representatives remains an "ethics-free zone," but it is DeLay who bears direct responsibility for crippling the process. After the committee rebuked DeLay three times last year, it was purged of its most "responsible" members. Two of those members were replaced by loyalists who had actually contributed to DeLay's legal defense fund, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who donated $10,000, and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), who gave the fund $5,000 before winning a seat on the Ethics Committee. He's also responsible for the partisan rule change that prevents the committee "from launching any investigation without the support of at least one Republican -- a restriction designed to protect the majority leader." (Last week, House conservatives "brushed aside" the latest attempts to revive the ethics council, killing a proposal that would have repealed new rules written to protect DeLay from scrutiny.)

Lobbying for Vacations
The memo states that DeLay's trips "to Russia in 1997 and the United Kingdom in 2000 were proper." This is false. According to four different people with firsthand knowledge of the vacation quoted in The Washington Post, DeLay's six-day trip to Moscow was "underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government." The Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives on Gifts and Travel state that "a Member, officer or employee may not accept travel expenses from 'a registered lobbyist or agent of a foreign principal.'" Moreover, an Indian tribe (the Choctaws) and a gambling services company (eLottery) each paid $25,000 to finance the "educational" trip to Britain for DeLay, his wife, two aides and two lobbyists in mid-2000. Both firms were clients of DeLay crony Jack Abramoff, now under investigation by the Justice Department, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, the IRS, the Department of the Interior, and the FBI. Two months later, in July 2000, DeLay helped kill the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which "would have made it a federal crime to place certain bets over the internet and was opposed by eLottery and the Choctaws."

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And...
Posted by: rue on Apr 20, 2005 10:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
not only these points, but Mr. DeLay seems to want to turn the judiciary into lapdogs. He claims "The judiciary has become so activist and so isolated from the American people that it's our job to [hold them accountable for they're decisions]" (c.f. AP, April 20, 2005). He's even aiming at conservative judges such as the supreme court's Anthony Kennedy.

I know that this kind of behavior is not new, that politicians often stretch in this way. However, I'd like to believe that someday that hypocrisy (and come on, Republicans getting up in a tizzy over Clinton but not his is not hypocrisy?) will no longer be tolerated by those who vote our government into their positions of power.

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» RE: And... Posted by: elmysterio
Tip of the iceburg
Posted by: elmysterio on Apr 20, 2005 11:28 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Tom DeLay is one of THE most corrupt people in washington... but he's not the only one... most of the politicals in D.C. are corrupt... it's the culture there... money talks... But the thing about DeLay is that many of his activities are well documented and pretty much undeniable. And if the things we do know that he's done get us all up in arms, just imagine what the things nobody knows about are like! For every scam, every scandal that you hear about, there's many many more that the public just never hears about.

DeLay is the epitome of corrupt politician... I wonder, just how many of the politicals in D.C. have never taken money for favours... Just how many of them still have their souls. I bet you it's a single digit number...

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DeLay is a clown, the evil kind
Posted by: lamar on Apr 20, 2005 1:46 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It doesn't matter whether democrats or republicans are more corrupt. What matters is the Tom DeLay is corrupt, he got caught, and he should resign. My only lament is that he wasn't up for re-election last November when his corruption could have helped influence the presidential contest.

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It's a loooong fall when you speak for GOD.
Posted by: Karieson on Apr 20, 2005 5:33 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
DeLay and his ilk should be held up to a much higher standard than other politicians. When people like DeLay, Bush, Frist, Hastert, Santorum, etc. want to claim that "God is on their side" and that they speak for God - that they somehow have the moral high ground - they should be held accountable for every little inconsistentcy, every sin, every lie. If they are going to claim moral supriority over the rest of us, they damn well better be ready for every little thing, private and political, personal and business, in their lives to be scrutinized. If they aren't perfect all the time, they should be judged, just like they pass judgement over everyone else. Let him who has no sins cast the first stone. Mr. DeLay are you starting to understand why it's not a good idea to mix religion and politics?

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what the heck/
Posted by: susiespf on Apr 20, 2005 8:03 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
i just went to the 'official, house of reps us website, typed in' members of ethics com.' and was told there was no such com. listed. i guess we've been told! vp cheney is recieving an annual stipend from halliburton of 1.5 mil! but this was released quietly last fri., when no one was paying attention. am i the only flipin person to find it outrageous, disgusting, and worthy of outrage and outcry, that the vp is being payed this kind of money, when, oh yeah, let's see, that same flippin company is being payed _billions _ of dollars in unbid! contracts, that both the gao and the defense dept. have declared invalid? most days, i wish that i was from a red state. i'm from wi, my senators and rep are from the beseiged minority. any of you w/ family or friends in the g.d. red states, please get them active w/ their reps. to add insult to injury, my son and a cousin have just finished their time in iraq, and their are 4 kids from our town that i know too well, that will be there for months. i am so angry that this administration is so cynical and greedy. i can only be encouraged by the interview w/ a delay rep. const. in texas- she said"we have a saying- pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered." we can only hope. after all , you can only fool all the people some of the time, right?

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