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bburgoyne26
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Joined: 16 Sep 2003
Posts: 2959
Location: Ft. Worth, Texas
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 Posted: 11/18/04 - 16:07 Post subject: Coddling Tom DeLay
I live in Texas and I did not like the way Tom DeLay forced redistricting when it wasn't even due. He is a very devisive politician.
More on the latest:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/11/18/coddling_tom_delay/
November 18, 2004
THE HOUSE majority leader, Tom DeLay, who was cited by the House Ethics Committee for three violations this year and another in 1999, was rewarded yesterday by his fellow Republicans with a rules change that will allow him to keep his leadership position even if he is charged with a serious crime.
This shameful action, coming only 15 days after an election supposedly dominated by pledges of morality and reform, casts a cloud over the House and adds evidence -- if any were needed -- that House Speaker Dennis Hastert, sitting in a chair once occupied by Henry Clay, Sam Rayburn, and Tip O'Neill, provides no more leadership than a cardboard cutout.
.....Bonilla might take care about name-calling. It is true that a local Texas prosecutor has already indicted three DeLay associates on charges of illegal fund-raising for the 2002 legislative elections in Texas -- elections that gave Republicans the majority they needed to redistrict the congressional delegation, producing a swing of five more GOP congressmen from Texas.
However, one of the four admonishments of DeLay from the House's own bipartisan Ethics Committee concerned that same redistricting. And the US Supreme Court has intervened, telling lower courts to take a close look at the charges relating to that redistricting.
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megawill
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Posted: 11/18/04 - 16:10 Post subject: Re: Coddling Tom DeLay
| bburgoyne26 wrote: | I live in Texas and I did not like the way Tom DeLay forced redistricting when it wasn't even due. He is a very devisive politician.
More on the latest:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/11/18/coddling_tom_delay/
November 18, 2004
THE HOUSE majority leader, Tom DeLay, who was cited by the House Ethics Committee for three violations this year and another in 1999, was rewarded yesterday by his fellow Republicans with a rules change that will allow him to keep his leadership position even if he is charged with a serious crime.
This shameful action, coming only 15 days after an election supposedly dominated by pledges of morality and reform, casts a cloud over the House and adds evidence -- if any were needed -- that House Speaker Dennis Hastert, sitting in a chair once occupied by Henry Clay, Sam Rayburn, and Tip O'Neill, provides no more leadership than a cardboard cutout.
.....Bonilla might take care about name-calling. It is true that a local Texas prosecutor has already indicted three DeLay associates on charges of illegal fund-raising for the 2002 legislative elections in Texas -- elections that gave Republicans the majority they needed to redistrict the congressional delegation, producing a swing of five more GOP congressmen from Texas.
However, one of the four admonishments of DeLay from the House's own bipartisan Ethics Committee concerned that same redistricting. And the US Supreme Court has intervened, telling lower courts to take a close look at the charges relating to that redistricting. |
kind of ironic how the party is power tends to bend the 'Ethics' to meet their own agenda...a la the dems of the late 80s...the tide will turn...
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kattzoo
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Location: Happily at the back of the pack
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Posted: 11/18/04 - 21:07 Post subject:
Ridiculous. Changing the rules to protect your own. Of course, I'd expect it of either party or any politician. Then again, maybe I'm just cynical!
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prohemp
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Location: in the cradle of liberty
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Posted: 11/19/04 - 07:42 Post subject:
There's no distinct American criminal class except for the Congress - Mark Twain.
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megawill
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Posted: 11/22/04 - 16:09 Post subject:
| Molly Ivins wrote: |
AUSTIN, Texas -- My, my, gonna be a long four years.
House Republicans have rewritten the ethics rules so Tom DeLay won't have to resign if indicted after all. Let's hear it for moral values. DeLay is one of the leading forces in making "Republican ethics" into an oxymoron.
The rule was passed in 1993, when Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was being investigated for ethics violations. And who helped lead the floor fight to force him to resign his powerful position? Why, Tom DeLay, of course. (Actually, it's sort of a funny story. The D's already had a caucus rule that you had to resign from any leadership position if indicted. The R's changed their rules to match the D's, except they deliberately did not make their rule retroactive, so the highly indicted Rep. Joseph McDade, senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, could, unlike Rostenkowski, retain his seat.)
DeLay has already been admonished by the House ethics committee three times on separate violations of ethics rules. Please note, that is the Republican-dominated ethics committee. The hilarious rationale offered by the R's for the new rule to exempt DeLay is that no one can accuse them of taking the moral low road here because, "That line of reasoning accepts that exercise of the prosecutor in Texas is legitimate."
Uh, that would Ronnie Earle of Austin, who is a known Democrat. One the other hand, Earle is quite noted for having indicted more Democratic officeholders than Republicans, so it's a little hard to argue that this is a partisan political probe. Or it would be, if facts made any difference these days to talk-show screamers.
Showing his usual keen sense of ethics, DeLay has already started a legal defense fund and raised $310,000 since last summer. According to the Austin American-Statesman, half the money has come from Republican House members, who are all dependent on the Republican Steering Committee for their committee assignments and chairmanships.
DeLay has three votes on the 28-member committee and, of course, more clout than anyone else in the House. (See Lou DuBose and Jan Reid's new book, "The Hammer," for more charming details on DeLay's House dictatorship). The other half of the contributions for DeLay's legal defense has come from political action committees, corporations and individuals.
Hey, no worries about corrupting influence there because DeLay already does favors for big contributors to his plain old political action committees, even without additional contributions to his defense fund. Moral values. DeLay is going to give born-again Christians a bad name.
In furtherance of moral values, Congress now has to raise the debt limit by another $800 billion. We actually reached the debt ceiling in early October, but obviously the R's didn't want that vote coming up before the election. Then after they finish spending a staggering amount of money, the R's will return to make Bush's tax cuts permanent.
Now I realize that the Bushies consider it a point of pride to pay not one iota of attention to what the rest of the world thinks about us. But I would like to point out that the rest of the world is holding our paper. And foreign investors have demonstrated elsewhere that they are quite capable of taking alarm over unsound fiscal practices and pulling out completely, leaving bankrupt countries behind.
Speaking of what the rest of the world thinks of us, the matter was nicely summed up by Britain's Daily Mirror with its classic tabloid headline, "How Can 59,054,087 People Be So DUMB?" The Guardian just put a tiny, white-on-black headline: "Oh God."
I realize the "liberal elites" are not allowed to even quote the word "dumb" lest we be accused of "cultural condescension" toward our salt-of-the-earth red-state compatriots. Since I'm a populist happily living in the midst of a quite red state (some of my best friends are named Bubba), I never pay any attention to such horsepoop. But I do resent it when the people running the country think we're so dumb they can rip us off and then tell us to pray.
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sonnylax
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Location: Living in a lollipop and unicorn world
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Posted: 11/22/04 - 16:13 Post subject:
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RexRacer
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Location: A pancake house of ineffable crappiness
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Posted: 11/23/04 - 14:48 Post subject:
From the article:
| Quote: | A review of documents made public through civil litigation indicate DeLay was kept aware of the fundraising activities that were taking place. (DeLay’s daughter was a paid consultant to two fund-raising committees that pumped money into the races.)
Nevertheless, the official familiar with investigation said investigators would have to establish that DeLay "acted to promote" the illegal activity, and that such evidence had not been forthcoming.
"To indict and prosecute someone, we have to be able to show not just that they were aware of something," the official explained. "We have to show that they engaged in enough conduct to make them party to the offense."
There were also jurisdictional hurdles, the official said. |
Issues of jurisdiction do not clean hands make.
Ask anyone with experience in Texas politics, The Exterminator is known for pushing his agenda at any cost.
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