Quote:
Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
Tell us again what DeLay did wrong?
I find it a wonder that this hasn't gotten more play.
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In this particular case? (See
here for a sort of recap of what was going on last year). Democrats fled to New Mexico and Oklahoma last year in order to avoid having a quorum to vote on the redrawn maps. DeLay called the FAA (and the Department of Homeland Security, but I'm not sure if the FAA is now part of DoH) to track down their planes so he could help in the efforts to arrest the Dems and haul them back to Austin to vote. Also, he's being admonished for linking political donations to legislation.
The biggest issue, also tied to the redistricting brouhaha, revolves around the PACs that he runs in Texas. The Ethics Committee is holding off on ruling on those until the criminal investigation is over. There was a lot of money laundering going on through the PACs, and the only defense coming out of the DeLay camp has been "we didn't think we were doing anything wrong." Corporations can't give money directly to state campaigns, but they can to "operating costs." Problem is that the PAC ran a fairly lean ship (I think it was one lease and a bunch of cell phones). Other problem is that it's pretty clear that the corporations that gave money could have given a rat's ass about redistricting in Texas. Most were out-of-state companies, and it's pretty clear that the donations were tied to an assumption that they'd get on DeLay's good side if they gave to Texans for a Republican Majority. The DA in Austin has been pretty diligent in pursuing this (two grand jury investigations so far).
I don't know as much about the fourth issue, revolving around DeLay advisors and overcharging Indian casinos for lobbying efforts. (There are some pretty bad e-mails out there that essentially call the Indians morons.) DeLay is entangled in that issue too, and last I heard, one of his former advisors was ducking subpeonas from the Senate.
He was already admonished six days ago for telling another congressperson that he'd give an endorsement to their son's campaign in exchange for a yes vote on last year's medicare bill.
All in all, Tom DeLay is an unethical asshole that will do anything to increase his own power. He also is relentless in his quest to have Republicans dominate the political landscape here in Texas and across the country. I'm surprised more people haven't been paying attention to the redistricting thing in TExas, because that's the model for what he wants to do across the rest of the nation. He tried the same thing in Colorado and Pennsylvania. He's an amazing fundraiser, and as he has been known to say from time to time, he IS the federal government. In this case, I'm for a much smaller government.
