Tom DeLay finally indicted?

BREAKING NEWS
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay indicted on one count of criminal conspiracy by Texas grand jury, according to Travis County clerk's office.

maybe some folks will remember how House Repubs tried to change the rules earlier this year just to protect his ass, but finally had to acquiesce...

They actually did change it, whilst drunk on power after the election. When they realized that their power wasn't actually absolute enough to keep people from writing mean things about them in the media and on the Internets, they changed it back.

I wonder if this will get mentioned on 'Wait. Wait. Don't Tell Me.'?

"In an article on September 9, the Houston Chronicle detailed the good congressman's visit to the Astrodome.

"...DeLay stopped to talk with three young boys resting on cots. The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, 'Now tell me the truth, boys, is this kind of fun?' They nodded yes, but looked perplexed."

Perhaps someone should take this idiot out of his home in the middle of the night, leave him on a bridge for five or six days without food and water, remove him from his children and wife for a few days with no way to know if they're alive, and then ask him if he's having fun."

At the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the president still considers DeLay — a fellow Texan — a friend and an effective leader in Congress.

"Congressman DeLay is a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people," McClellan said. "I think the president's view is that we need to let the legal process work."

A FELLOW TEXAN!

SAM/DEE, DO YOU ENJOY YOUR FELLOW TEXAN(S) AS MUCH?

How can you tell if someone is just creepy or actually a pedophile?

-- Maxwell von Bismarck (chim...), September 28th, 2005. (later)

yeah yeah yeah, e'eybody was sayin' this around the time of Abu Ghraib, too. I oppose the present admin but I do hate it when one or two bad things happen and the left is like "woo-hoo, we won! 'cause umm a couple of news cycles went our way!"

However, if the Republican-Majority-Leader-to-be was preempted because he was gay, that is real news. I haven't heard the commentary yet, but several people have reported to me that CNN's Wolf Blitzer stated that Dreier was blocked at the last moment because he was pro-choice, from Southern California, and had "other issues" -- the last part stated in a low and halting voice.

If true, what is that about, Wolf? If Dreier -- who is one of the most powerful and, frankly, capable members of House Republican leadership -- Chairman of the powerful Rules Committee -- was stopped from stepping into the indicted Tom DeLay's seat because he was gay -- can we finally get beyond the blogs and onto the pages of the New York Times and Washington Post about this real news?

No.

Embattled Rep. Tom DeLay is indicted on a new charge of money laundering by a Texas grand jury

Fun fun!

Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties at the 2000 presidential convention, then diverted some of the excess to longtime ally Roy Blunt through a series of donations that benefited both men's causes.

When the financial carousel stopped, DeLay's private charity, the consulting firm that employed DeLay's wife and the Missouri campaign of Blunt's son all ended up with money, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist recently charged in an ongoing federal corruption and fraud investigation, and Jim Ellis, the DeLay fundraiser indicted with his boss last week in Texas, also came into the picture.

The complicated transactions are drawing scrutiny in legal and political circles after a grand jury indicted DeLay on charges of violating Texas law with a scheme to launder illegal corporate donations to state candidates.

Blunt last week temporarily replaced DeLay as House majority leader, and Blunt's son, Matt, has now risen to Missouri's governor.

The government's former chief election enforcement lawyer said the Blunt and DeLay transactions are similar to the Texas case and raise questions that should be investigated regarding whether donors were deceived or the true destination of their money was concealed.

"These people clearly like using middlemen for their transactions," said Lawrence Noble. "It seems to be a pattern with DeLay funneling money to different groups, at least to obscure, if not cover, the original source," said Noble, who was the Federal Election Commission's chief lawyer for 13 years, including in 2000 when the transactions occurred.

Somehow this disturbs me more than any of the other political craziness that has been going on lately. So judges should not be allowed to vote or donate money to political causes?

...We see a slippery slope here: What if, say, a Supreme Court judicial nominee had been the personal lawyer of someone who has business before the Court? She might have to withdraw her nomination or something. Should there not be any other reasons to withdraw it. Geez, next thing you know, judges and litigants won't even be able to go duck hunting together anymore.

DeLay's lawyers also are seeking to have the trial moved out of
Austin, citing media attention and noting that Austin, widely
perceived as a liberal college town, is ``one of the last enclaves
of the Democratic Party in Texas.''

Ooooooooooooooops!

THERE's your problem, madam!

Contains this much-commented-upon bit right at the end:

...Two years earlier, Reed had worked with Abramoff, fighting a state lottery and video poker legislation in Alabama, largely through that state's Christian Coalition chapter. Financing came from the Mississippi Band of Choctaws, another Indian tribe with casino interests to protect.

In that case, Reed and the Choctaws said the money came from the tribe's non-gaming businesses — although e-mails indicated Reed helped hide the cash's origins by funneling it through other organizations.

Reed had also helped kill a proposed ban on Internet gambling on behalf of eLottery Inc., an Abramoff client eager to sell state lottery tickets on-line. But the Coushattas may have been Abramoff's richest client.

"As Mr. Abramoff had learned with other clients, mobilizing and manipulating the Christian Coalition was an effective way to turn back potential gaming competitors," Dorgan said.

In an e-mail sent to Kathryn Van Hoof, a former outside lawyer for the Coushatta tribe, Abramoff's partner, Michael Scanlon, boiled down Reed's importance to the project: "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them. The wackos get their information [from] the Christian right, Christian radio, e-mail, the Internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote.

Tho i'm disappointed the Washington Times wasn't listed.

"The court's decision to dismiss Ronnie Earle's numerous charges against Mr. DeLay underscores just how baseless and politically motivated the charges were," DeLay spokesman Kevin Madden said, referring to the Democratic district attorney who brought the case.

Its an election moron.

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/04/04/PH2006040400185.jpg http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/07/28/ricky_gervais_narrowweb__200x342.jpg

Oh dear.

Well, it'll allow him a few more smug grins but with the Abramoff deal hanging around and all, still.

Well, yes.

AND Chuck Lidell. They def. need to have a number together.

"I love dancing. Ya gotta love dancing if you’re from Texas."

Unless you're Baptist! Then you gotta damn it to hell.

He refuses to die.

http://mediaspin.com/blog/wp-images/tomdelay_ZOMBIE-NIGHTMARE.jpg

Ha.

sentenced to three years today.

link

appeals will drag this out another couple of years, most likely