POLITICS: House Majority Leader Tom Delay Indicted

Originally posted by Zadeh Redux
This is just too much.

Apparently it takes two representatives to fill The Hammer's shoes.

Just announced that Roy Blunt and Dave Dreier will be co-leaders. Hmmmm .... naw ... I ain't goin' there.

politicians have only half a brain, so it takes two to give them enough brains to be anything close to effective??

Really. Is it legal or illegal to raise corporate funds to run in Texas? Isn't this what this is all about?

Oh yeah DJ , Shots you guys should know about politically motivated smear attacks, the Demogogues learned from the best. The Reblicrats will now take the fall in 2006. Woopee the American dog and pony show continues un-abated. US politics is a huge scary joke. The scary part is that they are actively trying to export their verson of politics far and wide.

I posted a story about his PAC, TRM (Texans for a Republican Majority), being indicted a couple weeks back on the illegal corporate contribution charge. I figured it was just a matter of time before the grand jury got around to him.

I think he's guilty, for sure. So are all the rest of the corrupt pundits at the controls of our federal government. It is past time to clean house but good. I hope it snowballs from here.

State law prohibits use of corporate contributions to advocate election or defeat of state candidates.

Pretty straightforward, and

A prominent Texas business group also was charged, in what District Attorney Ronnie Earle called an attempt to funnel "massive amounts of secret corporate wealth" into Texas campaigns.

Yeah, Earle is a Democrat. So what. His job is to prosecute people who break the law. You can call this politically motivated if you want. I call that a copout. Compare it to the Cunningham case. He hasn't even been charged yet, and they're trying to seize his home! What's their motivation?

I guess I'm not fininshed yet. It is obvious that Mr. Delay himself is the one introducing partisanship into politics in this case, not D.A. Earle.

In Austin, Earle told reporters, "Our job is to prosecute abuses of power and to bring those abuses to the public." He has noted previously that he has prosecuted many Democrats in the past.

Here's a little timeline of Delays activities that pretty much speaks for itself.

Key events and controversies during Tom DeLay's House tenure:

1984: Elected to represent the 22nd District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives.

1994: Elected majority whip.

July 1997: DeLay was part of a group that tried, but failed, to oust House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

October 1998: DeLay attacks the Electronics Industries Alliance for hiring former Democratic Rep. Dave McCurdy as its president and later receives a private rebuke from the House ethics committee.

November 2002: Elected majority leader.

September 2004: Grand jurors in Texas indict three DeLay associates - Jim Ellis, John Colyandro, and Warren RoBold - in an investigation of alleged illegal corporate contributions to a political action committee associated with him.

September-October 2004: DeLay is admonished by the House ethics committee on three separate issues. The committee chastised DeLay for offering to support the House candidacy of Michigan Republican Rep. Nick Smith's son in return for the lawmaker's vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. The panel said DeLay created the appearance of linking political donations to a legislative favor, and that he had improperly sought the Federal Aviation Administration's intervention in a Texas political dispute.

January 2005: House Republicans reverse a rule passed in November 2004 that would have allowed DeLay to keep his leadership post if indicted.

March 2005: Media reports spur Democrats to question DeLay's relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under federal investigation. Delay asks the House ethics committee to review allegations that Abramoff or his clients paid some of DeLay's overseas travel expenses. DeLay denies knowing that the expenses were paid by Abramoff.

April 2005: House Republicans scrap controversial new ethics committee rules passed earlier in the year that would have made it harder to proceed with an ethics investigation. Democrats charged the rules were meant to protect DeLay.

September 2005: Ellis and Colyandro are indicted on additional felony charges of violating Texas election law and criminal conspiracy to violate election law for their role in 2002 legislative races

Source

Good work on all points raised...

personally, I think all politicians and there campaigns should be audited by the IRS or other overbearing heavy handed agency...

Political corruption is America is a true evil, and greed is its acolyte...
we must get the corruption out of office, if we are to ever have a true free market system, and not a "good ol boys support the good ol boys" club that we have now.
Networking is great...
but america doesn't exist in a true form until competition is kept fair, and no bid contracts become a shame of the past.
sorry for the rant...
but I am pleased to see any politician being called to answer for his actions.

First of all I am glad that the corruption that is now taking hold of the Republican Party is finally coming to light.

The two most “Self righteous and most conservatives” in the Republican Ranks have been charged.

Frist, will face charges of insiders trade, and DeLay on “Conspiracy Charges”

Regardless of some that think “This is not going to stand” I am going to shared something about “Conspiracy Charges”

This charges are very easy to file and to get to court, anybody can be brought up on conspiracy charges.

The reason they charges are now for DeLay is because already two of his people has been “Indicted”.

All the court needs is a link to anybody that is “Indicted” to file the charges.

Even when the Charges are hard to prove without and “Insider” they are very much sure that one of DeLay partners will talk.

Welcome to the reality of our political leaders, they are after all bought and pay by corporations, greed and power.

Sorry this belong on another post I have not clue how it got here.

[edit on 28-9-2005 by marg6043]

Ronnie Earle (The D.A. pressing the charges) is the same political hack that indicted Kay Bailey Hutchison 3 times unsucessfully. The last time the judge threw the case out, Earle took all the reporters back to his hotel room and released all the private sworn testimony to them since he couldn't win anything in court.

This Earle clown has already had ethics charges brought against him several times. I seriously doubt that this is going to go anywhere. Both Earle, and the charges are going to be thrown out on their ear when this all comes out. He's just ticked at Sen. Delay from all the redistricting that's been done recently.

You can read the whole indictement here.
news.findlaw.com...

Originally posted by djohnsto77
It's usually quite easy to get an indictment out of a grand jury, but in this case the D.A. went through six grand juries before he was able to find one that would indict him on anything, and in the end it was just one count of the least serious charge he was seeking. This guy is a serious Democrat partisan using his position for politcal reasons, he even mentioned his going after Delay at a Dem political fundraiser as a rallying cry. It's disgusting, it's this D.A. who belongs indicted for crimes.

I know you can probably get an indictment on a sock if you tried hard enough. Six tries huh? That is pretty sad. But putting aside Democrat versus Republican did he do what he is accused of? Using it as a rallying cry is bad taste. That seems to be politics of today. But the bottom line is... did he do it? Anything else is just spin. Doesn't matter what the Democrats or Republicans think. Did he break the law? If so then he needs to pay the price just like every other American.

Just my 2 cents.

Originally posted by dbates
Ronnie Earle (The D.A. pressing the charges) is the same political hack that indicted Kay Bailey Hutchison 3 times unsucessfully. The last time the judge threw the case out, Earle took all the reporters back to his hotel room and released all the private sworn testimony to them since he couldn't win anything in court.

This Earle clown has already had ethics charges brought against him several times. I seriously doubt that this is going to go anywhere. Both Earle, and the charges are going to be thrown out on their ear when this all comes out. He's just ticked at Sen. Delay from all the redistricting that's been done recently.

You can read the whole indictement here.
news.findlaw.com...

Earle may be smeared as an aggressive prosecutor that's seen Walking Tall one too many times, but he's no partisan hack.

His highest profile prosecutions to date include a Democratic state supreme court justice, a Democratic attorney general, a Democratic state treasurer, and a Democratic speaker of the Texas House. He simply takes on corruption in any form.

His roster including wins and losses.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, 1994: Acquitted of official misconduct and records tampering after Earle dropped the case during the trial.

Former state Rep. Betty Denton, D-Waco, 1995: Sentenced to six months probation and fined $2,000 for listing false loans and contributions on campaign finance reports.

Former state Rep. Lane Denton, D-Waco, 1995: Sentenced to 60 days in work-release program and six years probation, fined $6,000 and ordered to pay more than $67,000 restitution after being convicted of theft and misapplication of fiduciary property for funneling money from the Department of Public Safety Officers Association to a Denton company.

House Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort Worth, 1992: In plea bargain, Earle dropped more serious charges when Lewis pleaded no contest to failing to disclose a business investment. Lewis was fined $2,000, and the judge said he took into consideration that Lewis was retiring from public office.

Attorney General Jim Mattox, Democrat, 1985: Acquitted on felony bribery charges. Won re-election.

State Rep. Mike Martin, R-Longview, 1982: Pleaded guilty to perjury after lying about having himself shot to gain publicity. Did not run for re-election.

State Treasurer Warren Harding, Democrat, 1982: Pleaded no contest to official misconduct and dropped re-election bid.

Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Yarbrough, Democrat, 1978: Sentenced to five years for lying to a grand jury and forgery. Gave up seat.

Earle and even this case aside, Delay is a crook. Your own Republican colleagues don't admonish you on multiple ethics violations and then change the House rules just so you can keep your job because you're a saint. Tom Delay makes Newt Gingrich and Ted Kennedy look sincere. He's filthy as they come. I don't know if this will go anywhere, but if it does it's due.

I wouldn't worry though. There hasn't been a prominent Republican criminal in 30 years we couldn't pardon and pin a medal on.

I'm not posting to discuss this issue, but rather to open another forum of research for everyone here who really wants to get to the bottom of this case, as I do, instead of running with few facts because it's what you want to hear or what you fear hearing.

Read the indictment and ask yourself when you're reading it, what the charges against Delay are and what the evidence against him is.

Then look into Ronnie Earle, the man prosecuting this case, and his history of such indictments against other political giants. Read through the information and see what the end result of the court cases usually were, if they were even tried. Then observe what he did after the cases were over.

Then I ask you to assess for yourselves this situation, but watch as the case develops, paying attention to the detail through multiple sources. Don't let your hatred or your fear blind you to the facts of the case. We aren't stupid here at this site, and when we choose to, we can see past the hype into the true meat of the situation.

I was going to go into how this money is the same money that got the representatives elected who did the redistricting off-cycle that gained their party five seats in the U.S. Congress. How the FAA and DHS aided in the tracking of the wildcat members of the Texas legislature who fled to Oklahoma a year or two ago in fear for their safety, or whatever.

I was going to go on about the cronyism that lead to the FEMA-NO debacle, the lies that lead to the war with Iraq, and the recent efforts to suspend Posse Comitatus.

But Tim Ryan, D-Ohio beat me to it in a masterful speech on CSPAN just now. Keep an eye on that guy.

[edit on 28-9-2005 by Icarus Rising]

I just sit back and laugh. Delay is as corrupt as they get. As many of us predicted (Myself included) Delay and the rest of them peaked right before the whole Terri Schiavo debacle. They then spend ALL of thier political capital they had on that mess and have none left Boo Hoo.

Even if the prosecutor was a Republican, there seems to be enough dirt on Delay that even the most ardent Republican hack would have to indict him.
As the Governator says "Were there is smoke there is fiyah"

Speaking for myself, I have had my fill of Texas politicians from both parties Mass too.

Earle and even this case aside, Delay is a crook. Your own Republican colleagues don't admonish you on multiple ethics violations and then change the House rules just so you can keep your job because you're a saint.

I feel RANT is right on the money here, now why cant someone just come out and say this?

I'm dead serious. Anyone who can't see this is just a political witch hunt is blind.

What do you say to the list presented by RANT, djohnsto77? Your towing of the party line is especially frightening in this case because it is immediately disproven.

Westar

www.texasobserver.org...
May 2002: an executive at Westar Energy discovered his company was about to make a political donation that, on its face, seemed rather odd. Westar Executive Vice President Douglas Lake didn't understand why his Kansas-based energy company with no operations in Texas and no stake in the state's elections would give $25,000 to a Texas congressman's PAC that operates solely in Texas campaigns.

Lake emailed a colleague. Westar Vice President Douglas Lawrence responded that contributions to DeLay were necessary to get "a strong position at the table" during a House-Senate conference committee hammering out a federal energy bill...

Enron

www.washingtonpost.com...

In May 2001, Enron's top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year.

DeLay requested that the new donation come from "a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron's executives," with the understanding that it would be partly spent on "the redistricting effort in Texas," said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson

Rep. Billy Tauzin Fundraiser

www.tpj.org...

A newly obtained memo indicates U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had personal involvement in directing some of the fund-raising activities of a political action committee that is under a grand jury investigation.

... I believe that this nation sits at a crossroads. One direction points to the higher road of the rule of law. Sometimes hard, sometimes unpleasant, this path relies on truth, justice and the rigorous application of the principle that no man is above the law.

Now, the other road is the path of least resistance. This is where we start making exceptions to our laws based on poll numbers and spin control. This is when we pitch the law completely overboard when the mood fits us, when we ignore the facts in order to cover up the truth.

Shall we follow the rule of law and do our constitutional duty no matter unpleasant, or shall we follow the path of least resistance, close our eyes to the potential lawbreaking, forgive and forget, move on and tear an unfixable hole in our legal system? No man is above the law, and no man is below the law. That's the principle that we all hold very dear in this country.

~ Majority Whip Tom Delay R-TX, 1998 (on why the President of the United States should be IMPEACHED)


[edit on 28-9-2005 by RANT]

You know people do have political enemies within their own parties, especially a few years ago in Texas when there wasn't really a Republican presence. Just because he has indicted members of his own party in the past, doesn't mean this wasn't political.

Typical Texas Justice, I'ts total BS.

This state I live in is the worst place in the world to get justice especially in politics or for the poor.

We kill more people except China for high felonies but we haven't agreed to harvest organs from felons yet or we would be first instead of second. This state sucks when looking at it from an indicted persons eyes.

I think he'll be convicted because these people down here are stupid.

The man didn't do a thing wrong but if you think he did then don't worry because Texas will convict him anyway IMO.

Have a good night.

I don't think he'll be convicted. I think Ronnie Earle will decide that, as it goes to trial, to tell the judge that (s)he's too biased towards the Republicans and won't allow the evidence to be admitted to the court, so he's going to drop the charges. Then he'll hold a mock trial with the press where Delay can't say a thing nor defend himself, expose private information he said would never get out, and try to convict Delay via spin and the American public, because he knows he won't get a court conviction. Again.

Let's face it, the guy has been a very effective politician and fundraiser.

Like Tim Ryan said in his speech last night, its the incredible amount of money involved in the business of politics, and riding on the outcomes of legislation, that has our elected leaders compromising their moral values and the public trust.

Another valid point he made was the spotlight being on prominent Republicans right now is a direct result of their control of the House, Senate, and Presidency. They are in the position to cut the deals that get the dirty work done. Or not.

The cronyism at FEMA and the FDA, no-bid contracts to Halliburton and Co., what appears to be collusion to defraud voters of representation, the questionably motivated war in Iraq, the increasing role of the military at home, the list goes on and on and points in the wrong direction

The three Democrats ranting at the empty house last night, Ryan, Meeks, and a lady from Florida whose name I can't recall right now, went on like they were trying to start a moral crusade. It will take a lot more than the three of them. How can moral responsibility to the people be re-imposed on our federal government in the face of the fiscal and other temptations offered to the cesspool of liars and sellouts that Washington has become?

I find it difficult to hold out any hope they will succeed, but I cling to it desperately, nonetheless. But hey, that's just me.

If Delay gets off I will have to wonder about the tactic he used to do so given the following statement from Delay himself.

"The judges need to be intimidated..." --House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
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