Tom Delay gets his comeuppance. Finally!
News Item:

The second-most-powerful Republican in the House [Not quite. The Speaker is his former deputy.]Tom DeLay of Texas, rejected calls Thursday from Democrats and watchdog groups that he step down as majority leader after the House ethics committee admonished him for abusing his power.

DeLay, a 10-term House veteran, said he remains focused on fighting terrorism and preventing another 9/11. [He's stealing so the terrorists can't.] "By the Democrats' actions today, it is clear they are focused on something else entirely: a smear campaign," he said.

Republicans must answer - do they want an ethically unfit person to be their majority leader, or do they want to remove the ethical cloud that hangs over the Capitol?" House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.


USA Today says the congressional ethics panel...

...told DeLay that he created an appearance of favoritism when he mingled at a 2003 golf outing with executives of Westar Energy of Kansas.

(A) tournament at a Virginia resort came just days after the executives contributed $25,000 to Texans for a Republican Majority, a fund-raising organization associated with DeLay.

In addition, company executives donated $33,200 to six House campaigns.

The committee concluded DeLay was "in a position to significantly influence" legislation Westar sought because he is a House leader and at the time was involved in House-Senate efforts to negotiate an energy bill.

The legislation sought by Westar was inserted in the energy bill by another lawmaker, but eventually was withdrawn.

DeLay also raised "serious concerns" by contacting the Federal Aviation Administration in 2003 to chase down a Texas Democrat's private plane. State

Democratic legislators were fleeing Texas to prevent Republican state lawmakers from passing a DeLay-engineered redistricting plan.

The K-Steet Project.

(There are so many things Delay is into but here are a few more glaring examples of the shaddy associations this guy is into.)

The K Street Project is a project by the Republican party to pressure Washington lobbying firms to hire Republicans in top positions, and to reward loyal GOP lobbyists with access to influential officials. It was launched in 1995, by Republican strategist Grover Norquist and House majority leader Tom Delay.

[It's not bad enough lobbyist have too much power as it is but the brilliant plan Norquist and Delay came up with is to bully lobbyist to only contribute to republicans and if they don't they don't get what they want. Very insidiuos.]

Tom Delay on the move...

The American Radio project compiled a list of all the congressional trips and who pays for them.

See Power Trips.

See who pays for Delay's travel...

Chris Bell is the former congressman who got the ball rolling on Delay...

From a Chris Bell press release:
(Thanks to Taking on Tom Delay)

The Myth:

"This investigation isn't about me", explained House Majority Leader Tom DeLay Tuesday about his colleague's indictments. "All I did was help raise money. I didn't have anything to do with where it went." As reported in today's Los Angeles Times.

The Facts:

Although Mr. DeLay claims to have no connection with the three associates indicted on Tuesday, his statements do not agree with the facts. According to deposition testimony offered by defendant John Colyandro, the executive director of TRMPAC, DeLay is directly involved with TRMPAC.

DeLay served was the head of TRMPAC's advisory board and was integrally involved in its administration.
According to the deposition testimony of John Colyandro, there were regular conference calls "to discuss matters related to the overall administration of the committee."

"When it came to broadly making decisions about who, which candidates we would support and with what amount of financial assistance, at that point the advisory board was involved with those types of decisions." - John Colynadro, sworn testimony

An October 4, 2002, memo from TRMPAC fundraiser Susan Lilly discussed an upcoming conference call with donors in which Rep. DeLay would "update everyone on TRMPAC's efforts to date and to discuss our strategy for victory in the final weeks of the campaign.

See more on the really despicable story on ripping off the indians and Tom's role in it at Taking on Tom Delay and Inidan Givers:(post this blog Oct. 1)