DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe
 

WASHINGTON - A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, forcing the House majority leader to temporarily relinquish his post.

DeLay attorney Steve Brittain said DeLay was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.

"I have notified the speaker that I will temporarily step aside from my position as majority leader pursuant to rules of the House Republican Conference and the actions of the Travis County district attorney today," DeLay said.

GOP congressional officials said Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., will recommend that Rep. David Dreier (news, bio, voting record) of California step into those duties. Some of the duties may go to the GOP whip, Rep. Roy Blunt (news, bio, voting record) of Missouri. The Republican rank and file may meet as early as Wednesday night to act on Hastert's recommendation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050928/..._investigation

My first reaction to this news was "YESSSSSSS! ABOUT FREAKING TIME!!!!" Is that wrong? ;)

ETA: I've been wondering if this would happen for a while, especially since I read this book.

Who knows how this will come out, but this prosecutor has a long trail of crummy indictments and attacks on political rivals.

After her election to the Senate, he indicted Kay Bailey Hutchens. She refused to be bullied, and took it to trial.

In the courtroom, as the trial was to start, the prosecutor announced that he was not going to prosecute the case - after dragging her name thru the mud for ages.

Then he invited his reporter buddies to a hotel suite, showed them the "evidence," hoping to get some favorable press.

Even a blind squirrel finds some nuts, and maybe he has found a few this time, but his history lends doubt.

With DeLay and Frist, not a great week for the Grand Old Party.

DeLay politics may carry heavy price
By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY
Over lunch at the Sunset Grove Country Club in Orange, Texas, businessman Pete Cloeren lamented to Rep. Tom DeLay that he couldn't do more to help his friend Brian Babin get elected to Congress. Cloeren had personally given all he was allowed, and the law wouldn't let him donate money from his plastics company.

DeLay had a solution, Cloeren said. "There are ways we get money moved around the system," Cloeren recalls him saying. "He told us at the lunch table that this was done all the time."

The day after the lunch in 1996, Cloeren says, a DeLay aide called with instructions to donate to several out-of-state political committees and candidates. After Cloeren did so, those committees directed like amounts to Babin's campaign.

Cloeren later pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations, but the man he says advised him escaped any consequences. The Federal Election Commission dismissed Cloeren's complaint against DeLay for lack of evidence, and DeLay denied wrongdoing.

But the scenario Cloeren describes bears a striking similarity to transactions that have led to DeLay's indictment by two Texas grand juries in the past three weeks and his removal, at least temporarily, as House majority leader. One of the most effective House Republican leaders is sidelined as the chamber approaches crucial and difficult votes on spending cuts. DeLay is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday in Austin.

"Based on the allegations, it seems that Tom DeLay has no problem with recommending the use of conduits to hide the source of money going to campaigns," said Larry Noble, director of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which studies money in politics. Noble was chief counsel to the FEC at the time of Cloeren's complaint about DeLay. "He seems to be somebody who likes playing in the gray areas, and occasionally stepping over the line."

DeLay maintains he has never done anything wrong and calls the charges "blatant political partisanship" by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat. "I am innocent," he says. "Mr. Earle and his staff know it. And I will prove it."

DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, charged Monday in a letter to Earle that the prosecutor had "tried to coerce a guilty plea" from his client to a misdemeanor, under the threat that if he didn't do it he would face a felony indictment.

for full article..
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...politics_x.htm

The1calledTKE do you have any articles on how tainted the prosecutor is?

The prosecutor's case is so strong here that a plea offer was provided (and rejected).

-Rudey

I don't but your welcome to post some to put out the other side of the story.

So you aren't interested in the events and news here, you're interested in your "side of the story".

-Rudey

When does one poster post both sides of the story? Not very often. Usually the person that disagrees puts up the otherside of the story, the one they believe in.

I should 100% be a moderator in this forum - thread title changes are in bounds, after all, no?

Well as moderator he has a right to post biased info, stick to "one side", and then attack users like Hoosier (his own brother - a shame) for being biased.

-Rudey

When did I ever I attack him for being biased? I did spoof his use of opinion journal thats about it.

No. That's not about it.

But good tactic.

-Rudey

I'm glad he reads my posts and reacts. Usually he doesn't make personal attacks.

His "spoofs" approach the level of mediocre, as one would expect from some one from Valdosta - where the football stadium is known as the Concrete Palace.

Incidently, neither of us were invited to the Founders Day dinner with Nardelli.

I am glad you agree I don't really make personal attacks. I see that does not stop you with the Valdosta comment.