LA Times:"GOP Loses a Powerful Enforcer" Tom DeLay

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote]The indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) undercuts one of President Bush's most powerful allies at a time when the GOP is already battered by other ethics controversies, plummeting public confidence and intraparty divisions over budget policy.

The departure from the leadership ranks of DeLay, a commanding figure in the House's machinery for enforcing party discipline, could hamper Republicans' ability to advance political and legislative agendas.

Still, Republican colleagues rallied around DeLay and embraced his view that the indictment — by a Texas grand jury on a charge of violating state campaign finance laws — was politically motivated.

"This is the first day of a war," said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.). "This was a cheap shot against Tom DeLay, and he was indicted because he was majority leader. If we abandon Tom DeLay, we're abandoning ourselves."

Some Democrats tried to restrain their glee at the legal troubles of a GOP leader they had demonized. "Don't write that I'm smiling," said one House Democrat on learning the news.[/quote]

[url="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-assess29sep29,0,3017354.story?coll=la-home-headlines"]this story from HERE[/url]

The Dems have become the hate bush party… they think they can stop the GOP by using the same tactics the GOP used in the 90s.
Except the Republicans of the 90s uncovered REAL scandal after REAL scandal

So they tried to get Bush on anything … ANY THING! And the best they could do was forged documents on 60 minuets
They attacked Cheney and Halliburton, and tried to make a connection to Iraq, Trent Lott was unjustly taken down (the whole situation was stupid politics at its worst – and scored no real points for anyone), and then they turned to Tom DeLay; but after nothing really stuck and some dirt tossed horribly backfired --- they turned to Carl Rove … again, nothing there.
Surely there must be a REAL scandal in the Bush administration after there were so many good ones in the Clinton administration.

But then they have an indictment … a weak one – but they have it
(applause)


political points scored?

[Kilroy the Ninja]

This particular Texas DA has also gone after every other big Texas Republican senators - like Kay Bailey Hutchinson, etc - and has had those cases overturned due to being unsubstantiated (or something like that).

Ronnie Earle (the DA), is a very bitter Democrat trying to grasp at straws and air to 1) promote his party and 2) get 15 more minutes.

[Lounge Daddy]

im reading an interesting article right now about Earle...

[quote]Ronnie Earle, the Texas prosecutor who has indicted associates of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in an ongoing campaign-finance investigation, dropped felony charges against several corporations indicted in the probe in return for the corporations' agreement to make five- and six-figure contributions to one of Earle's pet causes.

A grand jury in Travis County, Texas, last September indicted eight corporations in connection with the DeLay investigation. All were charged with making illegal contributions (Texas law forbids corporate giving to political campaigns). Since then, however, Earle has agreed to dismiss charges against four of the companies — retail giant Sears, the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, the Internet company Questerra, and the collection company Diversified Collection Services — after the companies pledged to contribute to a program designed to publicize Earle's belief that corporate involvement in politics is harmful to American democracy.

Some legal observers called the arrangement an unusual resolution to a criminal case, at least in Texas, where the matter is being prosecuted. "I don't think you're going to find anybody who will say it's a common practice," says Jack Strickland, a Fort Worth lawyer who serves as vice-chairman of the criminal-justice section of the Texas State Bar.

Receiving less attention was the grand jury's decision to indict the eight companies for making allegedly illegal contributions to TRMPAC. In addition to Sears, Cracker Barrel, Questerra, and Diversified Collection Services, the group of indicted companies included Bacardi USA, Westar Energy, Williams Companies, and the trade group Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care. Under Texas law, corporations are not allowed to contribute directly to political campaigns, but are allowed to fund the administrative expenses of a political committee.

After the indictment, Earle announced that his prosecutors had uncovered "the outline of an effort to use corporate contributions to control representative democracy in Texas."

The companies denied wrongdoing. Two sources with extensive knowledge of the case involving one of those companies, Sears, spoke at length to NRO and say that Sears executives were convinced the company had done nothing illegal when it contributed $25,000 to TRMPAC. Given that, according to the sources, Sears lawyers were not interested in a plea bargain to end the case. "We were pretty confident that we would win," one source says.

When the company's representatives spoke to Earle, they discovered that the prosecutor was not as adamant about prosecuting them as his public words might have suggested. Indeed, the sources say Earle was willing to drop the charges, providing Sears met a few of his conditions.

First among those, according to the sources, was that Sears make a significant contribution to an organization known as the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University. The Center is devoted to something called "deliberative polling," which was developed by a Stanford professor (and Earle acquaintance) named James S. Fishkin.[/quote]

[url="http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200509290811.asp"]amazingly interesting... article HERE[/url]
would this a form of extortion?
to say to a company "you donated to this organization - i dont like this organization because im a partisan... and a lawyer... " then you get this comapany pulled into a grand jury case but excuse them if they also donate to your own oranization (which happens to oppose the first group - and is also run by your friend)

i dunno - but it sounds ... kinda ...

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote][font="Courier"][b][u]Rep. DeLay Admits to 'All Specific Charges'[/u][/b]
[url="http://www.scrappleface.com/MT/archives/002346.html"]by Scott Ott[/url]

(2005-09-30) -- Rep. Tom DeLay, R-TX, who yesterday stepped down as House Majority Leader after a Texas grand jury indicted him, today confessed that he had "committed every specific offense enumerated in the indictment."

The three page 'bill of indictment' contains the specific allegation that the Texas lawmaker waived his right to avoid prosecution under the law.

Texas law requires that an indictment for criminal conspiracy be presented within three years of the alleged offense, but this one missed the deadline by 15 days.

"I cannot tell a lie," said Mr. DeLay, "I knowingly waived my right to legally dodge prosecution. Since I did this on the advice of my attorney, I guess that's what you call your criminal conspiracy. I feel dirty."[/font][/quote]