DeLay: "Yes I raised funds for them."

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Thursday March 10, 2005 · 4:06 AM PST

2005/03/10 · 04:06

The Houston Chronicle covers Tom DeLay's reaction to the subpoenaed emails that surfaced in yesterday's New York Times story. (Cross-posted at Daily DeLay)

There are a handful of interesting things here, which should be picked up by enterprising journalists.

The first is these quotes from DeLay:

"Yes, I raised money for them," DeLay said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, brushing aside any implication that his activities might have been illegal. He has never been named as a target in the criminal investigation.
"Everything that TRMPAC did, they did under the advice of lawyers," he said. "When you have lawyers advising you every step of the way in writing, it's very hard to make a case stick."

ddonnelly

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Tuesday March 08, 2005 · 9:52 PM PST

2005/03/08 · 21:52

Nothing to do but let the story tell itself...

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, March 8 - Documents subpoenaed from an indicted fund-raiser for Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, suggest that Mr. DeLay was more actively involved than previously known in gathering corporate donations for a political committee that is the focus of a grand-jury investigation in Texas, his home state.
The documents, which were entered into evidence last week in a related civil trial in Austin, the state capital, suggest that Mr. DeLay personally forwarded at least one large corporate check to the committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, and that he was in direct contact with lobbyists for some of the nation's largest companies on the committee's behalf.

Read the whole thing Read More

Tom DeLay, This is Your Life! (second installment)

ddonnelly

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Tuesday March 08, 2005 · 10:53 AM PST

2005/03/08 · 10:53

Five years ago today at a hearing before the House Government Reform Committee investigating the 1996 Clinton-Gore fundraising scandals, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) expressed his outrage that the committee chairman, Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) had refused to investigate another scandal surrounding an obscure Texas businessman named Peter Cloeren.

The conservative Republican and tools manufacturer had plead guilty to participating in a conduit scheme, in which campaign contributions were funneled through various vehicles to support the candidacy of one Brian Babin, who later lost his race for a Texas House seat.

According to Cloeren, the scheme was orchestrated by then-House Republican Whip, Tom DeLay. As reported in "The Hammer," by Lou Dubose and Jan Reid, Cloeren told a Waxman investigator how the scheme worked: Read More

Tom DeLay, This is Your Life! Ten Years Ago Today...

ddonnelly

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Thursday March 03, 2005 · 11:28 AM PST

2005/03/03 · 11:28

Wonder what Tom DeLay was doing to cut deals for special interest donors a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago? With a more than 20 years serving in Congress, the record is rich with examples. Join us for a frightening journey through time, as we expose these dastardly doings.

* * *

Ten years ago today, as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, DeLay led the charge to push an amendment through committee that prohibited the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from encouraging car pools and enforcing rules for cleaner tailpipe emissions as ways for localities to meet clean-air standards. DeLay's district in Houston was directly affected, as the town's air was too dirty to meet federal standards. (source: Josh Johnson, "Emissions Delay Sails Through Committee," Houston Chronicle, March 3, 1995, p. A2.) Read More

WaPo: DeLay vulnerable in district

ddonnelly

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Thursday March 03, 2005 · 3:55 AM PST

2005/03/03 · 03:55

Last year, no one believed that DeLay was touchable in his district. A first-time candidate, Richard Morrison, wwas running against him, and DeLay had an enough cash advantage.

But with the ethics scandals and a changing district, my organization's political project, Campaign Money Watch, conducted a poll in early October 2004 and determined that DeLay was vulnerable. As we began to act on this info -- reach out to other organizations, potential funders, and strategists -- we were discouraged by far too many allies who should have been there by our side.

Over the last ten days of October, we spent approximately $165,000 in the district to educate voters with a radio and TV ad. Democracy for America did the same with a TV ad. DeLay poured millions in to defend himself and attack Morrison. Read More

Gaping loophole for wealthy in bankruptcy bill; DeLay poised to fast-track it

ddonnelly

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Wednesday March 02, 2005 · 6:24 AM PST

2005/03/02 · 06:24

There's a bad bankruptcy bill being debated in the Senate this week.

cross-posted at Daily DeLay

Today's New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/business/02bankrupt.html) has a new twist on it -- there is a big, gaping loophole for wealthy Americans in the bill:

"The loophole involves the use of so-called asset protection trusts. For years, wealthy people looking to keep their money out of the reach of domestic creditors have set up these trusts offshore. But since 1997, lawmakers in five states -- Alaska, Delaware, Nevada, Rhode Island and Utah -- have passed legislation exempting assets held domestically in such trusts from the federal bankruptcy code. People who want to establish trusts do not have to reside the five states; they need only set their trust up through an institution in one of them."

No surprise here. The credit card companies and big banks wrote it. Read More

Proof that Tom DeLay is Politically Radioactive?

ddonnelly

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Wednesday January 05, 2005 · 12:36 PM PST

2005/01/05 · 12:36

Here's the text of an op-ed I had published in the Houston Chronicle today:

Proof Tom DeLay is Now Politically Radioactive?
Negative opinion may have caught up with powerbroker

Monday's stunning reversal by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and the Republicans in Congress on the so-called DeLay Rule caught all by surprise, including those of us in the midst of the effort to hold politicians accountable for these types of actions.

But it shouldn't have. There are three reasons why DeLay caved on the provision, which was enacted by the House Republican conference back in mid-November and was designed to protect him if he gets indicted for his role in the on-going investigation into corporate fund-raising in Texas politics: constituent anger; a measurable rebellion among House members that emboldened House Democrats; and the growing sense that DeLay is becoming politically radioactive. Read More

Republicans reverse themselves on DeLay Rule, ethics changes

ddonnelly

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Monday January 03, 2005 · 5:59 PM PST

2005/01/03 · 17:59

In a surprise reversal, Hastert, DeLay & Co. reversed themselves by reinstating the rule that indicted members of Congress had to relinquish their leadership positions, effectively reversing the DeLay Rule. They also dropped the controversial package of proposals to weaken ethics guidelines. Citizens win, corrupt Congressional leaders lose. Chalk this up as the first of several victories of 2005.

News story here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050104/ap_on_go_co/house_ethics

Public Campaign Action Fund will release a statement soon on the Daily DeLay blog a http://dailydelay.blogspot.com.

ACT NOW: Overturn the DeLay Rule

ddonnelly

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Monday January 03, 2005 · 10:16 AM PST

2005/01/03 · 10:16

Within the next day or so, the full Congress is likely to take up and vote on a measure that, if adopted, would overturn the DeLay Rule. Call your member of Congress (find their number at http://house.gov) or email them through our (Public Campaign Action Fund's) e-advocacy campaign at http://ga3.org/campaign/OverturnDeLayRule.

The DeLay Rule was the first order of business taken up by the Republicans when they got back to Washington after the election. It is named after Tom DeLay because it reversed a rule that said that any member of leadership who gets indicted has to step down. DeLay is widely believed to be under investigation for a corporate fundraising scheme in Texas related to his redistricting power play.

With roughly two dozen GOP members opposing the rule when it was put to a secret vote in November, the Democrats have an opportunity for an early session victory that frames DeLay & Co. as willing to bend the rules for partisan and personal gain.

Sears will cooperate with DeLay-related investigation

ddonnelly for Daily Kos

Community

Thursday December 30, 2004 · 10:04 PM PST

2004/12/30 · 22:04

(From the diaries -- kos)

Sears agreed today to cooperate with Travis County DA Ronnie Earle's investigation into corporate fundraising in Texas. Sears was one of eight corporations indicted (along with three individuals) in the Tom DeLay-hatched scheme to raise corporate money, allegedly launder it through a national Republican party committee, and spend it on races for the Texas state legislature in 2002. The coup de grace for the effort was a new GOP majority in Austin that re-redistricted Democrats out of Congress in a brazen power hungry move.

Sears, which gave a $25,000 contribution, agreed to cooperate fully with Earle, and in a AP quote summarized why this is bad news for DeLay:

"The agreement calls for Sears to cooperate with Texas 'in its prosecution and investigation of any other person for any offense related to the corporate contribution' that Sears made."

Sears is the second company, after Diversified Collections, to turn state's witness. The noose is tightening.

DeLay ad in Houston newspaper (with poll)

ddonnelly

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday December 23, 2004 · 10:58 AM PST

2004/12/23 · 10:58

After a DailyKos reader posted a get out of jail free card with Tom DeLay's likeness on it in response to the DeLay Rule vote in November, Public Campaign Action Fund has been using the theme in our voter outreach, on our blog, and with the press.

Today we are proud to let you know that the idea that first appeared here on dkos is now in print in the Houston weekly newspaper, the Houston Press (the Houston Chronicle rejected the ad for unstated reasons, though we think they were trademark-averse).

You can see the ad at the Daily DeLay blog at http://dailydelay.blogspot.com.
[Update] sorry -- hit post before I edited the poll... forgive me...

DeLay: Back Off Rumsfeld

ddonnelly

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Monday December 20, 2004 · 5:57 PM PST

2004/12/20 · 17:57

Tom DeLay has issued a statement that is worth reading in its entirety, from headline on down:

DeLay: Rumsfeld Criticism Unwarranted, Ill-Timed; Expresses Full Confidence in President's War Cabinet

SUGAR LAND, Texas, Dec. 20 U.S. Newswire -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today praised Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and called on all members of Congress to support the president's war cabinet as elections in Iraq draw near.

"Don Rumsfeld is a historic figure at the Pentagon," DeLay said. Read More

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