As Tom DeLay entered a courtroom today on charges that he laundered $190,000 in illegal corporate donations, we widened the debate on the impact of money in politics. Working with American Family Voices, we're running a new TV ad that links DeLay's replacement, Roy Blunt of Missouri, to the same kind of money-laundering that landed DeLay in a Texas courtroom and in a whole lot of legal trouble.
Click here to watch our "Laundromat" ad. It's running in Blunt's district for a week. More after the break...
For a year Public Campaign Action Fund and our
Daily DeLay blog have focused intently on Tom DeLay's scandals as an example of what is wrong in Washington and so many state capitals around this country. We are proud that we have led the way in making him the poster-child of political corruption. But, you and I both know that the problem of corruption in politics goes far beyond the fallen former Majority Leader.
In this Congress, the DeLay scandal is not simply a matter of one bad apple in the barrel. Congressional leaders have allowed this corruption to fester and grow in the nation's capital, and so pervasive is this corruption that I worry that the barrel itself is rotting.
It's time to end the corruption, drop the empty slogans, and do something about it.
That's why, with this ad, we're also launching a new website called CleanUpCongress.org. It's dedicated to calling members of Congress on the carpet for their corruption and their failure to embrace a real reform agenda.
American politics is awash in big money. It's bigger than what is happening in a court room in Texas today. But Tom DeLay's troubles give us all an opportunity to prevent the next generation of Tom DeLay's to wield power on behalf of their big money contributors. Today, we're taking action.