DeLay In Hot Water After Buddies Indicted?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in General PoliticsAhh, the liberal punching bag…Tom DeLay.
Sure, he’s been incredibly divisive and a major force in the partisan politics that split our country. But does he really deserve increased ethical scrutiny?
Well, if most of your political friends were being indicted, doesn’t it stand to reason that you should be looked at too?
The following story points to trouble for Tom DeLay:
AUSTIN – Two political associates of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay were indicted Tuesday on additional felony charges of illegally using corporate money to elect Republicans in 2002.John Colyandro and Jim Ellis were charged with using $190,000 in corporate money to make campaign contributions to GOP candidates for the Texas House in what prosecutors say was an illegal money-laundering scheme.
Mr. Colyandro, former executive director of the Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, and Mr. Ellis, who heads Mr. DeLay’s Washington-based Americans for a Republican Majority, were indicted earlier on money-laundering charges. Tuesday’s charges focus on the campaign contributions. Both defendants deny wrongdoing.
Mr. DeLay, the Sugar Land Republican who created both political action committees, is not charged in the three-year grand jury investigation into allegations of illegal corporate cash in Texas political races.
An attorney for Mr. Ellis complained Tuesday that it was the second time the Travis County district attorney has revised the indictment to add charges.
Does all of this mean that he’s guilty? Absolutely not.
What it does mean is that those around him have cause for concern because they have obviously done things that make them targets for prosecution. And please take heed, the courts seek justice against those who break the law. In other words, they wouldn’t willy-nilly target political scapegoats in Texas, no matter what some may say.
Personally, I hope that DeLay isn’t part of this cadre, but I fear he’s next on the list.
We can only wait and see now…
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 and is filed under General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 14th, 2005 at 8:30 am
I’ve always been sorta’ neutral on Tom Delay…I’ve never been quite sure whether he’s a) the Donks’ Boogeyman du jour or b) a total corrupt sleazeball who’s terribly good at covering his tracks. He very well could be a everything he’s accused of, or he could be a pillar of political virtue in a sea of pigs, splattered with collateral feces.
Being as I don’t have the resources to investigate the guy myself, I’m just left frustrated. I would disagree, however, with your assessment that folks don’t prosecute targets for political reasons, even knowing the prosecution will fail to convict or outright get thrown out. Kay Bailey Hutchison would disagree with you as well, I’d warrant. Jessie Jackson isn’t the only guy in the world who practices that monkey-poo-slinging form of political kung-fu.
All that being said, there’s plenty of reasons for Delay to lose his job. He doesn’t need to break the law to be a crook. Even after Exhibit A of Pork Kills (ie, Katrina), Tom Delay still seems to be wallowing in it. His comments in the following article, about how “efficiently” the government is running, is near criminal in itself.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050914-120153-3878r.htm
September 14th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
As a moderate, secular Republican, I have no love for DeLay. I’d like Congress better if he wasn’t in it. But he’s a survivor, so don’t count on him getting the heave-ho any time soon.