Wasn't that to stop the witch-hunt? The ethics committee cleared him three times last year and yet they keep going after him.
Meanwhile Dems have been doing it all along and it barely makes the news. Hillary Campaign Finance Director charged with fudging numbers for 2000 Hollywood fundraiser http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0107052clinton1.html A staff member of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi reportedly took a fact-finding trip to Spain paid for by a group that Pelosi helped get grants. http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20050405-09022300-bc-us-pelosi.xml Chuck Schumer paid the biggest FEC fine ever for violating spending limits in his campaign. http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york050503.asp http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/frum-diary.asp APR. 6, 2005: DELAYED Seems to me that this morning's front-page attack on Tom DeLay by the Washington Post isn't a story about Tom DeLay at all. The story makes clear that DeLay did nothing wrong. In 1997, he took a trip to Russia paid for (as far as he had any reason to be aware) by the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington D.C. The Center's president, Amy Ridenour, even came along for the trip. The Post describes DeLay's activities on the trip thus: "During his six days in Moscow, he played golf, met with Russian church leaders and talked to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin ...." As if DeLay flew to Moscow in order to hit the links. In fact, the United States had some heavy decisions to make about aid to Russia in 1997 and 1998, and it's not surprising that the then number-three man in the House of Representatives would want to see the situation for himself. It now turns out that the Center defrayed the cost with some doubtful donations from lobbyists, including Jack Abramoff, now the central figure in a major federal investigation of corruption and influence-peddling. Abramoff was representing Russian oil and gas interests with a special interest in influencing US policy toward Russia. Abramoff also joined DeLay and Ridenour on the mission. These dots can certainly be connected in a way that presents an ugly picture of Jack Abramoff's activities. It could easily be suggested that he was trying to circumvent bans on lobbyist-paid travel in order to gain access to a powerful member of the House of Representatives, just the latest in a long list of unsettling allegations about the longtime conservative activist turned multimillionaire lobbyist. But the Post is not satisfied with bagging Abramoff. They want DeLay too, or rather, they want DeLay more. Instead of seeing DeLay as Abramoff's target, they want to insinuate that Abramoff was DeLay's tool. And that case has not even begun to be made. Meanwhile, by amazing coincidence, the Times this morning also offers a big attack feature on DeLay. The Times story makes the point that DeLay's campaign and political action committees - ie, his contributor-funded organizations, not his taxpayer-funded office - employed his wife and daughter at various times, paying them some $4,000 a month each. This practice is not illegal nor is it, alas, even all that uncommon, as the Times itself acknowledges in its story. But while we're on the topic of doubtful practices, can we notice this, please? The Times story is sourced to - and is packed full of quotations from - a series of groups whistled up by George Soros for almost the exclusive purpose of attacking DeLay. (You can read some of the details here.) Maybe the Times should be alerting its readers to the true identity of those sources of these shocked-and-appalled quotations? Or even balancing this bought-and-paid-for expertise with comments from some genuinely disinterested and impartial observers? On 4/13/05, Larry C. Lyons wrote: > That's possible, but the social agenda is a fundimental part of the > parties' current ideological philosophies. I think that the difference > is that here the party in power has much more opportunity to suppress > the scandal. For instance when the Delay corruption scandal initially > broke, the Republicans pushed through a set of changes to the House > Ethics Committee that allows them to easily block any ethics > investigation. > > larry > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:153756 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
