Tom DeLay gets his second ethics slap in a week
Oct 7th, 2004 by cadmus
In May of 2002 Westar made a $25,000 contribution to the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC(TRMPAC) which is affiliated with Delay and in June 2002 Delay was part of a fundraiser held by Westar while energy legislation was being considered in Congress. This gives the appearance of impropriety.
In May 2003 Delay’s staff made contact with the FAA to track a plane of Texas Democrats who had left the state to protest a vote on redistricting in Texas. Illegal use of government resources.
I’ll start by saying that I first heard about Tom Delay being investigated last week. That was when I heard an NPR story about the first rebuke concerning Delay making a promise to win a vote. Then yesterday’s announcement on another rebuke. There is a third pending allegation that the committee is holding while it awaits the outcome of a state criminal investigation. This morning when I heard the NPR story I decided to look more deeply into it. When I visited Google News it wasn”t even on the front page. So I clicked the link for US news and had to scroll down to the 6th headline. Maybe this bothers me more than most, but I’m surprised this isn’t getting more play in the media. Well, that just increased my motivation to write about it. I’ll admit I don”t know the intricacies of the story but I have to trust the committee and its report. If I can’t trust that then I might as well stop trusting everything. The fact that Tom Delay was rebuked and the information in the report leads me to one conclusion:
I guess since I’m not from District 22 in Texas I don’t have much say in this except I can ask that Tom Delay no longer remains as House Majority Leader. I wonder if we have any say in that decision? The House Majority Leader needs to be just that, the leader of the party that has the most members in Congress. That, to me, means he or she sets the standard for ALL members of Congress. The HML also is a high profile party representative. That means representing the party to the whole nation. This is one more strike against the GOP. I’m not into inquisitions, no matter who’s leading it and who it’s against, and I think we can keep an even keel in this while asking if we need someone to replace Tom Delay. Some are already calling for his resignation, which is fine to ask for, but if the Ethics committee returns with a response of “Don’t do it again” then a resignation is unlikely. But, here’s the bright spot in the story, voters can choose to not re-elect Tom Delay in November. That’’s a good thing about our government. It’s still “by the people.”
read it: CNN – Tom Delay admonished
read it: Sun Times – DeLay gets his second ethics slap in a week
listen to it: NPR – Delay receives second rebuke
This link leads to the page that has everything about the investigation. The press release, letter to Tom Delay, the memo from the chairman, and the index of all documents reviewed in the investigation.
read it: Ethics committee statement
Links if you would like to send a message:
Delay’s House webpage
Delay’s House Majority Leader webpage
Delay’s campaign webpage
Taking on Tom Delay
Candidate running against Tom Delay: Richard Morrison
