House Majority Leader Tom DeLay Indicted
Jonathan Singer
The AP's Larry Margasak has the story.
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
DeLay attorney Steve Brittain said DeLay was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.
GOP congressional officials said the plan was for DeLay to temporarily relinquish his leadership post and Speaker Dennis Hastert will recommend that Rep. David Dreier of California step into those duties.
Reuters is also reporting that DeLay is leaving the Republican Party leadership.
U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said he would "step aside" from his congressional leadership post following his indictment in Texas on Wednesday on one conspiracy count, his office said.
"I have notified the speaker that I will temporarily step aside from my position as majority leader pursuant to rules of the House Republican Conference and the actions of the Travis County District Attorney today," he said in a statement.
Even if DeLay eventually beats the rap, these are tough days to be a Republican, with an indictment of one leader and an insider trading investigation of another.
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Sep 28, '05
I doubt it will be all that tough of a day for the jerks who have usurped control of the Republican party - and the country. The party loyalists will believe the party line that this is a "liberal" (aka "socialist anti-American") set-up, and the insiders will fix things to protect their own. How do you think Grover Norquist, despite the supposed liberal bias in government and the courts and the press, escaped prosecution - or even investigation - for laundering money for Sizemore? In my opinion, things were shut down. The evidence was too clear for it to be anything else. Delay is too big a fish - someone will cut the line and he'll be back to bottom feeding in no time with the rest of the crooks who have taken over the party. And people like me will continue to have no place to go in elections. It's absolutely demoralizing and truly frightening. I urge all lefties to refuse to allow this sort of activity in your own party, or this country is done for.
11:53 a.m.
Sep 28, '05
Drip, drip, drip - the sound of the Republican machine falling apart. There is a reason that Bush is at 40% and this is just one more drop. Every week brings another story and finally the press has decided that they will report and highlight the scandals. The public will not be able to distinguish the facts of the case, but it will register that Delay is charged with a crime, that he is part of a cabal of corruption that starts at the White House and runs through Congress.
I hope that Democrats start pushing the need for a Democratic Congress because Republicans have refused to perform any meaningful Congressional investigations into the most corrupt regime since Teapot Dome. At least Doonesbury is on board.
12:32 p.m.
Sep 28, '05
Is there something wrong with feeling so good about such bad news? I mean, the House Majority Leader was just indicted, and I feel like I won the lottery. Has it come to this?
12:49 p.m.
Sep 28, '05
No Jeff, patriotic Americans always cheer when criminals are arrested, the bad guys have to pay for their crimes, and the good guys win.
Sep 28, '05
Just trying to figure out the program.
Sep 28, '05
I always tend to think about this sort of news from a strategic point of view, so here goes.
I loosely paraphrase the "Art of War" by Sun Tzu -
When your enemy is on a long march through hostile territory, don't attack.
When your enemy runs out of food, don't attack. Let them eat their horses.
When your enemy runs out of water, don't attack. Let them fight each other.
When your enemy lies dying on the road, don't attack. You need not bother.
Sep 28, '05
Becky,
I tend to agree with you that there is a high likelyhood that he'll get off scott free. It seems right now, despite all the scandles going on that there is zero accountablity. In fact there had been none for the last five years.
As I was sitting here, I came up with a strange analogy. Remember the line in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts character is trying to crack open the snail and it pops out and the guy catches it. She says, "Slippery sucker isn't it?"
Sep 28, '05
The post above should have had my name. My apologies for that.
Sep 29, '05
Brownie, DeLay, Frist, Casino Jack, aka DA KILLER, and now GOP Mom-of-the-Year Karen Hughes gets BOOED off the stage in Saudi Arabia when she told the Muslim women how much she loves driving her Hummer all over God's green earth (her words).
Yes, she was BOOED off the stage by Saudi women who say they would rather die, in the street, face up, than be free, like her.
W's charm offense is apparently a bit... offensive... to the people who try to kill us all every day.
1:47 p.m.
Sep 29, '05
Blunt's recent voting record is about 35 "members" more liberal than DeLay's. He's significantly closer to the center of his party.
For these data and results, look here: http://voteview.com/hou109.htm
There is a really cool analysis of the Roberts vote as well.
3:59 p.m.
Sep 29, '05
Paul, that's a pretty fascinating table. As Jeff and Keith note, "the two parties are almost perfectly separated in the liberal-conservative ordering." There is one exception that I can see is Lamar Alexander, a Democrat who scores more conservative than quite a few Republicans.
(Incidentally, the two predicted a 69-31 vote, off by 9. I predicted an 85-12 vote, and the actual total was 78-22. Not bad, given my track record for predictions.
4:38 p.m.
Sep 29, '05
Lamar Alexander is a Republican from Tennessee whose gift to the political world was the plaid, color-coordinated political campaign. Lost early in the '96 Prez Primary, now Senator, also fmr. Gov.