October 19, 2005

Arrest warrant issued for DeLay Pardon my NewsFilter, but this was interesting to read. DeLay, until recently speaker of the U.S. House, is accused of laundering money to contribute to other Republican campaigns. DeLay's defense says the prosecution is politically motivated.

I didn't see a DeLay thread, so . . . here we go.

posted by petebest 19 years ago
  • Ha HA!
  • I heard it here first. This should be an interesting thread indeed!
  • But seriously, the line about it being politically motivated is bunk. The prosecutor in charge of it all has gone after something like 12 Dems and 3 Republicans, when he's a Dem himself, so his history doesn't bear it out. Which isn't to say that's it absent of political motivation, just not the prime motivation. From what I've heard so far, it's a pretty clearcut case of violating election laws. No corporate money to local candidates, so the corporate money went to Texans for a Republican Majority, who then donated that same amount to the local candidate. Anyone who has seen any mob movie knows you NEVER launder money by taking the exact same amount out that you put in. Makes the tracing all too easy. Which suggests that DeLay is a) a moron, b) chock full o' hubris, or c) both. Looking forward to this mugshot. Smoking Gun, don't fail me now!
  • I can't wait to see his perp walk.
  • best news I have heard all day
  • Not disparaging the post, but everyone knew this was going to happen today for a while. Interesting how anything about how bad America sucks and the fundies are taking over and "lets all move to Canada" appears instaneously, but people barely seem to notice the Bush facade is rapidly crumbling (39% approval, Miers pisses off conservatives AND liberals, Delay AND Frist under investigation)
  • Well, no. He was never Speaker of the House, but rather Majority Leader.
  • woohoo!
  • people barely seem to notice the Bush facade is rapidly crumbling I'm pretty skeptical about the Bush facade sustaining serious damage; they've been teflon so far through a veritable typhoon of ill-news. Supposedly recent opinion polls back that up by showing that traditional Bush supporters are just as solid as ever. So that slowly dropping 39% is just winnowing off the few moderates and swing-voters who still supported Bush, and those are the types who are easiest to get back later. Delay and Frist are under highly vulnerable, but there are hungry Republicans waiting in the wings sharpening their knives, drowling for their own chance at the head of the machine. The hyper-ambitious, no-holds-barred environment of the GOP replaces these guys in an instant. As for Miers, some well known conservative at a right-wing think tank just got canned for speaking out of turn against her.
  • Personally, I'm wondering that if the Bush machine cracks up it won't be for lack of support, but rather for loss of talent. DeLay is on the way out, but will his successor be able to run the machine as effectively? If Karl Rove becomes radioactive, will there be a strategic mind capable of taking his place? Just comparing the relatively poor performance of Scott McClellan to Ari Fleischer shows how Bush admin success could be reliant on a few key people.
  • I loves an implosion.
  • >DeLay's defense says the prosecution is politically motivated. Pity party on the count of three.
  • In an related story, Mr. DeLay shows reporters his technique for pleasing his future cell mates.
  • Supposedly recent opinion polls back that up by showing that traditional Bush supporters are just as solid as ever. Well of course they are, but who really gives a crap when mainstream America is turning against Bush in a big way. The shocking truth is that a lot of people in the US are rational, thinking human beings, even in the Red States, and they are getting sick of the crap. Nixon also coasted through the '72 election despite Watergate starting to develop. The big question is, will Bush survive scandal and be sanctified upon his death (Reagan) or leave office in disgrace (Nixon)? My personal opinion is that he will go the Nixon route.
  • allow me to go ahead and pre-emptively make the next comment: a lot of people in the US are rational, thinking human beings No they're not. You're all stupid imperialist fundie bigots. Bush will change the constitution and rule for life because you are all so stupid and backwards and did i mention the term "red states" because damn I love that term. posted by monkeyFromCanadaUKorAustralia at 11:14PM UTC on October 19, 2005
  • The hyper-ambitious, no-holds-barred environment of the GOP replaces these guys in an instant. Think of it as Intelligent Design™ in action.
  • How long until the mug shot gets on The Smoking Gun?
  • ps: international monkeys, I kid. I love you guys.
  • I know the SOB's guilty, and I say we get a confession out of him "Git-mo style."
  • oh Bluehorse! would that not be a most fitting turn of events?
  • Wow, senddelaytogitmo.com is still available..
  • I have only two words for you all: Ralph Reed. Even thought he's running for lt. gov in Ga. I think he's be more than pleased to find a more intimate place in the GOP's agenda. He has that same 'never could get the girl so I decided to be a bastard' thing that Rove has. Segretti and Atwater (who got what he deserved) have proven to be very able role models for both men, I suspect.
  • One down, far too many to go.
  • Don't get too excited over the low approval ratings. They are irrelevant. They can let things flounder between elections if they want to. They seem to know how to rev everything up for the elections. Focus shifts, rhetoric, repetition, and propaganda for a couple of months leading up to the election cycle and they will be fine. I doubt that anyone in the administration is too concerned over the low scores.
  • FYI: It's "GTMO", not "Gitmo", at least according to Frontline yesterday evening. The "i" is just a figment of your imagination.
  • On second thought, maybe you knew that and wrote it with an "i" because it looks dumb without one.
  • We Texans know that our politicians don't count unless they're under indictment. That's how you know they're real!
  • Yesterday's Frontline was a figment of your imagination.
  • The sad fact is that approval numbers mean nothing when half of America votes the way their god tells them to vote. You can't reason with faith.
  • Just so you know who to boycott The Eight Compamies He Laundered For: Westar Energy, Inc., for $25,000 given TRMPAC in May 2002; The Williams Companies, Inc., for $25,000 given in June 2002; Questerra Corporation, with two charges, for contributions of $25,000 in May 2002 and $25,000 in August 2002; Diversified Collection Services, Inc., for $50,000 in June 2002; Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., for $25,000 donated in September 2002; Bacardi USA, Inc., for $20,000 donated in July 2002; Sears, Roebuck and Co., for $25,000, in June 2002; The Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care Inc., for $100,000 in October 2002. -Although charges against Sears was dropped for their agreement to participate in the investigation
  • The shocking truth is that a lot of people in the US are rational, thinking human beings, even in the Red States, and they are getting sick of the crap. The election in 2004 of BushCo totally broke me of that thought. Seriously, people I like voted for him. All bets are off, we are fucking hosed. Popularity polls are nothing. Arresting DeLay is a temporary endorphin rush. ahhhhh
  • Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc heh crackers
  • Rep. Tom DeLay turned himself in to the sheriff's office in his home county of Fort Bend, Texas I'd post the mug shot, but it's depressingly apparent they've thought long and hard about it. (see story for it) I want my Schadenfreude!
  • I was hoping for something more like this.
  • That completely changes my image of Nick Nolte. Not!
  • That's not a mug shot. Shit, I'd buy insurance and leave my babies be kissed by that honest, sincere-looking face...
  • The photograph doesn't have numbers below his face like many mug shots because the county no longer uses such a system... My, how convenient.
  • Lots of people grin in their mugshot. It's still a mugshot, and he's still a corrupt, money-laundering fucknut. Besides, we can photochop it... beagle boys, anyone?
  • Thanks for the list, retank. Cracker Barrell is freaking evil. They don't just have a company policy of firing you if they find out you're gay, they don't just sell mammy and pickaninny dolls in the gift shop, they now launder money! And my family can't understand why I refuse to go there...
  • Cracker Barrell sells pickaninny dolls? Granted, I've only been to them about three or four times, but I had no idea.
  • Big Whoop. Bernockle has is as usual right. This won't change anything, assuming that it actually happens.
  • Bush's Ace in the Hole-- The Pardon Power http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/10/bushs-ace-in-hole-pardon-power.html
  • nice 'shoppin folx
  • *applause*
  • mct: yeah, in the movie Out at Work they showed a coalition of gay rights activists, union workers and the MLK Center (and Coretta Scott King) protesting at Cracker Barrells because of their no-gay policy, their anti-union policies, and the racist merchandise in the gift shop. It was interesting to see those groups work together. (And the film as a whole is interesting because it was funded by union money, and shows how auto unions protect gay rights. You wouldn't usually think about those groups getting along.)
  • Bush will pardon; I doubt the idiot will be able to resist.. but at this stage, quite honestly, I can't see the Republicans recouping or spinning the political damage Bush has been taking since Katrina by the time 2006 comes around. I mean, the American electorate are a sleepy lot, but as Churchill said "Americans always do the right thing... eventually." With DeLay indicted, and more serious shit coming down the pike on that, too, on top of the quite serious looking Fitzgerald investigation which even the right wingers are saying will lead to criminal charges for people in the WH, plus the Republican party now in revolt over Miers, daggers drawn over Iraq clusterfuck, electorate perception of Bush's weakness .. how are pardons for DeLay and those burned by the Plame investigation gonna look to the electorate? Not good. The Republicans will do something to regain popularity, and do it if they're lucky, but it's difficult to see it being significant while Bush's bunch of cronies are in power. There'll have to be bloodletting. What's missing is the Democratic spine, awol for a long time. If the Dems don't pull together and stop being wishy washy in the months after Fitzmas and make the most of it, they will squander a chance to take back congress in 2006. Even so, I doubt the picture is as bad as cynnbad and bernockle hold. In any case, I don't live there, so who gives a fuck? :D
  • note . . to . . "Dubya" . . . invade . . . Perth . . In other news, DeLay Makes First Court Appearance in Conspiracy Case; Session Delayed by Request for New Judge In a courtroom session that ran less than 10 minutes, DeGuerin noted that Perkins had donated money to MoveOn.org, a liberal organization that he said has been selling T-shirts bearing the image of DeLay's mug shot. "What this means is if a judge had contributed to Crime Stoppers that judge could not hear a burglary case," Earle said. "Carried to its extreme, that is what I think this motion means and I think that's absurd." Ol' Hammerhead gets a few weeks to machinate.
  • but as Churchill said "Americans always do the right thing... eventually." /sits down, cuddles with Estragon
  • I have a good number 29th use for a chrome dildo...
  • DeLay will get a new judge Because all Democrats are incapable of being unbiased judges. DeLay's lawyers are also seeking to have the trial moved out of Austin, citing the media attention Most of which is created or supported by DeLay. It's been a one-way romp since then, with Earle choosing silence despite the barbs from DeLay, his legal team or his supporters, including the conservative Free Enterprise Fund's attack ads that likened Earle to a circling shark and a snarling dog. The scuffle resembles a political campaign more than a criminal proceeding. Talking points are e-mailed to supporters, including talk radio shows. Even DeLay's legal briefs follow the script portraying Earle as a vendetta-obsessed partisan bumbler. Oh yeah. And in a 2004 New York Times opinion piece, Earle wrote: "The thinly veiled personal attacks on me by Mr. DeLay's supporters in this case are no different from those in the cases of any of the 15 elected officials this office has prosecuted in my 27-year tenure. Most of these officials — 12 Democrats and three Republicans — have accused me of having political motives. What else are they going to say?"
  • AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The state's highest criminal court on Monday denied Rep. Tom DeLay's request that the money laundering charges against him be dismissed or sent back to a lower court for an immediate trial.
  • Yeah, saw that one, H-Dogg. Makes you kind of sick to your stomach, don't it?
  • Why do you hate Christians so much? In other news, this base pandering to the ignorant religous right is fucking sick. small>
  • Makes you kind of sick to your stomach, don't it? So that's why my bowels have been grumbling all day. Why do you hate Christians so much? Some Christians seem to only be happy when they feel persecuted. Must be nostalgia for ancient Rome. I was just trying to be hospitable.
  • First: It takes a certain kind of courage to bring together (in a single room! On purpose!) Tom DeLay (R--Tex.) and John Cornyn (R--Tex.), Rod Parsley, Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schlafly, the notably execrable Janet Parshall, and--in a particularly brilliant casting coup--the Luciano Pavarotti of religious lunacy, Alan Keyes. Heheh.
  • Oh Snap! "WASHINGTON (AP) -- A then-top aide to Rep. Tom DeLay conspired with lobbyist Jack Abramoff to block legislation in exchange for money and later sought to illegally influence other public officials, prosecutors said in criminal charges filed Friday. The aide, Tony Rudy, has agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges . ." I am sure, however, that DeLay doesn't know who that man is at all. He's never met him before in his life. Those pictures, telephone calls and emails are misconstrued!!
  • "You guys have become the Jews of the 21st Century." Wow. Just, Wow. David Horowitz, you go, girl!
  • Why can't we just have a &$@#-&@#*#%ed cap on how much people can spend on their campaign, total? This vote-with-your-wallet stuff drives me batty.
  • Ha. Ha. Hahahahahahah. He is moving to Virginia, to be close to the action in DC, but he will be back in Texas when they put him on trial.
  • Current theory: the big money that OmniCorps et. al. was donating to his legal defense to bribe him in Congress is drying up because he's got no juice. So his lawyer says "Tommy, it's time to hunker down - you're in a mess o' trouble". Oh, no wait. He wants to work with foster children. And wittew baby buttewfwys.
  • "He has served our nation with integrity and honor" Well, except for the accepting bribes part.
  • Heard on Fox last night that he's going to be working at "strengthening the bond between religion and government."
  • Well it certainly has nothing to do with his Chief of staff turning state's evidence.
  • DeLay: 'I've never done anything for personal gain' HAHAHAHaahAAhahahaaahahahaha HA! AHHAhahahahahahahaha!! Ohh man you genius fucking sack of shit! HAHAHahahAaAahHAahahahHahahahaahaha!!!!!
  • He'll have a job as a lobbyist or consultant by next Monday, unfortunately. I have the plague, and am therefore grouchy
  • True, but hopefully he'll also spend time in jail. Eventually.
  • Standing Ovation for DeLay Awesome. I hope it gets used in every Democratic ad this fall.
  • I totally read that as "Standing Ovulation". Twice.
  • Uh ohhhh! AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The state's highest criminal appeals court said Wednesday it would consider reinstating a conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, further delaying his felony money laundering trial. Y'know he's a bug killing specialist. He could keep them bugs outta the prison yard. The dispute over the dismissed charge centers on whether the conspiracy statute applied to the state's election code in 2002. DeLay was accused of conspiring to violate the election code, but his attorneys say that transaction was not illegal at the time. DeGuerin says the dropped charge accuses DeLay of conspiring to violate the election code as it stood in 2003. Immoral and unethical? Yes. Illegal? Aw hell, son! No!
  • standing ovulation link because the above one don't work no more.
  • Fiery wreck!
  • Smackdown!
  • I was fascinated (amid my projectile vomiting) to see Tom DeLay on Meet The Press this morning. I had not imagined that his opinion on anything would be considered relevant to anyone now, but apparently I was wrong. He was given a good 20 minutes to smile and sneer at those who opined that the war in Iraq was unwinnable and ill-founded. I am not a violent person, but I wanted to punch him in the face. Twice, and hard.
  • Was wondering about that grinning old porcine fornicator just today, wondering when the trial was.
  • That is my new favorite insult. Thanks, pete!
  • Interview With DeLay shows that the man is off-the-rails nutty. [paraphrasing]: Q: Don't you find it ironic to use the phrase "politics of personal destruction" that was used by Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings? A: Not at all. Bill Clinton was not attacked for political reasons. (and earlier when asked what he was proudest of, he said "The 'K' Street" project which forced lobbying firms to hire Republicans. When he said "Why should I listen to this guy who's not a Republican? Why should I listen to the enemy?" the interviewer asked "Some people might say 'Because he's an American'?" and he replied "He's not an American with my interests in mind". That, is why Republicans are due for a partisan poo-fest. Because that Republican-mandated mentality has prevailed in D.C. for 12 years. "Screw 'Americans' we serve only Republicans") Listen if you dare . . .
  • Yeah, I heard this too. One of those things that's so horrifying and unbelievable you just have to laugh. DeLay, by the way, recently named the former governor of my state, Mike Huckabee, as one of his two favorite presidential candidates. A richly deserved endorsement.
  • argh sputter blark! I woke up to a piece of this interview on NPR. what kind of mentally decificient fucktard is this man? no wonder I'm so grumpy today. grrr!
  • that means "deficient to the tenth power" you fuckers!
  • Heeee.
  • MonkeyFilter: argh sputter blark! Perfecto!
  • Sometimes lying becomes like breathing. You don't even know you're doing it anymore.
  • argh sputter blark 2.0
  • Matthews asked DeLay about passages in his book where described former Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) as "drunk with ambition." Amazingly, DeLay denied writing that, even after Matthews showed him the underlined passage in his own book. Sweet.
  • Uhhhh, the ghostwriter did it? I deny that I ever wrote read that book.