Key Bush ally DeLay indicted

Who is Tom DeLay? Read the article The Cathedralmodel Machinery first to answer that question.

"If Enron hadn't collapsed, we might still have only circumstantial evidence that energy companies artificially drove up prices during California's electricity crisis. Because of that collapse, we have direct evidence in the form of the now-infamous Enron tapes — although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Justice Department tried to prevent their release.

Now, e-mail and other Enron documents are revealing why Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, is one of the most powerful men in America."

-- Paul Krugman, The Cathedralmodel Machinery, Kuly 13, 2004


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Key Bush ally DeLay indicted

House Majority Leader steps down over campaign-finance charges in Texas

By ALAN FREEMAN

Thursday, September 29, 2005 Page A17
Source

WASHINGTON -- Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful Republican Party politicians in Washington, was forced yesterday to step down as House Majority Leader after he was charged with conspiracy over alleged campaign-finance violations.

Mr. DeLay, nicknamed the Hammer for his aggressive political style, immediately termed the charges a "political witch hunt" and lashed out at the Texas prosecutor responsible for the indictment, calling him "an unabashed partisan zealot."

"I have done nothing wrong," said Mr. DeLay, a 58-year-old former pest exterminator from Houston, calling the process a "sham" and "a co-ordinated, premeditated campaign of political retribution."

The charges are yet another piece of bad news for President George W. Bush, who is already sinking in opinion polls after charges of incompetence over Washington's tardy response to hurricane Katrina, the continuing bloodshed in Iraq and allegations about the timing of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's sale of shares in a family-run hospital chain.

Mr. Bush was quick to come to Mr. DeLay's defence. "Mr. DeLay is a good ally and a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who added that Mr. Bush wants to let the legal process go forward.

If convicted, Mr. DeLay faces a maximum prison term of two years.

The charges, issued by a grand jury in Travis County, Tex., allege that Mr. DeLay participated in a conspiracy to circumvent a Texas state law that bans corporate donations to political candidates for state office.

Charges were also laid against two of Mr. DeLay's political associates, John D. Colyandro and William W. Ellis.

The allegations go to the core of one of the major successes of Mr. DeLay's career. Under his political leadership, the Texas state legislature went from a Democratic majority to Republican control in 2002 for the first time since the U.S. Civil War. With the Republicans in control, the legislature then redrew the borders for U.S. congressional districts in the state, allowing Republicans to elect six more members from Texas in the 2004, solidifying the party's hold on the U.S. House of Representatives.

Travis County district attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, denied Mr. DeLay's charges of a political witch hunt, insisting that he has been just as persistent in his pursuit of Democratic wrongdoing.

"The law says that corporate contributions to political campaigns are illegal in Texas," Mr. Earle told a news conference in Austin. "The law makes such contributions a felony. My job is to prosecute felonies. I'm doing my job."

Scenting Republican blood, Democrats in Washington went on the attack. "The criminal indictment of Majority Leader Tom DeLay is the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.

House Republicans, at an emergency meeting, named Ray Blunt, a congressman from Missouri, to replace Mr. DeLay, whose clout on Capitol Hill stems from his ability to raise funds and hand out favours to his allies.

He has been an important voice for the right in Congress, once comparing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Gestapo. Mr. DeLay also pushed for the passage of special legislation in March that was designed to save the life of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman from Florida who was the subject of a nasty family dispute over whether her feeding tube should be removed.

The Texas investigations are not the only ones shadowing Mr. DeLay. His activities continue to be investigated as part of a separate inquiry into the activities of Jack Abramoff, a well-known Washington lobbyist with legal troubles of his own.

Mr. DeLay is reported to have been the recipient of a lavish 10-day "educational visit" to Britain in 2000 paid for by Mr. Abramoff, who is under investigation for multiple lobbying efforts on behalf of native gambling interests and for allegations he defrauded Indian tribes of millions of dollars in fees. He was indicted last month in Florida on fraud charges related to the purchase of the SunCruz fleet of gambling ships from Konstantinos (Gus) Boulis, a Greek-Canadian businessman who was the victim of a gangland-style killing in 2001.

Mr. Abramoff has pleaded not guilty to those charges, which include the use of falsified documents in trying to persuade lenders to finance the purchase of Mr. Boulis's gambling ships.

This week, three men were charged with murder in the killing of Mr. Boulis. There is no indication that Mr. Abramoff was involved in the death and he has not been charged.