{"id":1092,"date":"2005-09-28T16:03:13","date_gmt":"2005-09-28T20:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/wordpress\/?p=1092"},"modified":"2005-09-28T16:03:13","modified_gmt":"2005-09-28T20:03:13","slug":"dethrone-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=1092","title":{"rendered":"DeThrone DeLay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public Citizen<\/strong><\/a>: DeThrone DeLay<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Sept. 28 – DeLay indictment highlights culture of corruption Republicans swept to power 11 years ago, promising to restore integrity to government. But the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay today shows that something is rotten in the heart of the party?s political structure. DeLay?s raw power grab has relied on a complex influence-peddling scheme designed to consolidate his own power and that of his party?s while giving corporate interests private access to steer the wheels of government at the expense of citizens.<\/p>\n

To read Joan Claybrook’s entire statement, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information about the ethical lapses of Rep. Tom DeLay, click here<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Campaign for America’s Future<\/strong><\/a>: Tom DeLay Must Resign from Congress<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Tom DeLay and two of his close political associates were indicted on criminal conspiracy charges by a Texas Grand Jury earlier today. This is the same Tom DeLay who eleven years ago this week signed the so-called Contract with America and pledged to end Congress’ “cycle of scandal and disgrace.” <\/p>\n

The indictment against Tom DeLay has immediate political consequences — he has just stepped down as House Majority Leader. <\/p>\n

[…] <\/p>\n

Congress is no place for scoundrels like DeLay who blatantly abuse their power for personal and corporate gain. He and his co-conspirators in Congress have consistently pushed measures that benefit the wealthy elite at the expense of the American people. <\/p>\n

Please write your Representative<\/a> and demand that they call for Tom DeLay’s resignation from Congress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Statement of Democracy 21<\/a> President Fred Wertheimer on Criminal Indictment of Representative Tom DeLay:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today’s indictment of Representative Tom DeLay involves serious charges of a criminal conspiracy to violate Texas state campaign finance laws by laundering illegal corporate contributions through the Republican National Committee (RNC) to Texas state legislative candidates.<\/p>\n

The laundering of corporate funds through the RNC was part of a larger effort to use Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC), a PAC founded by Representative DeLay, to support Republican candidates in the 2002 Texas state legislative races.<\/p>\n

Representative DeLay has been the king of a Washington-lobbyist, influence-money approach for governing America. Today’s criminal indictment of Representative DeLay may also turn out to be a fundamental indictment of DeLay’s ”pay to play” philosophy.<\/p>\n

The criminal indictment in Texas also serves to make clear again that the House Ethics Committee must move promptly to begin an investigation of the multiple serious ethics issues that have been raised regarding Representative DeLay.
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\nThere are at least eight serious ethics questions involving Representative DeLay that demand a comprehensive and credible investigation by the House Ethics Committee.<\/p>\n

Most of these ethics questions involve Representative DeLay’s relationship with Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and are wholly unrelated to the criminal action against DeLay involving TRMPAC and the Texas state legislative races in 2002.<\/p>\n

A number of these ethics questions have been pending for months. It is inexcusable, and its own scandal, that the House Ethics Committee under the leadership of Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) has failed even to begin any investigation into these serious matters.<\/p>\n

The ethics issues that need to be investigated regarding Representative DeLay include the following:<\/p>\n

? Did Representative DeLay or his agents solicit any trips, or portions of any trips, or the arrangements for any trips, in violation of the House ethics rule banning Members from soliciting gifts, including trips and travel-related expenses?<\/p>\n

? Did Representative DeLay receive reimbursements for recreational activities, or reimbursements in excessive amounts for travel-related expenses, in violation of House ethics rules that prohibit reimbursements for recreational activities and require reimbursements for travel-related expenses to be ”necessary” and ”reasonable”?<\/p>\n

? Did an agent of a foreign principal pay for any portion of Representative DeLay’s trips, in violation of House ethics rules, and did DeLay or his agents know, or should they have known, that a foreign agent was helping to finance his trips?<\/p>\n

? Did Representative DeLay fail to disclose the actual sources of funding for his trips, as required by the House ethics rules?<\/p>\n

? Did those who paid for Representative DeLay’s trips meet the ethics rules requirement that they have a ”direct and immediate relationship” with the ”event or location” of the trips, and did DeLay or his agents know, or should they have known, whether they did?<\/p>\n

? Did Representative DeLay’s trips or any other financial benefits DeLay or his projects received affect his official actions, or create an appearance of improper action in violation of House ethics rules?<\/p>\n

? Did Representative DeLay receive trips, financial benefits, fundraising assistance or contributions from registered lobbyists, and make his office as a Representative and a House leader available to such lobbyists to use in obtaining and assisting clients, in violation of the House ethics standard that Members shall conduct themselves ”at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives?”<\/p>\n

? Did a political committee formed by and closely associated with Representative DeLay violate state campaign finance laws in a manner which demonstrates that Representative DeLay has failed to comply with the House ethics standard requiring Members to conduct themselves ”at all times in a manner which shall reflect creditably on the House of Representatives?”<\/p>\n

The House Ethics Committee should immediately commence an investigation of the DeLay ethics issues.<\/p>\n

# # # <\/p>\n

Capital Bits & Pieces Vol. V, No. 30 | Released: Wednesday, September 28, 2005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Public Citizen: DeThrone DeLay Sept. 28 – DeLay indictment highlights culture of corruption Republicans swept to power 11 years ago, promising to restore integrity to government. But the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay today shows that something is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-hC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}