Can't touch this.
So House Majority Tom DeLay seems pretty much like a scum bag. To save you, the reader, the hassle of actually reading up on current events (better get back to the MJ trial) I'll paraphrase, the Hammer as he's known for his love of MC Hammer or being a bad ass politico basically took money from people he really shouldn't have. And then he was heavily connected with another guy who had some shady dealings with doling out money as well. Anyways, he's in hot water.
My question is why are the Republican's supporting this guy. Rep. Chris Shays is one of the few who isn't supporting him, but it seems he stands fairly alone. After the fuss that came up over changing the House rules on whether or not the Majority leader would have to resign after being indicted (which it looked like would happen at the time due to some "irregularities" in Texas) you would think the Republican's would slowly step away from Rep. DeLay, I would at least. Why would you want to protect a guy who is making a farce of the system, someone who is cheating in the land of the free and fair. He's making the Republicans look bad. But I don't know what's going on. I understand that DeLay has been a very powerful force for the Republican party of late, but this is politics, when you miss your step, you fall. Maybe it's some of that Bush loyalty that we've heard so much about. The administration is using it's power in the party to protect Rep. DeLay. Who knows, anyone have any other ideas?
posted by Possum Comitatum at 12:42 AM
1 Comments:
NewsHour showed some clips from the floor of Congress today, some talk about protecting Congresscritters from prosecution, I think? I got the impression they were talking about some standing regs. that prevented certain types of prosecution against a member of Congress. The guys talking about it were like, "well, we know we're fair and free, and we need to keep the dignity of this house... but we also need to protect... our officials." It felt like the late night budget increase, like a bit of "dirty business."
AFAIK, Delay is a big money-maker for the Republican party. Bill Moyers did a piece on NOW months and months ago, talking both about Delay's questionable conduct, and about how much money he raises. If I recall correctly, he's head and shoulders above any other person in Congress WRT fund raising. He just pulls it in. I heard something to this effect on the radio, and I think it's about spot-on: the Republican party will stand by Delay as long as the negative effects of his publicity don't outweigh the benefit of having someone of his power in Congress on their side. (Which is to say, someone with his influence and his money, his money being a great deal of his influence I'd suppose.)
Does it smell? Yeah. It's almost too much to believe that this is happening "in the open." It was weird enough when they changed rules several months back so he wouldn't lose his chairmanship or whatever, in the event he was indicted in Texas.
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