Gonna Nail Those Crooks and Liars to Their Own Cross

I never thought I´d see the day Tom "The Hammer" DeLay, House Majority Leader and GOP Goon, would be indicted by the Texas grand jury. WooWee! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!

DeLay and two "political associates" are being accused of conspiracy to funnel $155,000 in corporate campaign contributions into Texas legislative races, a big fat felony in the state of Texas, where DeLay is a representative. "If convicted, DeLay faces up to two years in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000."

While I am sure that DeLay could be charged with a wide assortment of illegal dirty dealings, I shan´t ask for more than this. Al Capone was put away for life for tax evasion, and it looks like a mere $155,000 will dethrone DeLay.

And the dethronement has already begun! "GOP rules require that DeLay, 58, majority leader since 2003, relinquish his post while he fights the conspiracy charge," and according to a fellow Republican interviewed by Time Magazine, "You leave a job like this, there is no coming back." So in the end, DeLay may not have to dress in prison stipes, but he will have to say goodbye to the House Majority position forever.

DeLay hasn´t handled being indicted with much elegance, but I guess he´s just not that kind of guy. Three hours after learning of his indictment he was on TV, making the rounds on the cable news shows, such as CNN, claiming that prosecutor Ronnie Earle is a "partisan fanatic" and that Earle was launching a Democratic conspiracy against him. Well, as it turns out, Earle did in fact speak at a fund-raiser for a Democratic political action committe in May, but is that illegal? Probably not, since DeLay hasn´t produced a single scrap of evidence that Earle is conspiring with Washington Democrats.

For all of his attacks on Earle, DeLay seems to forget, as grand jury foreman William Gibson pointed out, that "Ronnie Earle did not indict Mr. DeLay. Twelve people on that grand jury voted to indict." In other words, DeLay dug himself this hole all by himself.

And how deep is his hole? Here, I´ll let Time Magazine explain:

During the 2002 elections, a committee DeLay founded to support conservative politicians--Texans for a Republican Majority, or TRMPAC--allegedly accepted $155,000 in corporate donations and then included that in a check for $190,000 to the Republican National Committee, which then routed a similar amount to seven Texas legislative candidates. DeLay's lawyers say the transactions were separate and that the PAC accepted money from both individuals and corporations. The contribution helped produce six wins that were crucial to DeLay's political ambitions in Washington because they resulted in a Republican majority in the state legislature, which redrew congressional district lines and helped add five more Republicans to the state's congressional delegation.

How Maniacal! But those aren´t the only illegal things DeLay has been up to. Grass roots organizations have been after DeLay for accepting lavish gifts from lobbyist Jack Abramoff. And as luck would have it, a federal investigation has been launched into a scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, a former DeLay press secretary, involving "bilking their Indian-tribe clients out of $66 million."

A former Abramoff associate just happened to mention to the FBI that a lot of emails passed between DeLay´s office and Abramoff´s office. Unfortunately, the source says he saw nothing "that hit DeLay personally, but there was a lot of questionable stuff that was going on with his staff. ´Tom wants this. Tom wants that.` Was it really him or just the staff that was being aggressive?"

Oh give me a break, it wasn´t DeLay´s staff that was going on those plush golf trips. It´s obvious that Tom DeLay is a crook who has surrounded himself with other crooks. He´s just one more stain on the GOP´s record. Bush´s approval ratings are the lowest they´ve ever been thanks to the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and skyrocketing gas prices. Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader, "faces an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into the circumstances surrounding his decision to sell all of his stock in the hospital chain founded by his family, Hospital Corporation of America, in June, just before the share price dropped following a bad earnings report." And let´s not forget Karl Rove´s involvement in outing Valerie Plame. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

A bunch of liars and crooks have highjacked the U.S. government. One can only hope they all end up disgraced and facing prison time like Tom DeLay.