DeLay’s weak defense

Aside from his often overwhelming ethics problems, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay also has that possible indictment hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles in the ongoing grand jury investigation into illegal fundraising in Texas. At this point, the facts keep looking worse for the former bug spray man.

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that DeLay was far more involved with fundraising for Texans for a Republican Majority than had previously been reported. Today, the Times follows up with a DeLay admission that he was aware of how accounts for corporate donations had been set up at the PAC. This comes, of course, on top of indictments for top DeLay staffers (his closest political aide and a major fund-raiser for DeLay’s national PAC) in September for their role in soliciting illegal corporate funds.

Margaret Carlson did a nice job today of summarizing how amusing DeLay’s response to this mess has become.

I suspect that every scoundrel in trouble these days has a tape of an old Steve Martin routine from “Saturday Night Live.” Part of it goes, “You say, ‘Steve, how can I be a millionaire and never pay taxes?’ ” Easy, says Steve: “First, get a million dollars. Now you say, ‘Steve, what do I say to the tax man when he comes to my door and says, ‘You have never paid taxes’? Two simple words … ‘I forgot.’ ”

Then, it was funny. Who knew the defense would be the one of choice for powerful politicians and corporate pirates accused of breaking the law. Often coupled with the perennial, “they left me out of my own loop,” it now pops up in nearly every scandal. These defenses ought to be as laughable as that old routine. Problem is they may be working.

Take House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. No one messes with Texas’ master of influence peddling, who grants favors to those who give and punishes those who don’t. The allegation is that his political action committee raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal corporate contributions for a cause close to DeLay’s heart: winning control of the Texas Legislature so that it could redraw congressional districts to try to oust five Democrats (he got four). DeLay’s current position is that he was only an “advisor” who did not have time to get involved in day-to-day operations.

With three of his closest associates indicted, that defense is getting harder to make. DeLay might not oversee the coffee machine, but he’s an in-your-face nitpicker. The very idea that the Hammer’s operatives would go off on their own to extract money from corporations for his pet project is preposterous.

Subpoenaed documents show that DeLay passed along at least one check and was in direct contact with lobbyists for some of the country’s largest corporations, trying to get donations. Thank God for e-mail.

It’s a good point. DeLay rarely delegates these top priorities. When Dems in the Texas legislature fled Austin to deny the GOP quorum, for example, it was the Majority Leader who contacted federal aviation officials directly.

In this case, TRM PAC is DeLay’s outfit, it’s DeLay’s aides who are under indictment, and it was DeLay who was, at least in some circumstances, delivering corporate checks to the PAC.

Just how far can the out-of-the-loop defense go?