Republicans embrace the blame game

November 14, 2005

To hear the White House tell it, last week’s Dem election victories had absolutely nothing to do with the president. As Scott McClellan told reporters, “I don’t think any thorough analysis of the election results will show that the elections were decided on anything other than local and state issues and the candidates and their agendas.”

As it turns out, however, Dems aren’t the only ones tying the election results to the White House; the Republicans who lost are doing the same thing.

Douglas R. Forrester, a Republican, lost by a wide margin to Senator Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, and the chief reason, Mr. Forrester now says, is President Bush’s unpopularity.

In an interview published yesterday in The Star-Ledger of Newark, the state’s largest newspaper, Mr. Forrester said his campaign had done “all the right things we were supposed to do.” Still, he said, he could not overcome a spate of bad news for Mr. Bush, like the administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina.

As a result, he said, “it was not a foolish thing” that Mr. Corzine had sought repeatedly to link him to the Bush administration. “If Bush’s numbers were where they were a year ago, or even six months ago, I think we would have won on Tuesday.”

“But wait,” Bush allies will say. “The president didn’t even campaign for Forrester, so it’s not his fault.” It’s true that Forrester didn’t want Bush to make any in-state appearances, but the president was still a key factor. First, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove did appear in New Jersey on Forrester’s behalf. Second, one of the more common Corzine campaign ads told New Jersey voters, “Doug Forrester is George Bush’s choice for governor…. Is he yours?”

And it’s not just New Jersey. Some Republicans in Virginia are raising similar concerns about Bush dragging the whole party down.

President Bush’s sinking popularity helped seal Democrat Timothy M. Kaine’s victory in Virginia’s gubernatorial election Tuesday, politicians and pollsters said [last week].

“We know that George Bush is just killing us,” said Delegate David B. Albo, a Republican who narrowly defeated his Democratic challenger in Fairfax County. “His popularity just brought the ticket down. There’s no other way to explain it.”

As this sentiment continues to permeate GOP thinking, Rick Santorum and J.D. Hayworth won’t be the only ones keeping Bush at arm’s length next year.

I wonder how many Republicans want to be seen with Tom DeLay these days?

Over the weekend, I started putting together information about Tom DeLay’s “charitable” activities over at the TPM Cafe:

http://auctionhouse.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/9/15581/1958

The ostensible purpose of the DeLay Foundation For Kids is to provide financial support for another charity, the Oaks At Rio Bend, Inc. The Oaks At River Bend is in the process of building housing to provide shelter for foster children in Fort Bend County, Texas.

The DeLay Foundation has been in existence for a number of years but it only began fundraising actively after George W. Bush was elected in 2000. During the year ended June 30, 2004, the Foundation sponsored three golf outings that raised more than $1 million. The names of the people who attend these outings and other foundation donors have never been made public by Tom DeLay.

Jack Abramoff’s “charitable” foundation, Capital Athletic Foundation, donated $25,0000 to the DeLay Foundation in 2003, according to Capital’s 2003 990. The NY Times recently reported that Abramoff, in an email, claimed that Tom DeLay requested Abramoff to raise money for him through Capital. Abramoff, according to Capital’s 990s, already was laundering money through his foundation via entities controlled by him.

A summary of information from the Capital Athletic Foundation’s 990s can be found here:

http://auctionhouse.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/4/114556/020

The DeLay Foundation only made its first substantial donation to the Oaks At Rio Bend in fiscal 2003. Interestingly, the Oaks At Rio Bend changed its tax identification number between 2002 and 2003, thus creating a new entity.

Several directors of the Oaks At Rio Bend apparently resigned from the board between fiscal 2002 and 2003. One of those directors was the mayor of Sugar Land. I listed the names, titles and addresses of all of the directors in 2002 and 2003 at the TPM Cafe.

What caught my attention was a contribution of land to the DeLay Foundation made by the George Foundation in 2003. The George Foundation valued the land at $403,000 but provided no other details about land in its 2003 990.

The George Foundation is very wealthy. In 2004, it claimed investment income of $23 million and net assets of $237 million. The value of its mineral rights increased from $4 million at the end of 2003 to $59 million at the end of 2004.

The George Foundation owns approximately 21,082 acres of land in Fort Bend, Texas.

Although the George Foundation listed the DeLay Foundation For Kids as the recipient of the $403,000 contribution of land, the DeLay Foundation is not listed as the owner in the Fort Bend County property records. Title to the property appears to have passed directly from the George Foundation to the Oaks At Rio Bend.

I am working out the details of why the transfer of the land is noteworthy and how the transfer could have been exploited by Mr. DeLay. I want to be careful about this issue.

I sure hope that someone like Ronnie Earle is taking a look at DeLay’s “charitable” activites. DeLay already has demonstrated a lack of regard for the rules governing charities. He has been indicted for misdirecting funds. And, best of all, Tom DeLay is an associate of Jack Abramoff. What other proof would you possibly need to support an investigation of the DeLay’s charitable activities?

Gee, I really didn’t mean to ramble on so long here. I was sort of thinking out loud.

  • Happy as I may be that Republicans are now blaming all of their troubles on Bush, Dems shouldn’t let that spin go unchallenged. Voters are smart enough generally not to blame local politicians for the sins of one man, although certainly some of that is the case. Voters are also tired of the inability of Republicans to govern. That is the albatross that Dems need to hang around their necks.

  • I’d be wary of leaning too much on the results in Virginia. Kilgore was a very unappealing candidate, Personalities and physical appearance matter in Presidential and Gubernatorial contests, because the offices require cermonial duties.

    Remember Dukakis in the tank?

    I don’t like this, but I am persuaded it is true.

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