You know what House Majority Leader Tom DeLay really needs right now? Yet another conflict-of-interest controversy. Fortunately, a new one just popped up.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay owns stock worth more than $50,000 in ExxonMobil, according to financial disclosure reports, while at the same time he is one of the driving forces behind legislation that would shield that company and other manufacturers of the gasoline additive MTBE from lawsuits that could cost them millions.
Already under fire for alleged ethical lapses, DeLay, a Texas Republican, has hired the Houston law firm Bracewell and Giuliani to defend against those charges. But the firm, in which former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is a partner, also represents a host of MTBE manufacturers in court and in Congress. […]
“It looks like a serious conflict of interest,” said Jeffrey Stonecash, a political scientist at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. “I think the issue of owning the stock and then promoting it just doesn’t look good.”
In the grand scheme of things, this kind of routine conflict-of-interest problem probably ranks pretty low on the list of DeLay scandals. But still, could he be any more careless? Hasn’t the guy ever heard of blind trusts? Did he not think anyone would notice that he’s out there working hard to defend ExxonMobil’s MTBE interests while also owning stake in ExxonMobile up to $100,000?
If this were just another low-profile lawmaker, one might be inclined to give him or her the benefit of the doubt. When it’s the most corrupt lawmaker on the Hill, with five admonishments from the House Ethics Committee under his belt (and counting), and a possible indictment on the way in Texas, it just feeds the perception that DeLay thinks he can get away with anything.