{"id":2141,"date":"2004-07-16T11:44:42","date_gmt":"2004-07-16T16:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2141.html"},"modified":"2004-07-16T11:44:42","modified_gmt":"2004-07-16T16:44:42","slug":"more-calls-for-an-independent-investigation-of-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/more-calls-for-an-independent-investigation-of-delay\/","title":{"rendered":"More calls for an independent investigation of DeLay"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s encouraging to see a lot of follow-up on an Austin American-Statesman report<\/a> from last weekend on Tom DeLay’s ethics troubles.<\/p>\n

As you probably recall, Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas), screwed over by DeLay’s re-redistricting scheme, filed a sweeping complaint<\/a> against the House majority leader with the House Ethics Committee last month. The Statesman noted, however, that four of the five Republican members of the panel have a bit of a conflict — they’ve accepted a lot of money in contributions from DeLay and his political committees, including one lawmaker who received $10,000 from DeLay this year (before the complaint was filed).<\/p>\n

Yesterday, watchdog groups said, given the circumstances, it’s time for an independent investigator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While leaders in both parties maintain organizations to raise money for candidates, the appearance of a conflict in DeLay’s case is enough alone to warrant hiring an independent counsel of the type that investigated dethroned former speakers Jim Wright and Newt Gingrich, watchdog groups said Thursday.<\/p>\n

“Mr. DeLay’s stature as one of the most powerful members of Congress — with the capacity to extract retribution from anyone — makes it especially difficult for his peers to sit in judgment of him,” said Common Cause president Chellie Pingree.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a good point, too. The lawmakers on the committee not only owe DeLay because of the generous contributions, but also because he is their party leader. They have a built-in incentive to go easy on him — DeLay can and will punish those who challenge his authority.<\/p>\n

If Wright and Gingrich were investigated by independent investigators, why should DeLay — whose suspected crimes are far worse — receive preferential treatment? At a minimum, the appearance of impropriety should prompt the ethics committee to distance themselves from this probe and request an outside investigation.
\n
\nDeLay’s office hasn’t exactly crafted the best spin yet.<\/p>\n

DeLay, who has denied the charges against him, said through a spokesman that an independent counsel is unnecessary. “We have full confidence the ethics committee will handle this in a proper manner,” said aide Jonathan Grella.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, that’s persuasive. The accused is comfortable with his allies investigating him and sees no reason to find an objective outsider to review the charges. What a shock.<\/p>\n

Just to be clear, I’m not confident that these lawmakers will act responsibly and call for an independent investigation. I am, however, glad to see this story in the news again, reminding the public that Tom DeLay is one of the most corrupt individuals to serve in public office in a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s encouraging to see a lot of follow-up on an Austin American-Statesman report from last weekend on Tom DeLay’s ethics troubles. As you probably recall, Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas), screwed over by DeLay’s re-redistricting scheme, filed a sweeping complaint against the House majority leader with the House Ethics Committee last month. The Statesman noted, however, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}