{"id":3906,"date":"2005-04-06T09:52:54","date_gmt":"2005-04-06T13:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/3906.html"},"modified":"2005-04-06T09:52:54","modified_gmt":"2005-04-06T13:52:54","slug":"the-straws-that-broke-the-hammers-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-straws-that-broke-the-hammers-back\/","title":{"rendered":"The straw(s) that broke The Hammer’s back?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In March, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, already awash in scandal and a four-time target of House Ethics Committee rebukes, found himself in more hot water. Reports surfaced that DeLay took an expense-paid trip to South Korea, paid for by a South Korean lobbying group<\/a>, in violation of House rules. Shortly thereafter, we learned that DeLay enjoyed a luxurious European vacation paid for by gambling interests<\/a>, funelled through a corrupt GOP lobbyist. The mess led a White House advisor to tell the Wall Street Journal<\/a> last week, “We may be reaching a tipping point.”<\/p>\n

If we were reaching that point in March, we’ve tipped over it now. Two new revelations — one on the front page of the Washington Post<\/a>, the other on the front page of the New York Times<\/a> — suggest Tom DeLay’s standing is crumbling and his career may be in severe jeopardy.<\/p>\n

First up is the Post piece<\/a>, which points to another travel-related quandary.<\/p>\n

A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.<\/p>\n

DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay’s trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.<\/p>\n

It is unclear precisely how the money was transferred from the Bahamian-registered company to the nonprofit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those pesky House ethics rules, of course, prohibit lawmakers from accepting trips paid for by lobbyists and\/or foreign agents.
\n
\nSecond is the NYT piece<\/a>, which reported on political committees paying DeLay’s wife and daughter very handsome sums.<\/p>\n

The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay’s political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay’s home state, Texas.<\/p>\n

Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as “fund-raising fees,” “campaign management” or “payroll,” with no additional details about how they earned the money.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s important to note that it isn’t illegal for a lawmaker’s family to have jobs with PACs, but:<\/p>\n

Although several members of Congress employ family members as campaign managers or on their political action committees, advocacy groups seeking an overhaul of federal campaign-finance and ethics laws say that the payments to Mr. DeLay’s family members were unusually generous, and should be the focus of new scrutiny of the Texas congressman. […]<\/p>\n

“It’s DeLay Inc. ” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a research group that has closely monitored Mr. DeLay and his campaign fund-raising and expenditures. “If it’s not illegal, it certainly is inappropriate for members of Congress to use their positions to enrich their families.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The beginning of the end for DeLay? Maybe. As Atrios noted<\/a>, the sources for these front-page articles appear to be people with close contact to DeLay — suggesting that The Hammer’s own allies have begun to turn on him.<\/p>\n

The next couple of weeks should be critical. If DeLay suddenly discovers that his colleagues don’t want to be seen with him, he’s toast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, already awash in scandal and a four-time target of House Ethics Committee rebukes, found himself in more hot water. Reports surfaced that DeLay took an expense-paid trip to South Korea, paid for by a South Korean lobbying group, in violation of House rules. Shortly thereafter, we learned that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}