Today's Attack on Tom DeLay Involves Guilt by Association

(CNSNews.com) -- Get out your pencils: You'll need to draw a chart to keep this story straight. The gist is this: The Campaign for America's Future, a liberal policy group, is challenging House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to "explain his relationship" to Brian Darling, the former counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez.

Darling wrote the Republican strategy memo that said intervention in the Terri Schiavo case would be a "great political issue" for Republicans.

Martinez, a Florida Republican, said he never read Darling's one-page "talking points" memo. He said he inadvertently passed it on to Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, during debate over a federal law intended to win a reprieve for the dying Terri Schiavo.

From there, the memo made its way to ABC News and the Washington Post, both of which ran reports questioning whether Republicans might be seizing on a family's tragedy for political gain.

Rep. DeLay strongly supported legislation allowing the federal courts to review the Schiavo case, and some Americans have blasted him for comments he made before and after Schiavo's death.

The Campaign for America's Future issued a press release Thursday noting that Darling, the memo-writer, once worked for the Alexander Strategy Group, a Washington-based corporate lobbying firm that is "heavily connected to Rep. DeLay."

Darling's clients included Universal Bearing, Inc., a company owned by the Hanwha Group, which -- according to the Campaign for America's Future -- "has direct ties to the foreign agent that paid for Rep. DeLay's improper trip to Korea."

There's more: The Alexander Strategy Group was formed by Rep. DeLay's former Chief of Staff Ed Buckham, who also introduced Rep. DeLay to corporate lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Campaign for America's Future said.

Former DeLay aide Jim Ellis, who was indicted for money laundering, was a consultant to the Alexander Strategy Group.

Former DeLay staffer Tony Rudy, former DeLay PAC director Karl Gallant, and Rep. DeLay's spouse, Christine DeLay, all worked for Alexander Strategy Group.

The Campaign for America's Future left it at that, simply outlining a web of connections that is a common phenomenon in Washington. The "get DeLay" crowd has not said -- yet -- that Brian Darling was reflecting Tom DeLay's thinking when Darling wrote that the Terri Schiavo case would be a good way to score political points with the pro-life base.

The Campaign for America's Future is one of several groups running television and newspaper ads questioning Rep. DeLay's ethics. The group argues that the controversy surrounding DeLay is "increasingly seen as a liability to his party."

So far, Republican leaders have circled the wagons around House Majority Leader DeLay, saying he is being singled out, not for the merit of the allegations against him, but because he is an effective promoter of the conservative agenda.

Just in case you didn't get to read this when it was posted back on 3/24 - here it is again:

GOP: Soros Behind Delay Attacks
Newsmax.com ^ | 3/24/2005

The concentrated assault on House Majority Leader Tom DeLay by Democrats and their media allies haven't just happened - they are largely the work of a shadowy groups of liberal organizations all backed by one man: George Soros.

Billionaire George Soros, working behind the scenes with liberal anti-Bush groups dominated by long-time Democrat activists.

So say Republicans, who have uncovered the sinister Soros-backed conspiracy to undermine one of the GOP's most effective leaders and prevent him from concentrating on guiding his hated conservative "Red State” agenda through the House of Representatives.

According to The Hill newspaper, Republican researchers have connected Soros, members of pressure groups posing as "government watchdog groups" and loaded with Democrat activists, and top Hill Democrats in the attacks on DeLay and the House Ethics Committee.

"The research shows that members of these groups’ boards have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and political organizations and several of their staff members have previously worked for Democrats," The Hill reported, adding that they "have also accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Open Society Institute, an organization founded by Soros, who spent millions trying to defeat President Bush in last year’s election."

The latest revelations came in the wake of a series of talking points issued by the Republican National Committee (RNC) last week which named four liberal pressure groups as having "close ties to left wing leaders like George Soros.”

According to The Hill, the GOP research efforts are part of a Republican attempt to put a damper on what the paper described as "a media feeding frenzy" surrounding DeLay and allegations of his alleged improper conduct.

Illustrative of the media's massive coverage fanned by liberals and Democrats, the Hill reported that over a five-day span:

"TV and radio stations and print publications from around the country featured at least 290 stories either about a controversial junket DeLay took to Scotland in 2000, his response to criticism about the propriety of that trip, or his offer to discuss the matter with the House ethics committee," a survey showed.

Articles about DeLay, by The Associated Press, Reuters, Knight Ridder and The Washington Post, were picked up by news outlets around the country. "The DeLay scandal is getting to the point where House Republicans just won’t be able to withstand much more,” a Democrat aide bragged to The Hill. "With every story that is written, it becomes more clear that House Republicans are risking their political futures by associating themselves with him.

When literally hundreds of stories about the GOP leader’s shoddy ethics are appearing in nearly every local and regional paper across the country, you can’t blame voters for painting them all with the same brush.”

Among the liberal and Democrat lynch mobs focusing on unproven ethics violations by DeLay, all of which he has been able to explain adequately:

The Congressional Ethics Coalition, a group of nine left-wing pressure groups which held a press conference last week blasting what they called the immobilization of the House ethics panel, which the Hill points out has yet to organize solely because of objections by ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) to changes House GOP leaders made to ethics procedure at the start of the new Congress. The groups also used the opportunity to attack DeLay.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a group that last year assisted former Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas) in drafting an ethics complaint against DeLay resulting in a mild slap on the wrist for the GOP leader.

At last week’s press conference, Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said that DeLay should step down as majority leader. Not surprisingly, from 1995 to 1998 Sloan served as [Democrat] minority counsel for the House Judiciary Committee under Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich). Before that, Sloan served as the nominations counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee under Delaware Democrat Sen. Joe Biden.

According to The Hill, GOP research also revealed that Mark Penn, a formed pollster for President Clinton, and Daniel Berger, a major Democratic donor, serve on CREW’s board. Spokeswoman Naomi Seligman refused to reveal the membership of CREW’s board, although she admitted that Penn and Berger are members. Last year, Berger made a $100,000 contribution to America Coming Together (ACT), a 527 group that was dedicated to defeating Bush in the presidential election, according to politicalmoneyline.com, a website that tracks fundraising. According to records released by the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, March 21, 2005, and obtained by NewsMax.com Soros Fund Management/George Soros, gave the group a whopping $7,500,000 in the 2004 election cycle.

Democracy 21 is headed by Fred Wertheimer, a long-time liberal activist who once headed the left-wing group Common Cause. The group's board of directors has given "tens of thousands to Democrats,” the GOP research showed. A survey by The Hill of fundraising data on politicalmoneyline.com showed that three members of the group’s board, including Dick Clark, a former Democratic senator from Iowa, gave nearly $20,000 in contributions to Democrats since the beginning of the 2000 election cycle while Republicans received not a cent from board members, according to the survey by The Hill. Lexa Edsall, a consultant to the group, served in the Clinton administration, and Amanda Lewis, the communications director, worked for former Democratic Gov. Mario Cuomo (N.Y.), according to the GOP research.

Democracy 21’s education fund also received a $50,000 grant from Soros’s institute in 2003, the most recent year for which data are available, according to a 990 form filed with the Internal Revenue Service. The GOP research paper states that the group has received $300,000 in total from Soros's Open Society Institute.

Joining in the lynch mob, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for a bipartisan panel to review the chamber’s ethics procedures.

Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a Clinton White House aide has put together a scheme to use alleged ethics violations as an issue in races against DeLay and Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), The Hill reported last week. Republicans told The Hill that the evidence reveals a coordinated effort between House Democrats and the liberal pressure groups to damage DeLay and the GOP leadership politically.

Here is the goal - as spoken by one of the enlightened democrats: "The DeLay scandal is getting to the point where House Republicans just won’t be able to withstand much more,” a Democrat aide bragged to The Hill. "With every story that is written, it becomes more clear that House Republicans are risking their political futures by associating themselves with him."

And here is some info about the Apollo Alliance:

The Apollo Alliance is a joint project of the Institute for America's Future and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.

Founding Board Members
Board of Advisors
Labor Unions
Environmental Organizations
Economic, Social Justice, Faith-Based, and Regional Partners
Business Partners and Endorsers
Foundations
Founding Organizations

Founding Board Members:

Senator Maria Cantwell, MS Congress (D-WA)
President Leo W. Gerard, The United Steel Workers of Amer
Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., US Congress (D-IL)
Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club

Board of Advisors:

Phil Angelides, California State Treasurer
Pres Andrew Beebe, Energy Innovations, An Idea Lab Company
Chairman Julian Bond, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
President Thomas Buffenbarger, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Henry Cisneros, former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas
Jan Hartke, Executive Director, EarthVoice
Vice President Gerry Hudson, SEIU Local 1199
Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA)
Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Systems and Mitchell Kapor Foundation
Bill Lucy, Secretary/Treasurer, AFSCME
William Lynch
William McDonough, Architect, Author, Educator
Kathleen A. McGinty, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Energy
President Terence M. O’Sullivan, Laborers’ International Union of North America
Art Pulaski, Secretary-Treasurer, California Labor Federation
Governor Ed Rendell, Pennsylvania
Anthony Thigpenn, Executive Director AGENDA
President Danny Thompson, Nevada Labor Federation

The Apollo Alliance has been endorsed by the following labor unions:

AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council (IUC)
AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Dept
National Heavy and Highway Alliance
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Intl. Union (BCTGM)
Boilermakers Union (IBB)
California Labor Federation
Graphic Communications Industrial Union (GCIU)
Hawaii AFL-CIO
Illinois AFL-CIO
Indiana AFL-CIO
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE-CWA)
King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA)
Metropolitan Detroit, AFL-CIO
Michigan AFL-CIO
Minnesota AFL-CIO
Oregon AFL-CIO
Paper and Allied Chemical Employees (PACE)
Pennsylvania AFL-CIO
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA)
Transportation Workers Union (TWU)
United Automobile and Aerospace Workers (UAW)
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
UNITE!
United Steel Workers of America (USWA)
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Wisconsin AFL-CIO

We have been endorsed by the following environmental organizations:

Blue Water Network
Center for Environmental Citizenship
Center for Environmental Health
Ceres
Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions
The Detroit Project
Environment 2004
Environmental Law and Policy Center
EarthVoice
Greenpeace USA
Healthy School Network
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
League of Conservation Voters
National Wildlife Federation
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Project Democracy
Rainforest Action Network
Republicans for Environmental Protection
The Sierra Club
The Sierra Student Coalition
South Carolina Coastal Conservation League
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)

Economic, Social Justice, Faith-Based, and Regional Partners:

Action for Grassroots Economic and Neighborhood Development
Alternatives (AGENDA)
Black Farmers USA
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU)
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Jim Hightower and The Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
South Carolina Coastal Conservation League
Urban Agenda

Business Partners Supportive of Apollo:

The American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE)
Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
Andrew Beebe, Energy Innovations/Idea Labs
Jim Callihan, Renewable Energy Access
Brian Dupin, PV Powered
Leonard Gertler, All American Home Center
Jim Gordon, Cape Wind
Pat Gruber, CTO, NatureWorks (formerly Cargill-Dow)
Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Systems
Jim McDermott, US Renewables Group
William McDonough, William McDonough Partners
Tom Starrs, Bonneville Environmental Foundation
Gregory F. Wendt, Enright Premier Wealth Advisors, Inc.

The Apollo Alliance acknowledges the generous support of the following individuals and foundations:

Agnus Gund
Beldon Fund
The Belvedere Fund
The Bullitt Foundation
Nathan Cummings Foundation
The Energy Foundation
The Ford Foundation
French American Charitable Trust
General Service Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The John W. and Clara C. Higgins Foundation
John Hunting
Move On
New Land Foundation
New York Community Trust (NYCT)
The Overbrook Foundation
Rockefeller Financial Services
Tides Foundation
Town Creek Foundation
The United Nations Better World Fund
The Wallace Global Fund

Founding Organizations:

The Institute for America’s Future
The Center on Wisconsin Strategy
The Common Assets Defense Fund
The Breakthrough Institute
Carol/Trevelyan Strategy Group

This is basically an organization made up of UNIONS who support democrats, and the environmental whackos.

And .. here we have another DEMOCRAT organization in collusion with the "Campaign for America's Future" - TomPaine.com:

About Us

TomPaine.com is for people who want to keep in touch with the progressive community but don't have time to surf dozens of websites. We do it for you. It's also for people who care about the progressive cause and are looking for an online home. Each day we scour the country—from Capitol Hill to newspapers to think tanks and activist groups—and highlight the news, ideas and actions that you need to stay fully informed. Because we're based in Washington, D.C., expect us to be obsessed with the workings of the nation's capitol. Here's what you'll find on our site:

Well-informed, superbly argued opinion pieces (Opinion )
Overlooked but newsworthy reporting (News Worthy)
An insightful house web log of the events, stories, people and political actions driving Washington (Uncommon Sense)
Humorous, interesting and outrageous tidbits and visuals you'll want to send to your friends (Pass It On )

TomPaine.com was founded by John Moyers in 1995 to amplify public-interest voices and take on controversial issues—often in coordination with regular advertisements published on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times [See past Op Ads.]

TomPaine.com is a project of the Institute for America's Future, a 501(c)(3) organization supported by grants and private donations. All donations to it—and to TomPaine.com—are tax deductible. The opinions expressed on TomPaine.com are those of the authors and do not represent the opinions of the Institute for America's Future.

Why TomPaine?

TomPaine.com takes inspiration from Thomas Paine—the revolutionary thinker and activist known for his incisive, biting commentaries. His most famous pamphlet, Common Sense, mobilized public opinion in support of the American Revolution. Widely available and written in powerful and accessible prose, the pamphlet appealed to a broad cross section of people, from farmers to bankers. Invoking the democratic spirit, Paine famously argued that "the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind." Our work at TomPaine.com is fueled by that sentiment every day.

Editorial Staff

Nicholas Penniman: Editor
Nick Penniman is the editor of TomPaine.com and a program director at the Campaign For America’s Future. He was formerly an associate editor of The American Prospect magazine and director of Moving Ideas, a network of leading liberal organizations. Before that, he directed the Alliance for Democracy and worked as editor of a weekly newspaper in Boston, Mass.

Alexandra Walker: Executive Editor
Alexandra Walker is executive editor at TomPaine.com. Before joining TomPaine.com in 2003, Alex interned at The Washington Monthly and reported for States News Service. In her first career, Alex spent 10 years working on women’s policy issues—specifically, advocating for better legal treatment of rape and domestic violence victims. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Patrick C. Doherty: Senior Editor
Patrick C. Doherty is senior editor at TomPaine.com. His beat includes national security, macroeconomics, energy and the environment. His column, Quo Vadis, explores the issues impacting our national direction: where we are, where we’re going, and how to get there. Before joining TomPaine.com, Patrick spent a decade working at the intersection of conflict and development in the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans and the Caucasus. He established the Institute for Human Security at Tufts University, and trained NATO staff officers in humanitarian operations . When he’s not fretting over the future of America, he and his new wife, Anne, are busy trying to negotiate the pitfalls of the Washington housing bubble. Patrick holds a master’s degree in security studies and international negotiation from the Flectcher School and earned his bachelor’s degree from American University.

Laura Donnelly: Assistant Editor
Laura Donnelly is assistant editor at TomPaine.com. Before coming to TomPaine.com, Laura attended graduate school at Penn State University, where she conducted research on readers' understanding of newspaper editorials. She also copy edited the journal Journalism and Mass Communication Educator. Originally from Buffalo, N.Y., Laura now lives in Washington, D.C.

The mainstream media is gunning for him even more so the liberal slime in D.C.

The New York Times, The Washington Post, moveon.org, & George Soros decided to place yet another big bet using what remains of their clout after a failed 2004 election gambit to get Bush. news.google.com may provide us with a useful adhoc metric to measure Soros' clout in attracting fellow travelers from MSM willing to double down by going out on a limb with him yet again.

Update: Interesting how the quantity of stories that parrot Soros' propaganda actually dropped this morning. Perhaps google mitotically split the orginal story thread into several threads. Or maybe google removed virtual duplicates to mitigate a process known to me as google fluffing whereby an member of MSM keeps publishing the same story with minor changes, which sometimes builds up a story thread up until it appears on the front page of google news.

04/07/2005 8:59:43 AM MDT:


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