Posted on 01/10/2006 12:20:39 PM PST by mlc9852
WASHINGTON - Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay tried to pressure the Bush administration into shutting down an Indian-owned casino that lobbyist Jack Abramoff wanted closed — shortly after a tribal client of Abramoff's donated to a DeLay political action committee, The Associated Press has learned.
The Texas Republican demanded closure of the casino, owned by the Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Texas, in a Dec. 11, 2001 letter to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft. The Associated Press obtained the letter from a source who did not want to be identified because of an ongoing federal investigation of Abramoff and members of Congress.
"We feel that the Department of Justice needs to step in and investigate the inappropriate and illegal actions by the tribe, its financial backers, if any, and the casino equipment vendors," said the letter, which was also signed by Texas Republican Reps. Pete Sessions, John Culberson and Kevin Brady.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Another un-named source, will it never end?
"I'll dare bet that there were democrats who wrote letters too. I say its selective leaking to smear Delay.
This is what congressmen do. They write letters and make laws and spend our money."
No doubt. It's when you take the money before you write the letters and make the calls that you get in trouble. It's one thing to act on principle. It's quite another when you do it for greed.
This cuts both ways. Dems do it. Reps do it....in fact....I feel a song lyric coming on:
Reps do it.
Dems do it.
Even lowly city councilmen do it.
Let's do it.
Let's take bribe.
Cops do it.
Judges do it.
Even greedy schoolboards do it.
Let's do it.
Let's take bribe.
Another whiltle-blower, errr Grand Jury leaker.
Yep, as PJ O'Rourke once noted, when buying and selling are legislated, the first thing to be bought and sold are legislators.
Lots of people involved both in and out of politics plus the judiciary.
Here's the solution:
We have a lottery. Everyone's in it. No opt out.
Every couple of years we draw names. There's a national lottery, a state lottery, one for the county, one for the city, one for the school district, each drawing on a pool of residents of the jurisdiction.
The prize? The names drawn have to serve in the legislature, county board, city council, or school board.
The grand prize? President of the United States.
I don't see how it would be any worse than the system we have set up now. Yeah, you might get the grease monkey down at the garage for President, but what the heck? He might turn out all right.
And that means what?
Oh, yeah, I forgot. The pool is only made up of property owners who are current on their property taxes.
No but it's frustrating. Dems can get away with murder, but if a Republican so much as frowns then he should resign and thrown in prison.
The time for "staying above the fray" is over with and Republicans should be screaming from the rooftops for Dems to be held accountable too.
And since we're not gonna shrink the size of government anytime soon, the only solution I see is constant vigilence. Here in Pennsylvania, the legislators tried voting themselves an illegal pay raise and had to repeal it and still are in jeopardy. It's funny how the poohbahs can waste billions on influence peddling and nothing is done to them even though that costs taxpayers a lot of money - but vote themselves a $15,000 pay raise and all hell breaks loose.
It shows the average Joe has a long way to go to understand what the real issues are here.
"No but it's frustrating. Dems can get away with murder, but if a Republican so much as frowns then he should resign and thrown in prison.
The time for "staying above the fray" is over with and Republicans should be screaming from the rooftops for Dems to be held accountable too."
I'm just hoping that this scandal has the effect of skimming off the top layer of scum in Congress, on both sides of the aisle.
Schadenfreude? You betcha!
"Even that wouldn't solve the problem,"
I know....
I wish I had some kind of real solution, but I don't.
Worst of all, DeLay will take the fall for this, get lots of publicity, then everyone will fall back asleep and things can continue as they were. We have a short attention span, and are easily satisfied.
Cases like this are dind of the fast food of political justice, I guess. Tastes OK, doesn't cost much, you're done quickly, but it's terrible for you.
To play blackjack you had to put up 50 cents per hand.
That was 10 % of most bets.
I played $20 but I hated it.
It was close to me so better than out of state casinos.
They said it was for the liars (lawyers).
If we can't get money out of campaigning, I'll go with your method.
"I'm just hoping that this scandal has the effect of skimming off the top layer of scum in Congress, on both sides of the aisle."
Sadly, it probably won't. DeLay will go down, along with maybe a couple of insignificant characters. There will be tons of publicity. Everyone will talk about "cleaning house."
Then, the public will go back to sleep and it will be "Carry on as before, men."
Maybe you should get in touch with $oro$. He would probably fund your project. He has them going on in at least half a dozen states through projects to "clean up" their legislature. Just so happens the groups are only operating in states that have Republican controlled legislatures which need to be replaced by Democrats (in his opinion.)
Nah. Soros has to go. So, I take it that you're happy with the direction the GOP is going in the Congress? You like the stuff they're feeding you? OK, well, real good, then.
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to tell the difference between the parties.
I do not like what the Republicans have been up to, but unlike you, I'm not anxious to replace them with those paragons of virtue, the Democrats, and I am not naive enough to think you can take the $ out of politics unless you want to get rid of elections along with the $.
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