Posted on 05/22/2003 10:28:29 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay admitted Thursday he provided Texas Speaker Tom Craddick with the same information that state police used to enlist a homeland security agency in the search for runaway Democratic legislators.
DeLay said his staff used public information at the Federal Aviation Administration to track former Texas Speaker Pete Laney's airplane.
Laney was among 55 Democrats who broke a House quorum on May 12 to kill a congressional redistricting bill sought by DeLay, R-Sugar Land. Craddick and DeLay wanted the errant legislators arrested and returned to the House to force a vote on the bill.
"I was told at the time that that plane was in the air coming from Ardmore, Oklahoma, back to Georgetown, Texas," DeLay said of the FAA's information, which he said was also available on the agency's Web site. "I relayed that information to Tom Craddick."
Texas Department of Public Safety officers working in Craddick's office had the same information when it contacted a federal air interdiction agency to seek its help in finding Laney's airplane. The federal agency has since said it was misled into believing Laney's airplane was missing and possibly had crashed.
Homeland Defense Secretary Tom Ridge, meanwhile, said Thursday his agency is investigating "potentially criminal" misuse of the federal air interdiction service by the DPS.
DeLay said he played no part in the DPS' decision to contact the federal air interdiction service. And Craddick denies knowing anything about how the DPS came to call the agency.
"I don't know who contacted who," Craddick said.
The redistricting plan DeLay wanted would have increased his power in the U.S. House by allowing Republicans to gain four to seven seats in next year's elections. Democrats hold a 17-15 majority in the state delegation.
DeLay's admission is the latest revelation that state and federal Republican officials were directly involved in the widespread manhunt.
DeLay has said his office contacted justice officials May 12 "about the appropriate role of the federal government in finding Texas legislators who have warrants for their arrest and have crossed state lines."
Craddick had signed an order requiring any Texas "peace officer" to arrest the missing members. But Craddick's command was not a "warrant," which is an arrest order issued by a court for an accused criminal.
DeLay, in an impromptu interview with Texas reporters, said his office tracked Laney's airplane by contacting the FAA in Washington.
FAA officials told DeLay's staff that public information showed the airplane was en route from Ardmore to Georgetown, north of Austin.
State Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, was in the DPS command center outside of Craddick's office May 12. He has said there was a belief that Laney was ferrying lawmakers from Georgetown to Ardmore and the DPS thought some legislators might be caught when the plane landed.
When the plane did not arrive, Krusee said people worried that it had crashed. He said he did not know if that is what prompted DPS to call the homeland security agency, which could not locate the plane.
At 9:39 a.m. on May 14, the DPS ordered all records of the search to be destroyed. DPS claims the records were destroyed because the investigation was over, but the House did not drop the order to arrest the wayward members until 11:25 a.m.
Ridge told the House Select Committee on Homeland Security he cannot release tapes of the May 12 DPS telephone call because of the ongoing investigation.
"This is now a potentially criminal investigation," Ridge said.
The assistant inspector general conducting the investigation, Lisa Redman, told the Houston Chronicle she is focusing on whether "fraud, waste and abuse" were involved.
The Travis County district attorney's office and the state House General Investigating Committee also are conducting preliminary investigations into whether the DPS violated state laws in searching for the Democrats and in destroying the records.
DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said the agency was unaware of "a pending criminal investigation regarding this matter."
She said the records were ordered destroyed by Chief Marshall Caskey. Mange said Caskey's order was routine command to destroy non-criminal records once the House dropped the order to arrest the missing legislators.
DPS Director Col. Tommy Davis declined a request for an interview.
After all, was it not the DEMOCRATS who violated the Texas Constitution by fleeing arrest across state lines and broke the law by convening an illegal closed meeting in Oklahoma? If anyone needs to be criminally investigated, it is the 'rats and the 'rat congressmen like Martin Frost whose staffers aided and abetted their plot to hide out in Oklahoma.
The records shredding also is problematic. The federal law that DPS used to justify shredding the info was not germaine to the investigation, while the Texas law that stated these records had to be held for 3 years, under open access was ignored by DPS.
Ridge feels burned is why he is investigating. DPS duped him into what appears to be a partisan battle. My guess is Ridge will take Tom Delay behind the woodshed, and that will be about all that happens though.
Why vote when we can't win is their motto.
And many of them will sadly be re-elected......damn em !
StaY Safe GOP !
Hey you low life loser democrats... How about just doing the job you were elected to do, and maybe next time you wont have to be hunted down like the criminals you are
He should. And GWB should as well.
DeLay screwed up this redistricting fiasco in Texas just about as badly as he could have.
Pride goes before the fall.
What a rip. And how much money did the Democrats waste when they ran away from the House in session? Isn't it like $22,000 a day?
(1) I would have asked for a quorum call.
(2) I would have asked the Sgt-at-Arms to call the homes, and offices of all of the "missing" legislators.
(3) When the families and staffs of the AWOL legislators feigned any knowledge of the legislators whereabouts, I would have declared them DEAD and their seats vacant!
I bet that would have gotten some attention!
It all makes you wonder - did Laney post false flight plans to confuse officials of his whereabouts? After all, these same Dems falsified all sorts of stuff on practically everything else pertaining to their trip - the hotel and bus reservations were apparently made under false names, the paper trails were disguised under false info.
This is all pure speculation, but why was it that neither the FAA nor the Homeland Security Dept. could find a plane that was supposed to be in the air on a trip between Ardmore and Georgetown? Granted, government screws up all the time but doesn't it seem odd that two separate agencies including supposedly the most advanced security system in the world would have absolutely no clue as to where a plane was and why that plane wasn't on its scheduled path?
What we are seeing in Texas today is the direct result of the leadership shown by Governor George W. Bush. Now just take a minute and look at what he has been able to accomplish as POTUS despite all the negative affects of the 2000 election and anyone with a fair mind can easily admit this man has run circles around the democrats on every issue and he has shown leadership skills that few can match.
The 2002 Mid term elections are a fine example of what this President has done to nuetralize the democrats and I would be willing to bet the 2004 election might just give us a super majority (60 republicans) in the senate and increase the advantage in the house.
As Slick Willy said.... "You're making a mistake if you underestimate this guy" and the fact is... this might have been the first time Slick Willy ever told the truth
It's the same reason why they aren't reporting the fact that Martin Frost's staffers were in Ardmore and that the Democrat congressional offices had their hands all over this stunt - The media doesn't want redistricting to occur, thinks the Democrat fugitives are heroes, and doesn't want to give any of them a word of bad press.
The PR work by the TX Republicans was (and still is) abysmal.
Huh? Fact check needed. Also check the date of W's first election.
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