DeLay Indicted for conspiracy!

[KipWellsFan]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/28/D8CTCDQGD.html

 

A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.

[Balta1701]

Christmas in September.

[Steff]

Holy sweet geezus...

[southsider2k5]

Good deal.

[KipWellsFan]

Hastert will recommend Rep. David Dreier of California step into indicted leader Tom DeLay's duties...

 

 

 

DELAY INDICTED; MUST RESIGN LEADERSHIP

 

www.drudgereport.com

[Texsox]

He'll be found innocent. It's just the Dems and the liberal media running scared of the next Reagan. :rolly Hammer '08

[KipWellsFan]

GOP congressional officials said the plan was for DeLay to temporarily relinquish his leadership post and Speaker Dennis Hastert will recommend that Rep. David Dreier of California step into those duties.

 

Some of the duties may go to the GOP whip, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri. The Republican rank and file may meet as early as Wednesday night to act on Hastert's recommendation.

 

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/28/D8CTCK201.html

[Texsox]

Seriously, the Dems did an end around the State's Attorney who should have had jurisdiction, now they are grasping at straws. He's not going to be taken down by this. The Dems took their best shot and failed two years ago. At some point they are going to try and nail him for jay walking. He out maneuvered the Dems with the redistricting ploy, which was slimy as anything ever pulled off, but legal. It's purely politically motivated. Let the voters in Sugarland vote him out if they choose to.

[KipWellsFan]

Statement from the Office of the Majority Leader

Wed Sep 28 2005 13:03:09 ET

 

(WASHINGTON) - Kevin Madden, spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (TX) today released the following statement regarding today's announcement by the Travis County (TX) District Attorney's Office:

 

"These charges have no basis in the facts or the law. This is just another example of Ronnie Earle misusing his office for partisan vendettas. Despite the clearly political agenda of this prosecutor, Congressman DeLay has cooperated with officials throughout the entire process. Even in the last two weeks, Ronnie Earle himself had acknowledged publicly that Mr. DeLay was not a target of his investigation. However, as with many of Ronnie Earle's previous partisan investigations, Ronnie Earle refused to let the facts or the law get in the way of his partisan desire to indict a political foe.

 

This purely political investigation has been marked by illegal grand jury leaks, a fundraising speech by Ronnie Earle for Texas Democrats that inappropriately focused on the investigation, misuse of his office for partisan purposes, and extortion of money for Earle's pet projects from corporations in exchange for dismissing indictments he brought against them. Ronnie Earle's previous misuse of his office has resulted in failed prosecutions and we trust his partisan grandstanding will strike out again, as it should.

 

Ronnie Earle's 1994 indictment against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was quickly dismissed and his charges in the 1980s against former Attorney General Jim Mattox-another political foe of Earle-fell apart at trial.

 

We regret the people of Texas will once again have their taxpayer dollars wasted on Ronnie Earle's pursuit of headlines and political paybacks. Ronnie Earle began this investigation in 2002, after the Democrat Party lost the Texas state legislature to Republicans. For three years and through numerous grand juries, Ronnie Earle has tried to manufacture charges against Republicans involved in winning those elections using arcane statutes never before utilized in a case in the state. This indictment is nothing more than prosecutorial retribution by a partisan Democrat."

 

-drudgereport.com

[Texsox]

-drudgereport.com

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

politically motivated to be certain. This is going to be a giant waste of taxpayer's money.

[kapkomet]

My, my, my indictment hits me so hard

Makes me say "Oh my Lord"

Thank you for blessing me

With a mind to scam and two hype feet

It feels good, when you know you're down

A super dope homeboy from the Sugartown

And I'm known as such

And this is a man, uh, you can't touch

 

I told you homeboy (You can't touch this)

Yeah, that's how we living and you know (You can't touch this)

Look at my eyes, man (You can't touch this)

Yo, let me bust my way outta this one cause I'm the HAMMERman (You can't touch this)

 

---

The new theme song for the Hammer.

[Texsox]

So Chicagoans can understand.

 

This is like Marriotti indicting Hawk, JR, and Kenny. The DEM District Attorney is the biggest political hack in North America.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Delay stepping aside as house leader........for now.

[kapkomet]

So Chicagoans can understand.

 

This is like Marriotti indicting Hawk, JR, and Kenny. The DEM District Attorney is the biggest political hack in North America.

Actually, he seriously is a hack. But so is the "U can't touch this HAMMER".

[Texsox]

Delay stepping aside as house leader........for now.

 

GOP rules required it and the Hammer always plays by the rules.

[southsider2k5]

Or Patrick Fitzgerald indicting George Ryan... Oh wait...

[Texsox]

Actually, he seriously is a hack.  But so is the "U can't touch this HAMMER". 

 

I know y'all can't believe I'm supporting the Hammer, but one thing I hate more than right wing extremists, are expensive political hack jobs. DeLay s*** in his mess kit with the redistricting, but it was legal. Run a great candidate against him and let the voters knock him out. Doing it this way is wrong. I really think he will be found not guilty. This just is to embarrass the man and the party.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

I know y'all can't believe I'm supporting the Hammer, but one thing I hate more than right wing extremists, are expensive political hack jobs. DeLay s*** in his mess kit with the redistricting, but it was legal. Run a great candidate against him and let the voters knock him out. Doing it this way is wrong. I really think he will be found not guilty. This just is to embarrass the man and the party.

 

 

Thats about all the Democratic party has aside from race baiting and class warfare. What a bunch of sorry asses they are.

[Texsox]

Thats about all the Republican party has aside from race baiting and class warfare.  What a bunch of sorry asses they are.

 

And two sorry asses doesn't make a right.

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

And two sorry asses doesn't make a right.

 

 

Why did you misquote me?

[Balta1701]

GOP rules required it and the Hammer always plays by the rules. 

Please note...the GOP tried specifically to change exactly this rule back in January of this year. There was enough of an outcry, by people including me, the entire Democratic Party that had played by that rule for decades (including the corrupt early 90's), and even many moderate Republicans., that they were actually forced to rescind that rule. It was casually known as the "Delay" rule at the time.

[Balta1701]

This is like Marriotti indicting Hawk, JR, and Kenny. The DEM District Attorney is the biggest political hack in North America.

Of course, this ignores the actual facts of the situation.

 

First here's a quote from the Houston Chronicle about Mr. Earle's career...

 

During his long tenure, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has prosecuted many more Democratic officials than Republicans. The record does not support allegations that Earle is prone to partisan witch hunts.

 

Furthermore, the argument that Earle should drop the investigation because of its high cost ill becomes a political party that supported the spending of tens of millions of dollars to investigate Bill and Hillary Clinton's failed real estate investment in Arkansas, with little result.

 

Earle is investigating whether state Rep. Tom Craddick, a Republican, broke the rules in his race to become speaker of the Texas House. That investigation grew out of another begun to determine whether the Texas Association of Business and Texans for a Republican Majority illegally used corporate donations to influence Texas House races.

 

The whole scandal came to light after the TAB bragged that it had used corporate donations to gain a Republican majority in the House. As proof of his evenhandedness, Earle has subpoenaed the records of former House Speaker Pete Laney, a Democrat, after Craddick's defenders suggested that Laney had behaved similarly.

 

A spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas called Earle's investigation frivolous. That charge is rebutted by the impressive legal talent hired to represent the targets of the probe.

 

Earle himself perhaps put the matter best: "This is not about Democrats and Republicans. It is about cops and robbers. This is an investigation of a crime.

 

And more details on the man's career from MMFA

 

This assertion supports Earle's own claim about his record. From a March 6 article in the El Paso Times: "Earle says local prosecution is fundamental and points out that 11 of the 15 politicians he has prosecuted over the years were Democrats."

 

On June 17, the Associated Press reported: "A county prosecutor [Earle] already investigating House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's fund-raising committee for alleged campaign finance violations is looking into similar allegations involving Democratic Rep. Martin Frost."

 

A January 30, 1994, New York Times article reported that Earle was investigating a Democrat, then-Texas assistant attorney general Gary Bledsoe, on charges similar to those he brought against Hutchison.

 

In a February 6, 1994, article about Hutchison's case, The Washington Post reported that in 1983, Earle had indicted then-Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox on felony bribery charges. Mattox was Hutchison's challenger in her 1994 Senate reelection bid.

[Balta1701]

GOP congressional officials said the plan was for DeLay to temporarily relinquish his leadership post and Speaker Dennis Hastert will recommend that Rep. David Dreier of California step into those duties.

 

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/28/D8CTCK201.html

By the way...since this is a random message board in the middle of the whole world of cyberspace I can do some rumor mongering...I'm sitting in the district next door to Dreier's, and while he's probably a step up from Delay, it's interesting to note that there have been rumors, and some fairly public accusations, that he is actually a closeted homosexual (and, I might add, a fairly reliable vote against anything that would remotely improve the lives of homosexuals in this country...gets a rating of 22 from the Human Rights campaign - a gay rights group)

[KipWellsFan]

"I have done nothing wrong ... I am innocent," DeLay told a Capitol Hill news conference in which he criticized the Texas prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, repeatedly. DeLay called Earle a "unabashed partisan zealot," and "fanatic," and described the charges as "one of the weakest and most baseless indictments in American history."

 

In Dallas, Earle told reporters, "My job is to prosecute felonies. I'm doing my job."

 

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/28/D8CTEKLO0.html

 

In today's world politicians sure do have a tough time acknowledging that sometimes those on the other side of the argument aren't playing politics.

[mreye]

Please note...the GOP tried specifically to change exactly this rule back in January of this year.  There was enough of an outcry, by people including me, the entire Democratic Party that had played by that rule for decades (including the corrupt early 90's), and even many moderate Republicans., that they were actually forced to rescind that rule.  It was casually known as the "Delay" rule at the time.

The Democratic party played by a Republican party rule? I'm hearing the Dems don't have this same rule for themselves.