Deposed U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, reportedly created a political action committee in Alabama and transferred some of that money to a possibly illegal fund in his home state, where the GOP hammer has been indicted on corruption charges related to campaign finance irregularities.

We put the link up on the news page this morning to the story in the New York Times regional newspaper's story, in which Dana Beyerle reported from records in the secretary of state's office that show DeLay's Alabama PAC, Americans for a Republican Majority, transferred $25,000 in October 2002 to another PAC, Texans for a Republican Majority.

NYT: Organization Used for Suspect Contributions

In a busy day for the Associated Press, the wire service matched the story and moved its version about 7:36 p.m.

AP: DeLay Operated PAC in Alabama

According to the reports, the records show that DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority, "under a slightly different name," also gave $11,000 in May 2002 to then-U.S. Rep. Bob Riley when he was seeking the Republican Party's nomination for governor of Alabama.

Riley said last week he would donate $1,000 to charity to make up for contributions from Washington lobbyist and DeLay associate Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty last week to wire fraud and is expected to turn state's evidence against a number of Republicans, including a number of sitting members of Congress and possibly Riley.

Sources tell us that the Washington Post, USA Today, the Birmingham News and possibly other news organizations are investigating the Delay and Abramoff connections to Riley and Alabama, including a Tuscaloosa company involved in trying to set up a national lottery in Russia.

We are spending time confirming these stories ourselves, and have obtained the records independently through the Alabama Secretary of State's Web site.

Sources are also saying things like "this will bury Riley when all the facts come out." Of course Riley's office denies direct knowledge in the links to Abramoff and Delay money, and will no doubt try the Montgomery two-step to escape being tainted in those scandals.

A lot of information about the Abramoff stuff has already been posted on Judge Roy Moore's blog, although some of it has come in the comments section and not been verified.

This will get very interesting before it's over and it will be most interesting to see which news organization gets the most dirt and the best story.

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 06:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the decades after Watergate, Washington figures in legal or political hot water heard some familiar words of wisdom: The coverup is almost always worse than the crime. Never hunker down. Above all, never lie.

Lately, though, the evidence is mounting that this tried-and-true advice may no longer hold true, the Washington Post's John F. Harris writes in Tuesday's paper. Recent evidence suggests that hunkering down can sometimes work just fine, in a political and news media environment that has changed significantly in recent years.

Examples he uses include poor Sandy Berger's plea on taking a few documents, and the evil Tom Delay, who let's face it, has to go.

The examples he forgets are the biggest of them all: George W. Bush's slide on WMD in Iraq and breaking the federal budget. Some conservatism, eh? Then there's the Abu Graib and AWOL business, and everything else our Texas Souffle leader is never to be held accountable for - since that's up to the voters, and they spoke, right? At least according to the final few fixed electronic ballots in Ohio.

The upshot here is, of course, that "one-party control" by Republicans at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue "changes the dynamic substantially" in political scandals, says John D. Podesta, head of the liberal Center for American Progress and a White House and congressional staff veteran. "You just don't have anyone in power in Congress who will issue a subpoena."

That is the problem - and our dilemma.

Any thoughts on how we get ourselves out of this mess?

Site Note: The server is still being worked on to protect against vicious spam attacks by unknown enemies of the causes of freedom and truth. Hopefully all the bugs and the spooks will be run off soon. Surely they can find a dirtier kitchen to infest somewhere else.

GW

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)