DENIAL IS MORE THAN A RIVER IN THE 22nd CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF TEXAS

It didn't take long for the right wing echo chamber on GOP radio and TV to come to the aid of poor old, put upon, Tom Delay.

It seems that Tom was merely busy doing God's work and that the evil Librals, along with the satanic media, attacked him for no reason!

As for the news that three of Delay's former toadies have already plead guilty to crimes and are cooperating in the investigation?

Why, if anything, Tom is guilty of trusting people who went too far on their own....

Yes, they make that claim with a straight face.

The man known as the 'Hammer,' who was a hands-on demagogue to the thunderous applause of  the GOP's "Cracker Nation" and who ran the House as his own personal fiefdom, didn't have a clue as to what his closest aides were up to for all these years?

It sounds like bullshit when 'Kenny Boy' Lay argues it as a part of his Enron trial defense and it really sounds like bullshit when Tom Delay's high dollar lawyers spout it.

But are we all being too hard on the fallen Prince of Sugarland?

Are his troubles truly all behind him?

Despite attempts on the part of Republican spin doctors to paint Delay's resignation from Congress as the end of the agony, what exactly is the status of his problems with the Texas legal system?

Here is a reminder of the troubles Delay still faces in his home state.

The meat of the indictment sought by the District Attorney of Travis County and handed down by a Grand Jury of Texas citizens is "Texans for a Republican Majority PAC" (TRMPAC), which DeLay founded and which his closest aides and family members ran. Delay himself organized and headlined fundraisers, made fundraising calls, took part in strategic planning sessions and even personally collected corporate checks.

In a recent Texas civil trial the court ruled that TRMPAC illegally collected and spent $532,333 in corporate cash and violated Texas law by not reporting it.

Included within that illegal $532,333 was $190,000 that TRMPAC sent to the Republican National Committee (RNC) in September of 2002.

Here are the facts from that case:

*On September 10, 2002, DeLay's co-defendant, John Colyandro, sent a blank check to co-defendant Jim Ellis.

*On September 13, 2002, Ellis handed over the check in question to the RNC. Ellis made out the check for $190,000 and gave the RNC a list of seven candidates for the Texas House, along with designated contributions they were to receive.

*On September 20 the $190,000 was deposited by the RNC into a corporate cash account.

*On October 2, Ellis met with DeLay at DeLay's Capitol office. That same day the RNC generated seven internal memos requesting seven different checks to the TRMPAC candidates designated in Ellis's original request.

*On October 4 seven checks totaling $190,000 were cut from a noncorporate GOP account. The checks were numbered 7470 through 7476.

Corporate contributions to candidates in Texas are illegal. Such a contribution is a third-degree felony. A contribution is defined as a direct or indirect transfer of money, including the agreement to make such a transfer. Anyone who participated in an agreement to indirectly transfer $190,000 in corporate cash to Texas candidates has broken Texas law.

Delay's lawyers have argued that TRMPAC gave contributions to state legislative candidates across the country. What they fail to mention is that the Texas TRMPAC candidates received checks ranging from $20,000 to $40,000 while the next largest contribution made to a state legislative candidate was $2,000.

Depending on when he is asked,  Delay has claimed that (1) He knew about the $190,000 beforehand; (2) That he heard about it after the fact; (3) That he did, in fact, discuss it with Ellis on October 2, 2002.

When asked during a recent interview about his feeling upon retiring from the House of Representatives, Delay quoted Dr. Martin Luther King's famous phrase, "Free at last. Free at last. Great God Almighty I'm free at last."

Perhaps Delay should have considered another quote from the man that he and his right wing allies have reviled so many times in the past. Could it be that Mr. Delay would be better off heeding the following piece of advice from Dr. King:

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

 
-Rozius