Cute, But No Cigar

Posted by jesselee
Friday, October 7, 2005 at 10:26 AM

DeLay accuses Earle of taking corporate funds
[Washington Times]

Rep. Tom DeLay said District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who is prosecuting him for trying to involve corporate money in Texas politics, has taken such contributions himself. "It's real interesting he has this crusade against corporate funds. He took corporate funds, and he's taken union funds, for his own re-election. That's against the law," Mr. DeLay told The Washington Times yesterday. A review of Mr. Earle's campaign-finance filings in Texas shows that he has received contributions from the AFL-CIO, including a $250 donation on Aug. 29, 2000. He also has received contributions listed on the disclosure forms only as coming from the name of an incorporated entity, often a law firm. Mr. Earle has said repeatedly that state law bars corporate and union contributions. Attempts to reach Mr. Earle yesterday for comment, including a phone message left on his assistant's voice mail detailing Mr. DeLay's charge, were unsuccessful.

Nice tag team work, Washington Times. Embarassing reporting, however. You see, it is not illegal to accept corporate or union funds, and it is a good thing for DeLay because he would already be in jail. It is highly hilarious that he would have the nerve to say, "That's against the law." No, what is against the law is spending that corporate or union money on anything except overhead...

State law generally prohibits corporate money from being spent on campaigns except for a political committee's administrative overhead such as rent and utilities. Texans for a Republican Majority spent corporate money on pollsters, phone banks and consultants, arguing that the expenses were part of the committee's overhead.

Now $250 sounds like about the right amount to cover some light bills. Hundreds of thousands of dollars like TRMPAC raised? Not so much. And as I've argued for some time, the single most damning piece of evidence in the case was probably this fundraising appeal TRMPAC sent out early on...

"Unlike other organizations, your corporate contribution to TRMPAC will be put to productive use," the piece said. "Rather than just paying for overhead, your support will fund a series of productive and innovative activities designed to increase our level of engagement in the political arena." [emphasis added]

Nice try. Maybe you can have just one cigar...

P.S. -- Might as well laugh at this one too while we're at, from the same story...

"If you step back and look at his operation for three years on this particular issue, talking to the press, of course he's talked to the Democratic leadership. I don't know who. But he's a political animal; he's not a district attorney," he said.

He also said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee "was shopping the story" that Mr. DeLay was about to be indicted a day before the Sept. 28 indictment was handed up, which Mr. DeLay implied means that the DCCC had knowledge of secret proceedings.

"How did they know it was the deadline, number one, and how did they know I was going to be indicted the next day?" he said. "Isn't it amazing how much information they have when they're spinning you? All of that is coordinated."

Democrats have consistently said there is no basis to Mr. DeLay's charges.

"I know that Tom DeLay may find himself distracted by conspiracy-related issues, but I'm being honest when I say that there are no local or federal jurisdictions that allow the DCCC to indict anyone," DCCC spokesman Bill Burton said yesterday. "At some point, Tom DeLay is just going to have to come to grips with the fact that it's the evidence that did him in, not Web sites or newspapers or the staff of the DCCC."

A Josh Marshall post...

(September 27, 2005 -- 09:04 PM EDT // link // print)

AP: "A Texas grand jury's recent interest in conspiracy charges could lead to last-minute criminal indictments _ possibly against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay _ as it wraps up its investigation Wednesday into DeLay's state political organization, according to lawyers with knowledge of the case. Conspiracy counts against two DeLay associates this month raised concerns with DeLay's lawyers, who fear the chances are greater that the majority leader could be charged with being part of the conspiracy. Before these counts, the investigation was more narrowly focused on the state election code."

...Looks like it was DeLay's own lawyers "shopping it around."

UPDATE: Josh Marshall decimates the "law firm" angle. Funny thing about Tom DeLay and lawyers. You know how he and the rest of the Republicans hates 'em so much and all, right? Let's take a look at his top donor industries...

1 Health Professionals $182,548
2 Securities & Investment $151,350
3 Oil & Gas $143,425
4 Lawyers/Law Firms $128,500
5 Insurance $111,050
6 Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $106,999
7 Lobbyists $106,250

Seems like Tom might have known that Law Firms didn't fall into that category of illegal contributions, right? Or did Jim Ellis just take all that money without DeLay knowing about it again?

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