Category: criminal indictment

Cool Hand Hammer?

CNN is reporting that the Travis County grand jury has issued an arrest warrant for Tom DeLay. Details so far appear sketchy, but we do think that if recent experience has taught us anything, it's that the Hammer should give up Scooter Libby pronto. . . --HOLLY MARTINS

READ MORE: criminal indictment , ronnie earle , tom delay , travis county grand jury

The Base in Pursuit of the Baseless

Give Tom DeLay credit: He's not the sort of person to be humbled by adversity. In today's news conference on his conspiracy indictment, he denounced the Texas grand jury's vote as the product of "a political witch hunt," and in case that didn't quite get the point across he claimed to be the victim of "one of the weakest and most baseless indictments in American history." Though, I dunno, if we broaden the definition of "indictment" beyond its strictly judicial meaning, I think this one far surpasses most any comer in the weak and baseless category, especially since it crassly seizes on the wrenching plight of a woman all-but officially brain dead and her family. Let's roll the tape, shall we, back to that long-ago time of late March, at a cozy get together at the Family Research Council:

I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, one thing God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo to elevate the visibility of what's going on in America. . . .This is exactly the kind of issue that's going on in America, that attacks against the conservative moment, against me and against many others. The point is, the other side has figured out how to win and to defeat the conservative movement, and that is to go after people personally, charge them with frivolous charges, link up with all these do-gooder organizations funded by George Soros, and then get the national media on their side. That whole syndicate that they have going on right now is for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to destroy the conservative movement. It is to destroy conservative leaders, and not just in elected office, but leading. I mean, Ed Feulner, of the Heritage Foundation today was under attack in the National Journal. This is a huge nationwide concerted effort to destroy everything we believe in. And you need to look at this, and what's going on and participate in fighting back.

Yeah, Tom, and we're sure that the National Journal and the Florida Supreme Court put those blank checks into your PAC director's hand. Fuckwad. -- HOLLY MARTINS

DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe [MSNBC]

Tom DeLay: "It Is More than Just Terri Schiavo" [Time]

READ MORE: crass exploitation , criminal indictment , idiotic self-righteousness , tom delay

Hammer No Hit Man

Wow. You know that you've got a long climb back up to alpha-political dominance when even USA Today can make the words "Related Story" read like another count in an indictment:

DeLay is the center of an ethics swirl in Washington. The 11-term congressman was admonished last year by the House ethics committee on three separate issues and is the center of a political storm this year over lobbyists paying his and other lawmakers' tabs for expensive travel abroad. (Related story: Men with ties to lobbyist Abramoff nabbed in businessman's death)

Even we think that's a bit much. After all, DeLay has an airtight alibi for the night of that alleged Mob hit: He was home all evening, rolling giddily around in a palette of hundred dollar bills, spraying a churned-up bottle of champagne before a wall-size electoral district map of Texas, and shrieking "Now you are all mine, my pretties!" -- HOLLY MARTINS

DeLay Indicted for Conspiracy in Campaign Finance Probe [USA Today]

READ MORE: criminal indictment , fundraising improprieties , jack abramoff , tom delay

House Leadership Figurines on Special in Aisle Two

Forgive the serial posts on the same big topic, but one sinister detail just leapt out from the CNN dispatch on the Hammer's day of reckoning, and we had to share it with you:

The indictment accused DeLay of a conspiracy to "knowingly make a political contribution" in violation of Texas law outlawing corporate contributions. It alleged that DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee accepted $155,000 from companies, including Sears Roebuck, and placed the money in an account.

That's right . . . including Sears Roebuck. The very same Sears Roebuck behind the Sears American Dream and the Sears Caravan of Caring. The very same Sears Roebuck that, as we reported yesterday, has made the First Lady of the United States a wholly owned subsidiary. All this time, we've been convinced that Wal-Mart is the seat of megaretail evil in our great republic, and in waltzes this Chicago-based purveyor of Dreams and Caring to make the House GOP Leadership its own little version of Sam's Club. And where is Target, the signature blue state megachain? Why, off purchasing itself vanity placement in the New Yorker, of course. Liberal Democratic leaders can't even be bought off by corporate retailers effectively. We guess it's because they've pre-emptively sold themselves out. -- HOLLY MARTINS

DeLay Indicted, to Step Aside as Majority Leader [CNN]

READ MORE: criminal indictment , the fathomless perfidy of sears , tom delay

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