WP: Ethics Issues Snared GOP's Champion (Focus on Fundraising=Problems)

[Pirate Smile]

Ethics Issues Snared GOP's Champion
DeLay's Focus on Fundraising Powered Party Gains But Led to Problems

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 8, 2006; Page A08

Standing before a crowd of applauding House Republicans in the Capitol Hill Club last March, then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) inscribed $1.8 million on a giant check and signed his name at the bottom with the flourish of a game show host. The tally, representing funds to be given to the campaigns of 10 Republican lawmakers, was yet another cache collected by one of the premier money machines ever to function on Capitol Hill.

It worked simply. On one side of the machine, a hose vacuumed the pockets of large corporations, wealthy individuals and legions of lobbyists on K Street, all instructed by DeLay to contribute only to Republicans. Out the other side, at some later date, came legislation of interest to many of the donors. Inside the machine, twisting its knobs and pulling its levers, was DeLay -- who was unabashed about his pay-to-play philosophy and relentless in enforcing his political rules.

DeLay's tenure in the congressional leadership, which came to a decisive end with his announcement yesterday that he would not try to regain the leadership post, was marked by an extraordinary record of political accomplishment. From Dec. 6, 1994, until last year, the former pest exterminator from a Houston suburb was the go-to guy in the House for legislative favors, perks, committee chairmanships and election cash.

-snip-
As President Bush noted recently, when DeLay was in the saddle, the administration's priorities were enacted by the House. Under his prodding, that body became in effect a single-party institution, with negligible Democratic influence in any aspect of its operations, from hearings to appropriations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/07/AR2006010701262.html

[Pirate Smile]

1. more

"After the historic 1994 elections, when many like-minded conservatives swept into the House, DeLay capitalized on his fundraising prowess in a successful race for majority whip against Rep. Robert S. Walker (Pa.). Walker, who was Rep. Newt Gingrich's best friend and an expert in parliamentary maneuvering, was initially favored to win the contest -- at a time when Gingrich was poised to win election as speaker. But DeLay had distributed so much money that he overtook Walker, securing the votes of 52 out of the 73 freshmen in the Class of 1994.

Walker later decried what he considered the excessive influence of fundraising committees such as DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee (ARMPAC), which, he said, caused the outcome to be determined by money, not talent. But his colleagues largely shrugged their shoulders. Over the next decade, they accepted nearly $4.5 million in contributions from ARMPAC, which drew its funds heavily from tobacco, energy, railroad and communications interests.

Throughout his tenure in the leadership, DeLay frequently traveled to golf resorts and costly hotels for meetings with lobbyists at ARMPAC's expense; he also preferred traveling on corporate jets instead of commercial airlines. But DeLay was not selfish -- he earned the gratitude of many colleagues by extending the same perquisites to them in exchange for their votes.

According to his former colleagues, DeLay's office functioned at times like a hotel concierge, arranging corporate jets, private cars, fishing trips and other expense-paid travel during congressional breaks, key votes and party conventions, all financed by wealthy donors with interests before Congress.

[hedda_foil]

2. A really intriguing bit.

DeLay, now 58, gained a biology degree at the University of Houston and pursued a political career out of opposition to regulation of the pesticide industry. He first came to Congress in 1985, but it was not until a decade later that Buckham, Rudy, Scanlon, and Abramoff played key roles in DeLay's ascent in the GOP hierarchy, a rise underpinned by the steady infusion of corporate cash into Republican political campaigns.

[Straight Shooter]

6. Yes. They were looking for their ruthless pimp. They found him. n/t

[KoKo]

3. An EXCELLENT article and points out for the first time what happened to

the Democrats under his "one party rule." It's the fairest article pointing out the damage he's done to the house that I've read in the WaPo or any of the "Mainstream News" sites.

Up until now this was all hushed up and the only folks able to talk about it were the Dem Bloggers.

Let's hope now that he's stepped down his "climate of fear" will allow more people to speak out about what was going on.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. So what's that about "money is the root of all evil"? Read it where?

I don't suppose it would be in any of the books Tom "The Hamper" DeLay has read, would it? No one he respects would support that kind of pinko lefty claptrap, would they?

[MetaTrope]

5. Pity about the headline

"Ethics issues" is the point at which most sheeple will stop reading. "Graft and bribery" would have gotten the message across so much better.