Is there a bigger scumbag than Tom Delay?
 

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...avo_washington

Delay is probably the biggest a$$hole in Washington, followed closely by most of those warped 'evangelical' types who jumped on that poor woman's case in order to pander to their constituency.

It's so f*ing obvious that he is doing this to deflect attention from his own crimes.

Delay, a known scumbag, liar and hopefully soon to be kicked out of the house for massive ethics improprieties as well as kickbacks, wants to impeach the lower and upper court judges who merely followed the law.

It's obvious that this scumbag doesnt even know what the law is or he wouldnt keep breaking it.

Hell, even the people who control bush immediately distanced themselves from this creep.

What does he want to do? Create his own set of laws? His own government?

My skin crawled and i wanted to scream out loud in rage every time i saw those hordes of creepy and fanatical born-agains and right-to-lifers who prayed at endless candlelight vigils for not only Schiavo's vegetative and lifeless survival but also for moral punishment and even the death of the various judges and lawmakers and doctors who dared uphold Florida law and make honest decisions about Schiavo's tenuous condition and told the government to butt the hell out.

I dont know is this ignorant jerkoff is a lawyer but if he is, he should be disbarred in an instant.
.........................................

DeLay Targets Legal System in Schiavo Case

24 minutes ago White House - AP


By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Thursday blamed Terri Schiavo's death on what he contended was a failed legal system and he raised the possibility of trying to impeach some of the federal judges in the case.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," said DeLay, R-Texas.

But a leading Democratic senator said DeLay's comments were "irresponsible and reprehensible." Sen. Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., said DeLay should make sure that people know he is not advocating violence against judges.

DeLay, the second-ranking House GOP lawmaker, helped lead congressional efforts 10 days ago to enact legislation designed to prod the federal courts into ordering the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube. He said the courts' refusal to do just that was a "perfect example of an out of control judiciary."

Asked about the possibility of the House's bringing impeachment charges against judges in the Schiavo case, DeLay said, "There's plenty of time to look into that."

President Bush expressed sympathy to Schiavo's parents. "I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others," he said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan refused to join DeLay in criticizing the courts. "We would have preferred a different decision from the courts ... but ultimately we have to follow our laws and abide by the courts," McClellan said.

Joining DeLay in taking issue with the judiciary was Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., who said, "The actions on the part of the Florida court and the U.S. Supreme Court are unconscionable." Also, GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina said the case "saw a state judge completely ignore a congressional committees subpoena and insult its intent" and "a federal court not only reject, but deride the very law that Congress passed."

DeLay said he would make sure that the GOP-controlled House "will look at an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."

But Kennedy said DeLay should watch his words, especially in light of the recent murder of a Georgia judge and the killing of a federal judge's husband and mother in Chicago. Kennedy noted that judges in the Schiavo case and their families have received threats.

"This case has been heartbreaking and tragic enough," Kennedy said. "It is time for mourning and healing, not for more inflammatory rhetoric, and responsible national leaders should understand that and stop this exploitation."

The legislation passed in an emergency session of Congress and immediately signed by Bush ordered the federal courts to review the decision by a Florida judge to allow the removal of the feeding tube that kept Schiavo alive.

U.S. District Judge James Whittemore refused. His ruling was twice upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Later, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene.

As a House member, DeLay has no constitutional role in deciding who becomes a federal judge or whether a judge should be disciplined. The president selects the judges; senators confirm them. The federal court regulates those judges.

But the GOP-controlled House can initiate impeachment proceedings on federal judges, just as they impeached President Clinton, only to have the Senate acquit him.

"Congress for many years has shirked its responsibility to hold the judiciary accountable. No longer," DeLay said.

The House has impeached 11 federal judges, including former Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, but the Senate has only convicted and removed seven.

Chase was not convicted. The last federal judge to be removed was Alcee Hastings, in 1989; he is now a Democratic congressman from Florida.

Congress does have the authority under the Constitution to limit what kind of cases the federal courts can hear. Republicans have complained for some time about what they see as an out of control federal judiciary.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Congress should pass the broad legislation that House Republicans favored in the Schiavo case but which was narrowed to cover only the Florida woman after a compromise with the White House.

"Terri's will to live should serve as an inspiration and impetus for action," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

The House bill, giving jurisdiction of the Schiavo case to the federal courts, would have applied to any case in which there were questions about withholding food or medical treatment from an incapacitated person.

McClellan said the president would review such legislation if it came to him.

__________________

You bitch about how "DeLay doesn't know the law", but you do understand that slavery and seperate is equal was the law at one time, don't you?

At one time, yes. but not anymore. You are missing the issue entirely.

Delay is trying to subvert the legal process. I have practiced as an attorney for 20 years. I am absolutely outraged that this evangelical asshole has the balls and temerity to take to task judges who are simply following THE LAW, not Delay's religion.

I don't understand what you are trying to say.
Can you clarify?

Sometimes I believe that DeLay just starts talking and doesn't actually realize what he says. And how in the world does a man like Sen. Rick Santorum become a U.S. Senator?

I would like to know what some of the less extreme Senetors and Reps have to say (i.e not these 2 and Kennedy).

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
*cough*Bullshit*cough*

/Kind of on topic (It's in the article)
I would find it interesting if that bill Bush signed into law as Gov. of Texas was on the opposite side of a lawsuit against this bill if it was ever passed in its original way.

There are bigger scumbags, but DeLay is a heavy hitter. If there will truly be a backlash against conservatives following the Schiavo case by Republicans, I hope DeLay is one of the first targets.

Interestingly enough there was a cartoon on the front page of today's paper depicting DeLay as a tiny insect scurrying for his life from the thrashing hooves and the massive stomping feet of both donkeys and elephants. Now is the time to squash Tom like the political roach that he is, same with all the other radicals. Just shine the flashlight on Congress and watch them scatter.

NCB, it's clear to me now. If I enter a thread and post an inflammatory comment that is completely off topic, and to it 10 times a day, I can have an avatar in no time at all!

Son, the initial post claimed that DeLay did not know the law. My point is, is that the law is not always correct and should not be revered as such.

Why should Delay not be able to approach such avenues? If he does it by the books, by and by there is no need for these people to worry, nothing will happen to them. Yeah it's petty and weak, but let the man do a tank job, this will get him no where, the people of America aren't behind him, plus I'm pretty sure to impeach a judge (that's what we are talking about right?) don't you need a 2/3's majority?

I wish the evil conservatives would focus their wrath on the 9th circuit, that is a house that needs some cleaning for real.

I'll ignore your attempt at authority and move on to the latter part of your statement.

First off, the "separate but equal" laws you refer to were state laws specifically designed to descriminate against blacks, hardly the same as the case in question with the Terri Shaivo fiasco. Secondly, the FEDERAL judges had no jurisdiction since the state courts already denied the case because it had no merit and no base to act on. Thirdly, law in America is based off of Common Law which comes into being over time from precedents. There was no precedent from which the Supreme Court could refer to to have the feeding tube put back in. They aren't just making this stuff up as they go. And lastly, any judge who would have ruled opposite what the SC denied 5 times would have been the activist judge, not Judge Greer and whoever else ruled against the feeding tube. I'm sure Mobo could explain this more accurately and completely (in the event that I completely made an ass of myself).

Well said Fourty. I'm largely conservative, I don't like what happened with the Schiavo situation, but the federal government had no place butting in. In a sense it renewed some faith in the higher courts, action would've set a wicked precedent.

Pinch me Mojo, either I'm dreaming or we just experienced a major breakthrough. :D

Bill Clinton, anyone?

Awww, c'mon it's not THAT hard to fathom. :icare:

NCB, what is your educational background? really curious.

He was like a US President or something, right?

What is your point?

first we have to hear bitching about judicial activists writing law from the bench, then we get to hear about judicial incompetence by following the laws as they are. I guess some people would be pissed about being hung with a new rope because of splinters.

The tone, in this thread, needs to improve significantly. Failing that, this discussion is done.

Now, having said that, I caught Delay's soundbite on NPR this morning. What frosted my soul was..."...will look at an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president." That and the possibility of bring impeachment charges against judges who followed the letter of the law. I kept hoping, beyond hope, to hear those two little words..."April Fools". Sadly, I did not.

To answer the question-yes, there is a bigger scum bag than tom delay. His name is Michael Schiavo.

I haven't seen Schiavo whore out some ones life for political gain.

As far as congressional scum goes, Delay is right up at the top, I (yes, liberal me) hate Ted Kennedy and think he should be in prison for murder, and although I'm not going to go through issue by issue with each one, most of the rest of our legislators are very guilty of pissing in the Congressional pool.

I personally feel that what happened was the right thing, but I still agree with you. He only wanted her cut off for personal gain, not because of what she wanted. He wouldn't have kept her "alive" for 15 years if she wanted to be allowed to die.

Personally I think that this entire situation was a travesty that they ever drug it into the media like they did. I don't like how it had to happen, but at least Terri Schiavo now has some dignity, I've not met many people that would want to be kept alive in the fashion that she had to endure.

As for Tom Delay, all I can say is thank God for the checks and balances in the system and the fact that this one man doesn't have the power to enforce his will into my life.

Hmmmmmmmm, I dunno. I'm an amoral liberal and can't tell the difference between right and wrong.

Actually, I have to agree with Rage that Rick Santorum is pretty high on the list of insufferables, even among politicians in general, who as a group set the bar pretty high.

Here's Rick's top message today on his website:


And here's his reaction to the Supreme Court taking on the anti-gay sex laws:

...Yes. Because there haven't been massive lawsuits in all that time. Because the case never went to the SCOFLA. What the hell man?

Rick is my Senator and I truly hate his guts and am deeply ashamed that he represents me.
I'm glad to hear Chairman Dean say that he is the number one target of the Democratic party. It'll be a great day to see this anal wart without a job. Rick has benefited in past years from being relatively low key enough to keep the Democrats from becoming too polarized against him, plus some very imept democratic campaigns against him.
That'll change in '06 with Casey running. Rick, and his Presidential aspirations are unemployed January '06.

Hmmm.. I was going to say no, there isn't a bigger scumbag, but Santorium is making it a photo finish.

I don't mean to resurrect the emotions of this thread but I honestly don't know what Santorum has done to deserve as bad a rap as DeLay.

DeLay is a much bigger scum bag. I was just adding my personal view of a guy who was already brought up.

What Santorum has done though...
-Milked the Pennsylvania educational system (taxpayer dollars) for over $100,000 dollars to send his kids to cyber charter school. This is while he has had no true residence in Pennsylvania having lived in Virginia since he got his Senate seat.
The rich mfer stole our money so he could charter school his kids for free when they could have gone to a perfectly good public school in Arlington.
-Took family pictures with his premature dead fetus. I believe sent them out with their christmas letter as well. Course his kids would be scarred for life anyway being twisted by him in every other way.
--As a side note to that he is against Abortion in any and all cases including rape, incest and mortal danger to the mother.
-The whole man-on-dog thing about him equating the legalization of anal sex by the SC with pedofilia and bestiality.

That's just some of the worst of him, but overall he's really just a fruitcake to the actual slimy evil of a DeLay.

I'd be happy to nominate Santorum as a very close second. he once held the lead. He's got the extremeist, religious thing going longer than DeLay has been around.

one link

and another

and another

There's some scary shit there from Santorum. A couple that stood out to me:

" It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, this right that was created,"

" Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that's antithetical to strong, healthy families. Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family."

This guy needs to learn to separate healthy, stable, and traditional families. You can be healthy and stable and not be traditional. My wife is pagan, I don't care for religion, and our daughter will be able to choose her own. I'd call us non-traditional, but if he thinks we're unstable or unhealthy he's wrong. I hate DeLay, being from TX, with a passion, but Santorum is even, or maybe a greasy nose ahead.

Not many more, no. He's pretty high on the list. Santorum is hot on his heals, though.

Take Bush, Delay and Santorum's "ownership" society and place it "where the sun don't shine" !!!!! Greedy, heartless, bastards. Is child labor in sweatshops next on their agenda ?
The apologists of the republican agenda who post on these boards should examine the threat that the agenda they espouse, poses to the economic security of some of their own family members, friends, and members of their congregations and communities. These republican politicians do not represent the majority of you!

They represent me. I'm against raising minimum wage. I believe it should be done away with totally. The market should decide people's wages, period. I don't want the government telling me how much my business needs to be paying my employees.

Rude personal comment removed. You were warned. Three day ban issued.
-lebell

The bill is not a minimum wage bill. It is an attempt to rollback overtime pat protections, which were instituted to lessen scheduling abuses of workers,
it is an attempt to override state laws concerning wages that tipped employees receive, and it is an attempt to eliminate penalties that employers pay when they operate unsafe workplaces. Do you advocate removing all
legislated protection of workers? IMO, that is not the action of legislators who represent the public, it is the intention and agenda of legislators who trade the trust ceded to them by the majority of the voters who elected them, in favor of contributions of money, and privelege and influence from the business lobby.

The 84 page Santorum senate bill would override state laws by prohibiting any
wage payments by employers to tipped employees who earn tip averages above the minimum hourly wage. In Nevada, for example, tis would amount to a legislated federally mandated $5.15 per hour REDUCTION in tipped employee's wages. The bill removes fines for employer workplace safety violations. The bill eliminates 40 hour maximum workweelds before overtime must be paid. This is anti-family because it permits employers to schedule longer workdays and work weeks before overtime pay is required by law.

is there a bigger scumbag than tom delay?
as a faithful lackey of the corporate interests that prop up the reality of conservative politics, in the interests of which the right operates, tom delay is but a symptom.

this is yet another example of conservativism in its present guise as a self-disempowerment program dressed up rhetorically as its opposite.

it is yet another example of how important the workers' movement was for making capitalism a less barbaric system--regardless of the problems that later ensued.
this is an index of what the collapse of that workers movement means.
for 150 years, it was obvious that market "logic" and human life are not related except insofar as these converge in the persons of the holders of capital.
for them, however, it appears that the people who actually enable production to occur at all--the workers--are expendable. the right chooses not to remember this basic fact. the right would like to erase everything that has happened over the past century that enabled american-style capitalism to be functional. erase the history of capitalism, replace it with hallucinations of the "free market". erase the history of dissent, the function of dissent, replace it with a paranoiac moralizing discourse that operates to exclude dissent in all areas as evil. erase rational discourse altogether. replace all of it with a short-sighted, self-serving and suicidal ideolgy already demonstrated to be incapable of structuring rational action in the capitalist context by 1848. replace it with an ideology that would set up the american system as self-defeating even on the terms run out by makret theorists like hayek through the elimination of feedback loops.


welcome to the brave new early nineteenth century capitalism the right wants to inflict on us--behind the smoke screens of far-right christian ideology, behind the smoke screen of reactionary "wedge issues" articulated on "cultural" grounds--what the right seems to have in mind for the rest of us is the creation of new "industrial reserve armies" to fill low-wage, low-skill jobs in which any and all workers are completely interchangeable---in which working people will have little reality for the holders of capital beyond being a variable in overall calculations of profit and loss, as agents whose primary function is to introduce irrationalities into the perfection of organizational diagrams.....appendages of machines....crushed by debt peonage as a function of the struggle to survive....less than serfs...less than human beings.

welcome to the new barbarism--constant downward pressure on wages, elimination of benefits packages, the withdrawal of social security from the poor, opposition to access to basic health care for everyone regardless of income--welcome to the destruction of the state as mechanism for making political the consequences of cowboy capitalism--welcome to a world dominated at the level of reactionary fantasy by a moralizing, individualistic ideology the primary function of which is to place obastacles at the deepest possible level before any attempt to organize and on the basis of organizing to force--and i mean force--the holders of capital to see what for 150 years--thanks in significant measure to the actions of the left--has been obvious--that capitalism sits within a bigger social system that enables the holders of capital to extract profit and that therefore the holders of capital owe it--OWE IT--to contribute to the health of that system.

welcome to the type of capitalism that made revolution inevitable---with a twist--the hatred of those who oppose conservative dreams of hegemony, rehearsed through the kind of racist staging of the Enemy you saw during bushterm 1 directed at muslims, that you saw around election time directed at gay people, that you see surfacing in truly frightening form through the acccelerated integration of far-right protestant evangelical ideology, which enables those who oppose the right to be understood as minions of satan--welcome to an ideological climate that makes fascism seem preferable to trade unions. welcome to an ideological climate that acts as though an authoritarian system that talks alot about democracy is in fact a democracy.

are there bigger scumbags than tom delay?
sure
tom delay is but a symptom.

Yeesh.

Link:

Link:

The CW seems to be that Republican insiders have decided DeLay is going down, and rather than have that happen during an election year a million little secrets have begun to leak to the press to take him out now.

Edit:

Link:

Work hard, play hard:

Doctor Named 'Physician of the Year' -- for a Fee

link

Look who designed and ran the operation for 5 years

In a nutshell, hundreds, maybe thousand of doctores get a letter in the mail saying they have been named Congressional Physician of the Year. To claim the award, you pony up $1,250 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. That money is used to fund the 2006 midterm elections.

Michael Schiavo didn't sell the list of addresses of all the people who contributed money to "saving" Teri's life for a wad of cash. Her parents did. Before she was even dead.
Story

Enter the handy dandy Delay Corruption Flow Chart:

http://www.dropthehammer.org/img/bkg_sc.jpg

Link takes you to the original, which allows you to learn more on each corruption bubble (cubble?) by clicking on them.

From the peace loving Left...

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v399/ncbiker/td.jpg[/IMG]

ncb:
and that is a substantive post how exactly?
given that your "commentary" manages to find a level even more superficial than that of the limbaugh prototype
and given that you do not bother to link it to any particular source, prefering to attribute it to the entirety of your fantasy enemy "the left"

for what it is worth, i am probably well to the left of anyone you know, i have never seen this shirt and do not understand why it would be in anyone's interest to release it.
so you manage to stumble from the space of irrelevance into one of vaguely offensive.
care to qualify the above, or does this really represent your "thinking" on the matter, whatever that is (cant tell from your post, obviously)?

roach -

Here's a LINK to the "store" selling the shirt.

Anyway, it pertains to this thread in that there are very good arguments in criticism of Delay, but propaganda like this will only hurt the cause, not help it.

If the criticism can stay above board and professional, it might have an affect on more people. Once the argument denegrates to this level, it begins to become absurd and it loses its effectiveness and its audience.

It's just another illustration as to where the left in America is at today. Look at the title; how big of a scumbag.... Now we have people printing t-shirts encouraging him to kill himself.

Funny that you dismiss my arguments so readily, but yet you're silent when it comes to ad homium (sp?) attacks and rhetoric that includes suicide.

I think he was pointing out that your attribution of the attitude that this shirt conveys to the entire left was baseless.

Are you aware that members of his own party are publicly asking him to step down? Are they now suddenly part of the left?

You're confused if you think that the perspective of the thread starter, though undoubtedly shared by plenty of conservatives, is a representation of the perspective of the left as a whole. You're also confused if you think that the perspective of a t-shirt company represents the perspective of the left as a whole. In short, i think that you're confused.

I'd just like to point out that the T-shirt company in question is CafePress, who will set up a storefront for anybody. If you have an idea, and want it on a shirt, you can have it. They aren't even printed unless someone orders one. This has as much legitimacy as a random blog post.

Calling a scumbag a scumbag isn't ok? That has nothing to do with left or right - plenty of scumbags to go around.

If someone on the partisen left is accurate, where it the problem? If someone on the right is accurate, where is the problem?

I don't understand your point. Are you suggesting that those on the right don't use names? Or that all names are bad?

I applaud you if you choose to take the high road, and never go negative. Good for you.

Christopher Shays hardly constitutes a large portion of the GOP.

blame her parents for that not Michael.....if not for them it wouldnt have drug on for 15 years.

There was an interesting NPR Morning Edition analysis on this (4 minute real audio here).

The last sentence (at 3:52 into the broadcast) was Cokie Roberts: paraphrasing, "The most damning thing I have heard is that he received a standing ovation at the Republican Caucus last week; this last happened to Jim Wright, just before he was asked to resign." Sounds like the Mafia giving you the Kiss of Death.

I suspect Chris Shays was specifically selected by others in his party to test the public reaction to forcing his resignation.

I never said a large portion so what's your point? Are you going to say something about your mischaracterisation of the entire left, or are you going to pretend like you never said it?

NCB will claim one of the following should Delay be forced to step down:

A) He was forced out by the left, not his own party in any way.

B) Delay is guilty and does not represent the Republican party.

Notice how in either of these, the Rebulican party carries no responsability for a members actions?

Well they are responsible for his actions, as any organization must control and subdue their most rabid member.
Feel free to place odds on which of the above will be claimed.

1. OK, aside form Shays and your GOP friend's cousin, who else has said he should step down?

2. How did I mischaracterize the left? Sure, there are some who would condemn the message on the shirt (though noone has here). However, the overwhelming majority of the Left believe that Delay is the devil incarnate. Do you deny that?

NCB will actually say that Delay has done nothing out of the ordinary. NCB says that if the inside the beltway GOP gives into the NYT and the WASH Post, then they are are spineless fuckers who deserve to be thrown out of power in the mid tern elections. All politicians throw bones to supporters and family. Yeah, it sucks and I wish it didn't happen, but it does.

Only one has publicly asked him to step down as far as i've known, whether he's a rogue republican or not depends on where your intellectual allegiances lie. Santorum, no stranger to douchebaggery, has also publicly stated that delay needs to do something about his ongoing problems.

Yes, i do deny that. I find it laughable that you think that you have your finger on the pulse of the american left. You who seems to think everyone on the left is a communist.
I think it is completely fucking ridiculous for anyone, of either side of the aisle, to claim that they know how the entire left or the entire right feels about any particular person.

Filth also wrote:
Which is it? One member or other members? Your conservative lawn guy? And yes, it does matter who the members are and how many are calling for him to step down.

Quote from RS:

“When you have a leader of Tom DeLay's passion and Tom DeLay's effectiveness, you have a media that's very much going after him and tracking him and dogging him and trying to find what they can about him.“

There's another quote saying that if there are certain questions, Delay should come fourth and answer them. That's a whole lot different than a call to step down.

One member, like i said.

I never said santorum said he should step down.

Filth also wrote:
In any case, even santorum recognizes it as a problem, though he seems to be trying to blame it on the fact that the media is doing what it is supposed to be doing. He's probably just longingly eying delay's job.

Filth also wrote:
Tell me more about this left you speak of. This absolutely cohesive, absolutely consistent political juggernaut for whose every whim and prayer you claim a deep knowledge.

Actually I kind of hope Delay hangs on for another year or so, well into the time when voters start making up their minds for the 2006 elections.

Doesn't look like it though; Republicans I think are finally catching on to the fact that his presence is not good for them.

They are all scumbags and a$$holes when they get to that level for that long. If you think any of them have not fallen prey to the kickbacks from PACs along the way..think again, they just haven't been caught

I doubt it. The dem's have already been searching for republicans to come out against Delay and have gotten nowhere with their effort (i.e. NYT asking Livingston to write an op-ed calling for Delay to resign).

You seem to forget a few things.

First, very few politicians could hold up against this kind of scrutiny--a lot of them have things they don't want out. It just seems to be the luck of the draw in terms of where the focus of the day is.

Second, the forgivability of voters and their ability to put up with really shitty politicians. For example: Kennedy and the mysterious death, Daschle and his wife the lobbyist, etc.

Kennedy never lost popularity over something that should've taken him down. Daschle never really fell victim to the countless attacks on him and he barely lost his re-election bid.

The reverse is true in regards to Delay. We may like him, but we like the lib's and dem's even less--so we will do the horrible in this situation and back the "lesser of two evils". And yes, in most conservative minds, as bad as Delay is, the alternative is worse.

I highly doubt you will see any en masse effort on the part of the conservatives against Delay. We may scold him, but we aren't gonna run him out of town.

Now just reverse every last word of that and apply it to whichever liberal is the punching bag of the week for the right. (Moore, Kerry, Sharpton, the list never ends.)

Setting up a country club golf charity event for invalid children - and then use the money to fund GOP campaigns. Class.

Ironically, about 7 years ago I was joking around with some friends after I moved into a new apt. The apt. had two decks, one of which had the ability to support a hottub. But I didn't have a hottub. So I told everyone I knew that I had started an Invalid Childrens Hottub Fund and we welcomed their contribution. I didn't get a penny. Of course, I don't have Limbaugh shilling for me either. Maybe I can sue Delay for stealing my business plan.

It's awesomely impressive how anything and everything can be equalized to facillitate dismissal.

link

for historical reference

Why spend time bailing water from a sinking ship? Conservative leadership has cruised without serious scrutiny for a long, long time. As the last line in the article suggests, DeLay will be the next Trent Lott, but the fall will be more satisfying for liberals waiting for the first shoe to fall for conservative leadership.

Ironically, I hope you're right.

But it probably won't be other Republicans who run him out of town, it will probably end up being the electorate, just like it was for Gingrich.

Polls are already showing he's losing support in his own district (Houston Chronicle). Evangelicals don't like it too much when politicians use their power for personal profit.

The misappropriation of funds (greed) is politically endemic. Delay got caught and should step down or return the money. The very least he owes is an apology to his constituents. Maybe he could make everyone happy by sponsoring a bill forbidding payment to any family member for any reason. Would it pass the Senate? Not likely. In politics, nepotism reigns supreme. Does anyone really believe this type of "thievery" is practiced only by members of the Republican party? Does the action of one member condemn the entire party regardless of affiliation?

To answer your question, "Is there a bigger scumbag than Tom Delay?", I submit that Sandy Berger, whose offense was criminal rather than ethical, has done more damage. Berger, for those of you unfamiliar with his story, is a former National Security Advisor who pleaded guilty to absconding with and destroying highly classified documents, obstensibly detailing a former administrations failure to take the threat of al Qaeda seriously. I say ostensibly, because there is no way to know if any prelusive efforts would have been effective; which somewhat diminishes the impact of Berger's criminal effort. He qualifies as a scumbag though...

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050413/D89EQ1QO0.html

This moron keeps putting both feet and hands into his mouth. Why texas voters put him in office is absolutely baffling.

He is now acknowleding the importance of an independant judiciary????? I thought he was a lawmaker and already knew that? :confused:

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay apologized Wednesday for using overheated rhetoric on the day Terri Schiavo died, but refused to say whether he supports impeachment of the judges who ruled in her case.

DeLay backtracked as White House spokesman Scott McClellan said President Bush considers the Texas Republican, who is battling ethics allegations, a friend, but suggested that the majority leader is more of a business associate than a social pal.

"I think there are different levels of friendship with anybody," McClellan said.

At a crowded news conference in his Capitol office, DeLay addressed remarks he made in the hours after the brain-damaged Florida woman died on March 31. "I said something in an inartful way and I shouldn't have said it that way and I apologize for saying it that way," DeLay told reporters.


Shortly after Schiavo's death, Delay said it represented a failure of the legal system. DeLay's statement also said, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

DeLay said at the news conference that he was eager to appear before the leaders of the House ethics committee and give "everything I have" in connection with allegations of misconduct.

That committee, meanwhile, has deadlocked on a Democratic demand for changes in the rules that Republicans pushed through the House this winter.

The committee's leaders, Reps. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., said they had no plans to grant DeLay's request to appear before them until the committee sorts out its organizational difficulties.

DeLay seemed at pains to soften, if slightly, his rhetoric of March 31, when Schiavo died despite an extraordinary political and legal effort to save her life.

"I believe in an independent judiciary. I repeat, of course I believe in an independent judiciary," DeLay said.

At the same time, he added, the Constitution gives Congress power to oversee the courts.

"We set up the courts. We can unset the courts. We have the power of the purse," DeLay said.

Asked whether he favors impeachment for any of the judges in the Schiavo case, he did not answer directly.

Instead, he referred reporters to an earlier request he made to the House Judiciary Committee to look into "judicial activism" and Schiavo's case in particular.


(AP) House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Tex., laughs with Vice President Dick Cheney and Rep. Virginia...
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Congress enacted unusual legislation in the days before Schiavo's death in hopes of lending legal support to Schiavo's parents, who were seeking a federal court order to have their daughter's feeding tube reconnected. They were turned down at every level, including the U.S. Supreme Court, despite the measure that Bush signed quickly after it passed.

The scrutiny of his remarks came at a politically inopportune time for DeLay, compounding the controversy caused by allegations that three of his overseas trips were illegally financed.

Last week, Bush put some distance between himself and DeLay after the majority leader suggested judges should be penalized for their decisions in the Schiavo case. Bush said he believed in an independent judiciary.

Bush and DeLay have had a prickly relationship going back to Bush's assertion in 1999 that House Republicans were trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor. When Bush pushed the House to pass a a tax benefit for low-income families with children in 2003, DeLay told reporters, "Last time I checked, he didn't have a vote," referring to the president.

McClellan was questioned about his statement on Monday that Bush considers DeLay a friend, in view of a scarcity of evidence of social ties between them.


(AP) House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, waits for the start of a joint session of Congress...
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"There are a number of congressional leaders that he (Bush) works closely with on the Hill and he considers a friend," McClellan said. "I think there are different levels of friendship with anybody."

McClellan said the question posed to him Wednesday referred to social friends. "But no, he certainly is a friend. ... The president considers him such. And we support his efforts, along with the efforts of other congressional leaders to move forward on the agenda that the American people want us to enact."

Democrats have seized on the ethics allegations. One House Republican, Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, has called for DeLay to step down.

DeLay told reporters the controversy has not slowed Congress' work at all. He also served notice he no longer intends to answer questions about his personal case at his weekly news conferences.

He said he would continue to hold news conferences, "but only if everyone is here for the intended purpose" of asking about the Republican legislative agenda.

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correction. delay apologized for how he said it, not for what he said.

Delay is no different than any other politician out there. Politicians on both sides of the isle do the exact same thing delay has done. Where's the outrage? Libs aren't angry because he had things paid for him and his family, they're angry because he's a republican. If he was a democrat you wouldn't hear a peep.

Well I for one, stevo, am simply pissed that he would even suggest impeachment for any of the judiciary branch for their role in the Schavio case. The judiciary is not to be tampered with when a ruling is not liked, or even majority supported. Lest you forget, the judiciary is not there to allign with majority will. They are there to interprete the law. That role is reserved for them, and is not the domain of congress. Congress makes the rules, but judges decide what they mean.
To give an example that any conservative would appreciate (Conservative I said, not Republican, there is a difference).

Copyright law in the 18th and 19th century in this country protected only Cititizens copyrights, not foreign ones (foreign national citizens). Many liberals of the time where disturbed by this, and voiced loudly that copyright as directed by the founding fathers covered both groups. The court intervened, and judged that the law as written was only applicable to US citizens.
Now many liberals of the time, with economic interests in Europe, did not like this, and attempted to impeach the judiciary that acted the clarify. The discovered they had no ability to do so.
Nearly every legal scholar agrea's that without this lopsided law, the american copyright would never have developed into the economy it is today. Congress did eventually re-write the laws to cover foreign copyright holders, but the laws as they stood in the 19th century did not give that protection.

Now why is that applicable?
Because congress may not interprete that law. As above, judges are responsible for that, and may find the law to have meaning other than what lawmakers beleive was it's "intention". Therefor, they must be carefull in how they phrase any law.
Mr. Delay may not assume that what he belives is the will of the people or congress has any right to overrule a judge. That's not how the rules where written. Least of all, popular opinion of the moment has no say in the judiciary branch. It was designed not to. The interpretation of law happens in a time frame that most cannot understand, as it does not allign with any administration or popular period. A law may not be presented to the courts for interpretation for years, or it may happen in a day.
If this a problem, by all means, go argue it with Jefferson.

Delay shot his mouth off. Many politicians have come to regret doing that.
He needs a lesson in civics to remind him that he has no power in this situation, and needs to get over it, to borrow a qoute from Host.

Now is all this fair? That's your opinion

Any politician that attempts to assert control over the judiciary branch is breaching the seperation of power, and could be impeached for their action.

Im not interested in changing the rules, regardless of what either party wants at a given time. After all, the judiciary is not there to answer to public opinion on an issue. If either party wants that, they fail to live up to the value of being patriotic.

Arch, you are absolutely correct. I would, however, go one step further. This may seem extreme but Soviet Russia was run by a central party with NO independant judiciary governing their actions.

Delay didnt like what the judges ruled and wants the power to reside with his party. Very scary.

It is incredible that this person, an elected representative, can even think this way.

I love this Sentance by the way:
He has no ability to dictate what is asked. Nor has he the right.
The media can ask any question they so desire. Unless of course he is thinking of censorship. He can of course choose not to call on people he knows will ask provacative questions, but he is foolhardy to think that he can dictate such things beyond that.

What if a trusted correspondent suddenly asked a provactive quaetion? Would he simply not answer it?
That would look even worse.

He's a public servant, and will be hounded by the media. If he doesn't like it, he's in the wrong job.

i think delay's a sack of crap, but him refusing to answer media questions isn't censorship. it's silence. if he kept them from writing stories about him being a bag of crap for not answering questions, THAT would be censorship.

How about Barney Frank?

what is the difference between a ball park frank and a Barney Frank?

one you put in your mouth, the other one, you stick up your ass.

jcookc6

what an ignorant and homophobic and juvenile thing to say.

Do you have anything intelligent to add, or have you said everything you have to say?

Well, he is doing nothing new. How do you think the law got so fucked up to begin with? Someone would twist this law A, so somoene would make law B to clarifiy law a and keep it from being twisted, but law B flat out contradicks law C. And then there is law D which someone with a lot of money put there to give them a loop hole through laws A, B ,C E, and F. The leagal system is fucked, the people running things are fucked, and yes, there is ALWAYS a bigger scumbag. I shouldn't worry about it to much if I were you. Republics only tend to last about 300 years, historicaly, so we only got a nother 800 years tops before the whole system colapises. Won't mean A hill of beans in the long run.

It really has nothing to do with "the left". I, despite my anarchist ramblings, am pretty much a centerline conservative, and I hope he kills himself. I kind of find that shirt pretty funny myself.

Whoops..
 

Looks like the drum beat keeps pounding on this one.
Now I remember why the Republicans wanted to change the ethics rules. To prevent this investigation.

Delay says "Charge it"

I'll post the artical below, but it has to be pointed out that it is a violation of ethics to accept a donation from a lobbyist if that "donation" is considered to have paid for your expenses. You can be removed from office for that little action. And saying you were not aware is not considered a valid excuse. (The analogy is "I didn't know beating my wife was wrong".) Sorry, but common sense has to prevail at some point.

I look forward to this contimued inquiry, appluad it's current findings, and point to my post regarding NCB's possible response as what most Republicans are going to run around saying as the shit is slowley pushed into the spinning fan.

Here's a story from NPR today on this subject, indicating that there's another trip of Delay funded by Abramoff: to a premier Scottish golf course, for Delay, his wife, several associates and their spouses also, that cost $120,000. Sounds like a nice little holiday.

This is a transcript of an interview with the WAPO journalist who wrote the story linked to by arch13 above.

You have to wonder, when does Mr. Delay ever have time for the needs of his district and constituiants when he's taking trips out of the country where no one can see what he does or grandsatnding on the more contraversial issues that a fring minority supports?

I can't see him having the time to bother with the little people in ebtween all these trips :rolleyes:

I appluade the ethics commitee on their continued investigation, and look forward to what else they are going to find. (Becuase that is of course why they exist, to look into instances where a member of the governing body breaches the common sense ethics of their job)

I just wonder how a true conservative GOP can support this scumbag. I can see how neo-cons who blindly follow what the party feeds them would support this guy.

This ain't no Oval Office blowjob.....lol this is a tad more serious and affects a lot more people. Delay seems to believe because his party is in power and he's a good Bush soldier this shit won't stink and he'll get off "Scot" free.

Hopefully, there are enough honest GOP to bring charges where charges need to be.

Course Delay may know too much dirt and therefore everyone will give him a pass, for fear he'll spill the Bush baked beans.

Here's the thing: DeLay has given enormous sums of money to many, many Republican Congressmen and essentially retains the loyalty of a huge number of them. Many of them are going to go to the mat for him.

Which is great, absolutely positively wonderful, for the Democrats. The longer DeLay is around, the longer the Democrats get to point to his being around. You know that Democrats from Maine to Alaska will be running in 2006 on a platform of, "We're not Tom DeLay, and we're not crazy religious right nutballs. Vote for us!"

Corruption loves company:

I think the AF1 thing has been used before by earlier presidents in order to hold a more captive audience, in this case DeLay. Bush could be inviting him onto AF1 to discuss DeLay's resignation or an emergency escape plan.

Pop! goes a weasel:

Question: How is Tom DeLay like Elvis?

Answer: The hits keep coming:

Boy, am I loving every minute of this...

Seriously, DeLay is getting royally fucked here:

This means that DeLay is now going to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee. Heh.

Even the little things:


Link.

Wth Tom Delay, American republicans will get their fine judiciary and cheap religion, but at the cost of our national honor.
:)