I have always assumed that Washington was seriously corrupt, on both sides of the aisle but really, this one makes me sick.

Abramoff funded a charity called Capital Athletic Foundation which claimed on its tax returns that it donated 300k to P'Tach, a charity for disabled jewish children. Problem was, P'tach never received any such donation. Where did that money go?

It went to another "charity", this one used by Delay to fund convention partying for wealthy donors during the Republican creep-a-thon that was its convention. It was called "Celebrations for Children, Inc." Donors received brochures setting out the convention benefit packages available depending on how much they donated from yacht cruises to luxury suites. All tax deductible mind you because the money is going to a charity dedicated to helping abused and neglected children. In actuality, all the money went to paying for the yacht cruises, luxury suites and late night parties enjoyed by the wealthy faithful during Creepfest 2004.

Essentially, all the money they would have spent on partying anyway was funneled through a fake charity "for children" so that the partyers not only got to enjoy their wingdings, they received a nice tax deduction to boot. Of course, anyone who questioned it would be attacked immediately as being against children, a hater of disabled and neglected kids.

Even for Washington, this is a new low. I though Rostenkowski's schemes were clever. He was a rank amateur compared to this bunch of felons.

That, if true (and I see no reason why not), is so sickening I can only laugh...

Is there an absence of a legal controllng authority?

from a thread earlier in the week:
"Truth and righteousness is of no account."

add morals to the list.

Avarice is one thing but they could have gone through with that scheme without using disabled kids. They could have called the fake charity "The Human Fund" in George Costanza type fashion or the "Clean Earth Coalition" or whatever. I mean really, "Celebrations for Children, Inc." ?!?!?! The kids were celebrating all right, from the yachts to the suites.

You mean Campaign Finance Reform isn't working? I'm shocked.

Isn't working? Used to be all these donations would be out in the open and ignored. Now they have to hide them through a network of shell charities.

That's a pretty big reform right there.

Vince Young > Tom Delay

Vince Young < ?????

Oh look you political hack, Hillary is using Hollywood for fundraising.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/05/hil...a.ap/index.html

But I guess it's okay because she is a democrat right?

Politicians all suck, when you realize that you will be halfway there.

Hollywood isn't a philanthropic non-profit organization. Much as they pretend to be.

True, but the point is that they are all evil, corrupt beings. But yet nowhere in the Abramoff charges does it say Delay did anything wrong. Abramoff did, but Delay was just the recipient of the funds?

What is this guilt because someone you know does something wrong?

The difference is Clinton campaign did do something wrong.

Nor was she writing in a fake donation to them on her tax return. She's another one who thinks money is the be-all end-all. Sure not defending her b/c when you're in that business you should be expected to know about every dollar that comes in and every dollar that goes out. Watch Delay start his Sgt. Schultz impression.

Our gov. in CT, Jodi Rell, is doing something revolutionary. She's not accepting money from corporations, PACs, swag fundraising, etc. Simply taking donations up to the legal limit from persons who so choose to contribute to her campaign. She's also been behind some legislation to make it a public financing with a very reasonably low cap to help remove big money-->corruption from this area. Maybe it's not the best strategy for her, but approval rating is at near 80 percent. I've met her at some NRA events and she seems like a straight shooter.

Much better than Delay's ever-growing skeeve-fest. McCain-Feingold was the Dutch boy putting his finger in the dike.

McCain and Feingold fingered Hillary?

Oh, wait, you said "dike". Nevermind...





(I know, low blow. Couldn't resist. )

Yaknow, on I-90 on the NYS Thruway, there's an overpass with a sign that says "Dyke Road."

I keep forgetting to bring my camera when I go out to visit the relatives. And, by the by, that half of the family is from Holland.

You clearly haven't been reading about the Abramoff scandal very closely, have you?

DeLay's Chief of staff funneled a million bucks from some Russian Oil executives to the US Family Network. The fromer staffer, Ed Buckham, said the money was to influence DeLay's position on legislation regarding the IMF which was needed to permit a bail out of the collapsing Russian economy at the time. The rest of the budget for the "US Family Network", came from corporations linked to Abramoff. Abramoff helped set up a visit to Moscow by DeLay to meet those Russians back in 1997. This fake grass roots group never did much of any grass roots work in support of conservative causes. What it did do is collect loads of cash. In addition to the Russians, it received half a million from some textile companies in the Marianas Islands in the Pacific. These same textile companies, with the help of Abramoff, solicited and recieved DeLays committment to block legislation that would have boosted their labor costs (and US textile companies be damed).

The Network, which DeLay, in a fundraising letter he wrote for them, called "a powerful nationwide organization dedicated to restoring our government to citizen control", never had more than one full time staff member. They also received a quarter million from the Choctaw Indians, a tribe whose gambling interests were represented by Abramoff. The Network paid hundreds of thousands to Buckham's firm which, surprise, surprise, employed DeLay's wife, or at least it paid her $3,200 per month for three years. Whether or not she ever punched a clock for them is anyone's guess.

The Network financed the cash purchase of a luxury townhouse three blocks away from DeLay's office in Washington which his staffers called "the safe house". DeLay himself made his own telephone pitches for cash from the master suite at the townhouse every two weeks.

The Russian connection had began with DeLay's trip to Moscow in late 1997. DeLay had dinner with Abramoff and two executives from Naftasib, a Russian energy firm, named Marina Nevskaya and Alexander Koulakovsky. Nine months later, the Network got their million rubles.

I could go on but really, I don't have all day to simply restate what is being reported everywhere. I have to wonder what it is you are reading that leads you to think that DeLay is not being implicated in the Abramoff scandal. The people who have pled guilty, Abramoff, Scanlon, etc., are all turning on Ol' Tom. We haven't heard yet a single word, directly, from the prosecutors as to what these people are going to say but clearly, DeLay is in for a world of hurt. He certainly won't be alone and I am willing to bet that there will be a democrat or two in the net when it is all over. Good riddance to the lot of them.

As for this Hillary thing you pointed out, it involved the alleged underreporting of contributions. Her campaign finance guy was charged, tried and acquitted over it. Nowhere, using your logic on Delay, was Hillary herself implicated in anything. Franklyk, I'm not sure what advantage one gains from underreporting contributions. I just don't know much about how that stuff works. Certainly, the Hollywood donors knew where their money was going.

Tell me how that compares with a web of dummy corporations drumming up funds by claiming they are collecting money for disabled kids and then spending it on yacht cruises for Delay and his cronies while all the while writing it off as a charitable contribution?

The point that there are lots of corrupt politicians is universally accepted. You have to recognize though that corruption always thrives best within the party in power. They can frustrate any attempt to hold them accountable. That is why I am a big fan of divided government but we haven't had that for going on 6 years now. Further, every piece of reform legislation that is porposed, is mocked and pissed on by the same people who complain the loudest that everyone, everywhere is corrupt. I am not sure what their solution is and until I hear one that makes sense, I just don't know what the alternative is beyond throwing them in jail when we catch 'em and at least try and enforce the laws that we do have.

Are you defending Delay? I thought all politicians sucked. Is there an equality of suckiness, or is the truth that some suck more than other?

DeLay is the Dyson of Politicians. Its all about suction.

Maybe we should create our own voters guide based on different levels of suck ranging from "golf ball through a garden hose" to "broken hoover".

No. What delay did maybe in poor taste, what Hilarys team did was illegal. Immoral and Illegal are not the same, or so those on the left keep telling me when it comes to the abortion questions.

If it was illegal, why was the finance guy who did it acquitted? What you are citing is the word of a three time felon according to the link provided. Assuming he is not lying, they agreed to a fine with no finding of illegality. What I don't understand is what does a campaign gain in that situation by underreporting the contributions? Does it effet matching funds or something? Do you have to report it to make sure that the sources were legit? They screwed up if this guy is telling the truth but I can't tell if it was a nefarious foul up or just a stupid one. Knowing what might have motivated it would help.

If you think that accepting bribes from Russina oil executives and Pacific Island textile magnates is simply in poor taste and not illegal, you have a strange definition of "illegal". DeLay is going to be dropped permanently from the party leadership and will sooner or later be pleading guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence before this Abramoff thing is over.

Give me a !@#$ing break. You're a lawyer. You KNOW that it's entirely possible to be acquitted of an illegal act. You've probably accomplished just that for some of your clients.

A lawyer implying that an act isn't illegal if the one who does it is acquitted. Christ. You're so transparently trolling here, it's not even amusing.

I'm not a criminal lawyer so no, I've never achieved an acquittal for someone who is guilty.

Certainly, someone can win a criminal trial and still have done something illegal, I don't dispute that. However, the verdict does mean that a fair jury was drawn, at least as fair as the rules allow and I'll bet a lot more fair minded than the poster who pronounced the actions involved to have been illegal. It also means that well paid and well trained advocates presented all the evidence and marshalled all the arguements available to support their contentions. It does mean that a Judge explained the law to the jury that heard all that evidence, all those witnesses and all those arguments in detail before deliberating the case. It does mean that after all that, the jury decided that the defendant did not break the law as charged.

And on the other hand......

We have VABills' proclamation that what they did was illegal.

Hence my question to him, posed in the hope of forcing him to present some facts, some arguements as to why I should believe him and not the jury who heard the case first hand or to admit that he is talking out of his *.