Time to Nail The Hammer. The Poster Child for Everything Wrong in Contemporary Politics Today.
By Anthony Wade
April 7, 2005
How much is enough America? How much is enough before we say that we expect a bare minimum of ethical standards from our elected officials? How much bribery, corruption, laundering, and cronyism will be sufficient for us to finally say, no more. I am not talking about a party or committee, but just one man. The poster child for everything that is wrong in contemporary politics, Tom Â"The HammerÂ" Delay.
I am not speaking about borderline behavior. I am not talking about some questionable incidents. I am talking about vote buying and selling, bribery, and a complete and total lack of any ethical behavior. Just this week two more ethical controversies were revealed about The Hammer. The first one involves outright lying and subterfuge stemming from a 1997 trip Delay took to Russia. According to four people with first hand knowledge, Delay accepted the six-day trip to Moscow even though it was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government. This $57,000, all-expenses paid trip, was paid for by a Â"mysterious company registered in the Bahamas.Â" This company, Chelsea Commercial Enterprises, was deeply involved with Russian oil executives, and was in fact paid by a Russian oil and gas company called Naftasib to lobby Congress on its behalf. Chelsea then hired two D.C. lobbying firms to do the lobbying. One of those firms, Rouvelas Meeds, employed Jack Abramoff, who arranged the free trip to Russia for Mr. Delay. This trip was designed so Delay could meet with Naftasib executives in Moscow. The trip was paid for by a D.C. non-profit, National Center for Public Policy Research, who then was paid back by Chelsea. You got all that?
Now, why would Delay go to all these machinations to hide the fact that the Russians paid for his trip? In 1997-98, the Russians were very concerned about losing billions of dollars in aid from the West. The atmosphere in Congress at the time, from the conservatives, was one of derision toward Â"corporate welfareÂ", such as the billions of dollars to foreign countries. In fact, many House Republicans were outspoken about how the US was becoming an international lending institution. Can you guess who was one of the loudest conservative exceptions to these sentiments? Tom Delay. He was a solid Â"yesÂ" vote during this period for anything the bolstered the Russians including the replenishment of the IMF funds used to bail out the Russian economy in 1998. Quid pro quo anyone?
These tactics are not uncommon for Delay who also basked in a luxurious British vacation in 2000, set up by lobbyists and paid for by an Indian tribe and gambling services company at the cost of $70,000. Delay then turned around and voted against legislation in support of the same Indian tribe and gambling company. Not convinced? Delay also received an all-expense paid trip to South Korea in 2001 worth $106,921. Who paid for it? A South Korean lobbying group, which would make the trip a direct violation of House rules.
The second ethical scandal arising this week was the revelation that Delay has paid more than $500,000 to his wife and daughter, through his political action committees. DelayÂ's wife earned over $4,000 per month for Â"fundraising and campaign managementÂ" duties. The only realistic way to examine this is to say that Tom Delay paid himself $4,000 per month, through his PACs. What a wife has, so has her husband and vice-a-versa. If this was not sleazy enough though, Delay has also made his daughter filthy rich off of his position. Since 2003, DelayÂ's daughter has received over $3,500 per month from AMPAC, DelayÂ's national political action committee. As if that was not enough, she also raked in $222,000 in fees from DelayÂ's House campaign committees.
Before these new ethical lapses were reported, I recently did an article about 12 other ethical problems facing Delay. They are:
1) DelayÂ's Political Action Committee is under criminal investigation for using corporate monies to finance political campaigns. 2) Delay tried to bribe another congressman to vote for the Medicare Bill. He earned a public admonishment from the House Ethics Committee for this. 3) Delay used taxpayer monies to fuel a partisan hunt for missing democrats in Texas. He was rebuked by the House Ethics Panel for this. 4) Delay set up a childrenÂ's charity as a front to collect soft money from anonymous donors. Some of this money was then used for Â"dinners, a golf tournament, and rock concerts.Â" This allowed companies who wanted to win favor with Delay to do so without revealing themselves as campaign donors. 5) In another rebuke by the House Ethics Committee, we saw executives at Westar Energy state that they believed their $56,500 contribution to the Delay PAC would get them a Â"seat at the tableÂ" when key energy legislation was going to be drafted. Delay also played in the Westar golf fundraiser, just as the 2002 House-Senate conference on major energy legislation was getting underway. 6) Delay took $100,000 from a Texas prison company as a bill was pending that dealt with the privatization of Texas prisons. 7) Delay received a Â"private rebukeÂ" in 1999 for misusing his power to payback a trade group that had named a democrat to head their Washington operation. Delay had stopped two uncontroversial trade bills which hurt the trade group in question and told them that they would lose all GOP access unless they hired a republican instead. 8) Delay accepted donations to his own defense fund from two individuals he then named to the very House Ethics Committee that had already been so critical of him. Did you get that America? The House Ethics Committee correctly rebuked Delay three separate times. In response, Delay removed those that would dare be critical of him, and replaced them with people who had already donated money to his defense fund. 9) Delay took an opulent vacation in 2000, paid for by an Indian tribe and a gambling services company, both of which opposed legislation which Delay then voted against, two months later. 10) Delay accepted a trip to South Korea, which was paid for by a South Korean lobbying group, a violation of House rules. The cost of this trip was in excess of $100,000. 11) Delay proposed changes to the House Ethics Committee which Â"would prevent the committee from launching any investigation without the support of at least one republican Â- a restriction designed to protect the majority leader.Â" 12) Delay tried to convince House leaders to abandon an 11 year old rule which required leaders to step aside temporarily if indicted. Delay was facing possible indictment at the time. The idea was dropped because it Â"sent the wrong message.Â" Do you think?
Cronyism without embarrassment or ethics is what Tom Delay now stands for. This is a man that sought out any TV he could find over the past month to use a poor womanÂ's plight for his political advantage, in Terri Schiavo. Not content with that, he then threatened judges because they did not side with him. He is the definition of power out of control. He fights to limit your right to sue even though he supported his family suing and winning $250,000. He is beyond hypocrisy, he is ethically bankrupt. This article only scratches the surface. Visit dropthehammer.org for more detailed examinations into even more ethically devoid maneuverings by Mr. Delay.
The absolute height of arrogance though, is in how Mr. Delay addresses these ethical violations. One would hope that Delay would be contrite, and try and correct how he conducts business. Instead, we see an angry, self-righteous man, who is outraged that anyone would questions his moral base, or complete lack thereof. When first asked about these stories this week, Delay said there was nothing to them. That is how he views the acumen of the American people. He is in bed with lobbyists, in exchange for his vote, just like a common whore, yet there is nothing to the story. Move along, nothing to see here. He pays himself, through his wife, over $4,000 per month while making his daughter flush with cash, but he does not think it is a worthy story. He is knee deep in direct bribes, using the disabled as a cover for donations, and threatening judges, but is livid that anyone would question him. Instead of owning up to his own lack of ethics, he actually has the unmitigated gall to claim a vast conspiracy against him. As if democrats made him take all of those vacations paid for by lobbyists. It is insulting to the collective intelligence of Americans.
At the height of the Terri Schiavo debacle Tom Delay was there admonishing anyone who disagreed with him, pretending to be concerned about Terri. His position was completely inconsistent, because he supports a law in Texas that allows hospitals to kill patients against the wishes of the family, when finances may be the compelling factor. It was never about Terri for Tom Delay. It never is for someone who is so self-absorbed. Anyone who is in the middle of 14 severe ethical violations and can still find a way to paint himself as the victim is so narcissistic, that it is beyond description. At this apex for the Schiavo debates Tom Delay visited the Family Research Council and revealed how truly egocentric and warped he really is. In speaking about Terri Schiavo, Delay said:
Â"One thing God has brought us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America, of attacks against the conservative movement, against me, and against many others.Â"
Wow. In the distorted mind of Tom Delay, God delivered Terri Schiavo, prisoner in her own vegetative mind for 15 years, to reveal secret plots against Tom Delay. Just when you think Tom Delay cannot become more arrogant, more conceited, viler, more ethically insolvent and more devoid of any morals whatsoever, he then surpasses your darkest fears. What is truly frightening is not his lack of recognition into his moral impoverishment but the fact that without acknowledgement, how much further down into the cesspools of depravity will he sink and take this great country? I shudder to contemplate that question and have no desire to find out the answer. Drop the hammer. Drop him now.
Anthony Wade, a contributing writer to opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple websites. A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies and excess.
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