Why is it that Texans get stuck with gawd awful lawmakers who are completely out of synch with the majority of sentiments and beliefs held by the American people? Why do they continue to serve as endless sources of shame, ignorance and embarrassment to those they supposedly represent? Why do they continue to bring the scorn of the rest of the nation into our living rooms on an almost daily basis? Tom Delay, Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales and George W. Bush, Phil Gramm,Harriet Miers and Karen Hughes comprise the short list of Texas jackasses. It will take at least four Presidential Administrations to clean up after them. We will endure very hard times in the process, thanks to the brilliance of the Texas Brigade of Douche Nozzles.
Today we may have discovered one of the reasons why we have such a large number of Texas Republican jackasses and crooks who hold office. To be fair and honest, there are likely Texas Democrats in office who are jackasses and crooks as well.
For the last few weeks we have been listening to wall-to-wall coverage 24/7 about the flamboyant governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, and pay-to-play politics. As we all know by now the Illinois governor is charged with criminal conspiracy for attempting to sell President Elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat. Rod Blagojevich is clearly another crooked and arrogant politician who thinks he is above the law. But at least this one found himself impeached by the Illinois House.
It is nice to know some states have lawmakers who have an ethical spine where such blatant corruption and beyond the pale pay-to-play politics are concerned. Too bad Texas is sorely lacking in this area. But one has to remember the Party that is running the state at this time, although not all Democratic politicians would receive A's in ethics and integrity departments either.
When the Blagojevich scandal broke, several of the cable TV talking heads and pundits appeared especially outraged by pay-to-play politics and so I promptly sent off an email to MSNBC and CNN and suggested that if they are so livid about pay-to-play, they ought to send their research staff down to Texas to see how it works in a state where purchasing elections and pay-to-play is business du jour. Apparently other folks from around the U.S. contacted the media with the same request. Chris Matthews of Hardball responded with a chart that listed the most offending states. Texas is among them.
The ripples of the Abramoff conviction are most apparent in Tom DeLay's old district. Congressional District 22, Represented by Democrat Nick Lampson, is running against a challenger that doesn't just have ties to the culture of corruption, he embraces them.
Because of Abramoff's conviction of conspiring to defraud the United States and corrupting public officials he was sentenced to four years in prison and brought Tom "The Hammer" Delay's day in court one step closer.
While Republicans as a whole try to distance themselves from Bush/Cheney and DeLay/Abramoff, Pete Olson continues to embrace them. As we pointed out nearly two months ago, Olson, has spent over $300,000 and most of it Tom DeLay's closest advisors.
The Lampson campaign states clearly:
Olson employs several consultants who stood with DeLay through the scandal that ripped through America and has refused to denounce the actions of DeLay or his cronies.
According to the most recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, Olson paid $90,389 to consultants that advised Tom Delay. According to a Fort Bend Now article on July 16, 2008, Olson employed several consultants close to Delay's inner-circle. From April 1 thru June 30, 2008:
Olson's campaign spent about $15,600 with Dana Benoit of Richmond, for fundraiser consulting services. Benoit served as DeLay's finance director for several years.
Olson's campaign spent just over $9,000 with Walden & Associates of Houston, also for fundraising consulting. According to Source Watch, the firm is owned by Sue Walden, whom the New York Times described as a "close ally of Tom DeLay" who also served as an adviser to the late Ken Lay, former Enron chief executive.
Olson's campaign also spent about $9,650 during the quarter with Marathon Strategic Communications, for media and "grassroots" consulting. The firm's address is listed at 3771 Vinecrest Drive in Dallas. Real estate records list the owner of the property at that address as Christopher Homan. Chris Homan was DeLay's former campaign manager.
"Pete Olson should immediately cut all ties with Tom Delay's cronies and return every tainted dime he received through that network," said Trevor Kincaid, Lampson spokesman. "It's clear that Pete Olson wants to return pay-to-play corruption to Washington and is will check ethics at the door if that's what it takes."
By re-electing Nick Lampson to Congress two years ago, CD-22 has had more open government, cronyism and corruption are not the status quo, but "The Hammer" and his top lieutenants, still get huge pay days from Washington lobbyists. Sad thing is, this time the Washington lobbyist is a candidate for Congress.
Let's take a look at his long standing relationships with lobbyists.
McCain has claimed he is a reformer who is committed to diminishing the influence of lobbyists in Washington, and yet 59 lobbyists have or are donating to his campaign. More troubling is the fact that some of Washington's most powerful lobbyists are directly advising or managing his campaign.
Folks may recall that Charlie Black had to resign from his role when the mainstream media disclosed that he was a key player in McCain's campaign. Take a look at a brief overview of Black's sleazy resume. Black, by the way, did deals with Jack Abramoff when both represented the murderous butcher in Africa known as Jonas Savimbi.
John Cornyn represents everything big. Big Business, big oil and most importantly himself Big John.
If you like Big - Big John is your man.
Big John also likes big corruption. Karl Rove the Big Bad Evil Genius held a fundraiser for him today in El Paso. Oh there is a big connection between Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Big John.
Abramoff and Scanlon had many Indian gaming clients, including the Tigua Ysleta de Sur Pueblo, as the Tigua are known. The lobbyists are at the center of a fraud and fundraising scandal that has embroiled DeLay.
Cornyn, elected senator in 2002, was supported in his anti-Speaking Rock effort by a grassroots campaign led by conservative Christian lobbyist Ralph Reed, who organized pastors around the state to oppose gaming and back the attorney general.
Senate investigators discovered Abramoff hired Reed to block gaming expansion in Texas and Louisiana _ and the $4 million that Reed was paid actually came from Abramoff's Indian gaming clients.
Then, Abramoff and Scanlon secured the Tigua as a client on the day the casino was closed and charged them $4.2 million for a campaign to reopen it through federal legislation.
That's just the way to do business, we ain't got no problem with that. Hell, send Big John a campaign contribution. Just talk about it and deny it.
My friend Damon McCullar reported to you all that the Chief of Staff of the Government Service Administration has been found guilty on two counts of obstruction of justice into the infamous Jack Abramoff trips to Scotland and three counts of making false statements or concealing information from GSA officials.
Included in the famous trip to Scotland were Congressman Bob Ney of Ohio, Ralph Reed of Christian Coalition fame and Republican candidate for Lt. Gov of Georgia, and two Ney aides.
McCullar said many think that Ney is next. That only leaves one more man that is connected here... and as was reported, that man, the infamous Ralph Reed, is attempting to get himself elected to one of the most powerful seats in the Georgia State Government.
From the Statesman, we have a former top aide to Rep. Tom DeLay pleading guilty today to conspiracy. Tony Rudy (DeLay's former Chief of Staff) promises to cooperate with a federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud.
Tony Rudy, DeLay's former deputy chief of staff, admitted to conspiring with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff both while Rudy worked for DeLay and after he left the lawmaker's staff to become a lobbyist himself.
...
Rudy, 39, stood with his head slightly bowed and his hands clasped in front of him as the judge detailed how he took free trips, tickets, meals and golf games from Abramoff while working for DeLay.
Rudy, a lawyer, answered the judge's questions in a strong voice but seemed more subdued when Huvelle asked if he understood that he was pleading guilty to a felony and would lose some rights.
After the Scanlon emails and the Ralph Reed nonsense, we can pretty much put the right's Christ cult bullshit to bed. They don't believe this shit, they just use people who do.
How do you say that in Russian? I dunno, maybe they used saltier language. And by "they" I mean the former communists who paid Tom DeLay to support former communists ... against the interests of his own country.
Tom DeLay's Russian connections have finally hit the legal fan, it would appear, reminding us all of the good old days, the days when FOX News repeated talking points from the people who were shooting at our planes during the Kosovo affair.
