From The Statesman, we are told that Texas will no longer employ 2 private D.C. lobbying firms, following concerns that the two were connected to the scandal's of Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff.
Gov. Rick Perry had hired Cassidy & Associates and The Federalist Group a rate of $15,000 a month each to push Texas priorities in Congress, even though the state already has its own taxpayer-funded Office of State-Federal Relations.
The contracts would have run through August and totaled $1.3 million dollars. But the contacts came under fire last year when Texas' Democratic members of Congress questioned the close ties of some of the firms' associates to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted on charges of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials.
It is amazing how the wedge that continues to dislodge Republicans from their stronghold of power is the very corruption that had built their dynasty.
