James O'Keefe, a conservative activist who had posed as a pimp in order to set up ACORN has been arrested by the FBI for having attempted to commit a felony. O'Keefe and two others, wearing telephone company uniforms, were busted last night for allegedly wiretapping the phones in Senator Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office.
Landrieu said: "This is a very unusual situation and somewhat unsettling for me and my staff. The individuals responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony. I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward."
Brace yourselves folks as the list of Texas Republicans who honored James O'Keefe is quite long. My U.S. House Rep. John Culberson is on the list. Is your representative? See the list below the fold.
This week, we have good news, great news, bad news, and old news. First, the good news: last night during the weekly Dancing With the Stars results show, Tom DeLay dropped out. The disgraced Republican cited stress fractures in his feet. And while I don't wish DeLay any physical harm, I find it disappointing that he could withstand the pressure of forcing horrible conservative policies on America, yet a little quick-stepping put him down for the count.
The great news: no more booty-shaking by the former Majority Leader on national television, and no more gratuitous close-ups on said ass by ABC. He wasn't going home any other way, for now--Tom was safe for yet another week due to his vigorous GOTV campaign. And, in another piece of great news, we'll continue with Dancing With DeLay-Watch as long as the season runs. After all, there's much more DeLay malfeasance to chronicle here on Burnt Orange Report.
The bad news: if DeLay's foot heals, he can come back to the show and pick up where he left off, twirling across the stage in that horrendous red costume with the sequined Republican elephant on the back.
And that brings us to the old news: DeLay's resignation from the dancing show can't help but recall his previous early departure from Congress, after his indictment on charges of campaign finance violations and money laundering.
This Week: Quitters Never Win, Then and Now
It's 2006 all over again as Tom DeLay is forced to hobble down from the heights of power (or depths of the dance floor, as the case may be). Let's re-cap the chain of events that pushed DeLay out of the Capitol and into the tight pants.
May 2005: A judge rules that DeLay broke finance laws in 2002 by not reporting $600,000 in illegal corporate contributions.
September 2005: A federal grand jury indicts DeLay's TRMPAC for illegal contributions and expenditures. Per Republican Party rules, DeLay steps down as Majority Leader.
September 2005: Ronnie Earle indicts DeLay for conspiracy to violate election laws.
October 2005: A warrant is issued for DeLay's arrest. He turns himself in; fingerprints and infamous mug shot are taken.
January 2006: DeLay files for re-election to Congress; Republican party forces him to not run for re-election as Majority Leader.
March 2006: DeLay wins Republican primary in landslide. (Stay classy, Republicans in TX-22!)
April 2006: Former DeLay aide pleads guilty to all sorts of stuff; DeLay resigns from office.
Summer 2006: Texas GOP tries to replace DeLay's name on the ballot with someone else's, claiming he moved to Virginia. GOP fails.
August 2006: DeLay withdraws name from ballot. GOP mounts write-in campaign for hard-to-spell and harder-to-forget deranged dermatologist.
November 2006: Democrat Nick Lampson wins election in TX-22. Lampson had been gerrymandered out of Congress by Tom DeLay in 2004; his former seat is now held by Rep. Tom Poe.
The history shows us that DeLay loves his famous firsts: not only was he the first Majority Leader to step down from Congress due to being indicted, he was the first disgraced Republican to step down from Dancing With the Stars due to foot injuries. In fact, if my memory serves, he's the only disgraced Republican ex-Majority Leader to be indicted and fail on a televised dancing contest.
After all of the hype around DeLay's dance moves, maybe the joke's on ABC. The endless free media around DeLay's moves on DWTS is gone, and the volume of hurl-worthy videos on Huffington Post each week will decrease by at least 50%. As for any parting shots?
The TDP's Kirsten Gray told the Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac blog, "It's unfortunate for DeLay that his feet are as fractured as his ethics. His reality TV come-back might have to wait for the premiere of America's Next Top Washed-up GOP'er."
I guess it's not surprising that the severely anti-choice DeLay would vote for abstinence-only education and then end up relying on the withdrawal method. DeLay just looked so uncomfortable dancing. He hadn't looked that uneasy since being indicted by the former Travis County DA. Unfortunately, DeLay's nervous visage is probably the strongest sign to date that Ronnie Earle might actually run for governor.
But perhaps the best line of the night came from Twitter, where Charles Kuffner asked, "so tom delay is dropping out of "dancing with the stars". can we write in shelley sekula gibbs instead?"
All in all, Tom DeLay is off the show, the DeLay-Watch series continues, and the old adage is once again proven true: winners never quit, and quitters never win. Adios to Tom DeLay--don't let the studio door hit you in your gyrating rear on the way out.
On Monday night, America's eyeballs were again abused by the sight of Tom DeLay shaking his moneymaker on national television. This week, DeLay and partner Cheryl Burke danced the Tango, that great Argentine dance of seduction that arose from the lower-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. In his pinstripes and green tie, DeLay looked like a Frankensteinian mobster, stiffly marching back and forth across the floor. The tango is a dance of insense physical control. And while DeLay sure liked to control legislation when he was in the House of Representatives, he lacks any such authority on the ballroom floor. At the end of the dance, DeLay almost dropped his partner. Ouch.
His dance received a score of 6-6-6, tied for lowest amongst all performers this week. Now, people who read tea leaves and all might suggest a sort of otherworldly message about the evil lurking in DeLay's soul, but I think that just gives him too much credit. However, due to a vigorous GOTV program, DeLay managed to stay alive to dance another day. I'll have more on the ballot-box stuffing later this week. But as for today, let's turn our focus to Texas, and that other famous former Lone Star Stater on this season's Dancing With the Stars, Michael Irvin.
This Week: Abusers Of The Phrase America's Team
Texas is lucky to have not one, but two notable former "players" competing on this season's Dancing With the Stars line-up. While our focus here is predominantly on the disgraced former Republican Majority Leader, in honor of this week's tango I decided to take a page out of the playbook of ESPN.com's Page 2 and pit DeLay and Irvin in a head-to-head battle to see who worse represents the great state of Texas.
DeLay. Any opportunity to invoke MC Hammer is a good thing. The pun potential is 2 Legit 2 Quit!
Dick Army:
Uhh, the Dallas Cowboys?
Dick Armey, prior House Majority Leader and noted conservative nutjob.
Armey. Come on, the guy's name is Dick Armey. He and Dick Swett should form a band or something.
Wide Receiver:
His position. Retiring with 750 receptions, Irvin ranks 27th in NFL history.
TRMPAC. His committee laundered $190,000 in illegal corporate contributions through the Republican Party.
DeLay. He broke the law.
Tight End:
Push. We saw DeLay shake his rear end in close-up on national television. We all lose.
Favorite "Former" Tom:
Former coach Tom Landry, "The Great Innovator," two-time Superbowl-winning coach.
Former speaker Tom Craddick, "The Great Redistricter," forced through a mid-decade unconstitutional line-redrawing.
DeLay. Tom Landry never forced a bunch of Democrats to flee to Oklahoma to protect their constituents.
Misdeeds in Florida:
Played for University of Miami
Sent staffer Tom Pyle to participate in "Brooks Brothers riot" that helped block Florida recount in 2000.
DeLay. Again, circumventing the law.
Arrested/Indicted For:
Cocaine possession, drug possession, drug paraphernailia.
Money laundering, campaign finance fraud.
DeLay. Even Ron Paul would agree on this one.
Whom They Torment:
Steelers fans. NFL Network viewers.
Democrats. Voters. DWTS fans with eyeballs.
DeLay. I don't have a fancy cable package.
Controversial Statements:
Suggesting Tony Romo had "slave brothers."
Asking to see Barack Obama's birth certificate.
Irvin. It's not unusual these days for crazed Republicans to leap on the Birther band-wagon.
And there you have it. Tom DeLay is hands-down a far worse representative of Texas than Michael Irvin could ever hope to be. He's also a worse dancer, too. And while DeLay's history of control involves the passage of seriously notorious legislation, at least Irvin has a history of controlling his various body parts. And on a dancing show, that's what matters to the voters.
Survey USA released a poll on Wednesday determining early reactions to this season's new Dancing With the Stars celebrity contestants. The poll, conducted on Wednesday, asked viewers which female star was their favorite, and which male or female star they thought would be voted off. Not surprisingly, 44% responded that they thought Tom DeLay would be sent home.
No such luck, but let's look at the results and crosstabs and see what they can tell us about DeLay and the only electorate he's got left.
Survey USA Poll: Which male dancer do you think will be going home tonight? (Lists names.)
DeLay wasn't voted off, but an overwhelming 44% of respondents thought he would be. Out of the eight participants, Mr. "Wild Thing" still managed to rack up almost half of the votes against him. Pretty impressive numbers. But then, it was an impressively bad turn on the dance floor.
Crosstabs show strong dislike for DeLay amongst all age groups. However, there is some discrepancy amongst various racial groups. Respondents who self-identify as White dislike DeLay 2-1 over those who self-identify as Black or Hispanics, whereas 89% of folks who are "Other" expected DeLay to go home. Most excitingly, the expectation that DeLay would be sent home was almost uniform in the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West regions of the US, at 44%. DeLay clearly has no Southern Strategy to overcome the fact that he's got no skills.
There are several factors that might account for the strong response in the poll that DeLay would be sent home.
DeLay has high name ID from his years in Congress, particularly his very public resignation and indictment. Viewers have no idea who most of those other "stars" actually are.
There's a backlash against the excessive media coverage of DeLay, most of which seems ignorant of all the bad stuff he did while in Congress.
People actually remember DeLay as a menance to American society from his time on Capitol Hill, and hope that he loses first.
However, I think it's potentially even easier than that to deduce why folks expect DeLay to be booted off the show, and it's not for political reasons: He's simply a terrible dancer and deserves to lose on the merits. His utter lack of skill is compounded by air guitar, booty shaking, jazz hands, lack of rhythm, and animal prints.
He's as bad at dancing as he was at crafting legislation that would actually help the American people, rather than just his lobbyists buddies. He's as bad at dancing as he was at not breaking campaign finance laws and laundering money. Heck, he's as bad at dancing as the voters of TX-22 were at writing in "Shelley Sekula Gibbs."
But what about the votes? Despite overwhelming expectations amongst viewers that DeLay would be sent home, he wasn't. Maybe it was the email blast sent out from his daughter to his email list, encouraging folks to vote for the indicted former majority leader. DeLay's daughter also reminded folks that per the rules of the show, folks can vote eight times in favor of a chosen contestant. I guess whipping the votes to successfully support something harmful to America runs in the family.
In any case, DeLay will be Hammering on our eyeballs again early next week, which means he gets another chance in front of the voting public to get the results he deserves.
And we're off to the races! After weeks of stomach-churning media coverage about Tom DeLay's turn on Dancing With The Stars, we finally saw his moves unveiled in last night's two-hour season premiere. And what moves they were! Stiff and jerky, the former bugman did his best to exterminate the viewing public's sense of rhythm. And did we mention the air-guitar and ass-shaking? Note to ABC: if you persist in showing close-ups of DeLay's posterior shaking like a tree in a Gulf Coast storm, you need to register with the authorities as a sex offender in every major media market.
DeLay's performance was pretty bad. I don't think he's looked so uncomfortable since he was indicted for money laundering. Makes me wonder where he learned how to lip-synch and hip-gyrate like that--maybe on a lobbyist junket to the Mariana Islands with his old BFF Jack Abramoff?
Perhaps the problem is his partner. I sense a lack of connection between DeLay and two-time champion Cheryl Burke. While DeLay dances on stage in LA, we know his heart is really dancing cheek to cheek with Jack Abramoff in Maryland as he does time in Federal Prison for fraud, conspiracy, and tax evasion. So this week, as the memory of The Hammer's animal-print costume remains burned on our retinas, let's look at DeLay's real dance partner, notorious GOP influence-peddler Jack Abramoff.
Last week we looked at how Tom DeLay vastly increased lobbyists' influence in government. In 1994, after the Republicans took over the House, DeLay told top lobbying firms to fire Democrats and hire hand-picked Republicans, or else be shut out. The lobbyists complied, and poured millions of dollars into Republican campaign coffers as directed by Delay. Referred to as the "K Street Project" for the avenue in D.C. where most lobbyist firms keep their offices, DeLay funneled Republican Congressional staffers directly into lobbyist firms.
Described as "the face of Republican lobbyists," Abramoff was DeLay's right-hand man in the GOP's effort to let corporations and special interests control the legislative process. DeLay has called Abramoff "one of his closest and dearest friends." Even lobbyist trade magazines talked up the connection between the two. From the Washington Business Forward:
Thanks to his close ties to prominent conservatives like soon-to-be Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), Abramoff has become a force in the Washington lobbying world, bringing in more than $10 million a year for his firm.
DeLay enabled Abramoff's work in two key areas: lobbying for Native American tribes, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Sounds innocuous enough, right? Who wouldn't want to help Native American tribes? Answer: Jack Abramoff, who defrauded Native American tribes out of millions of dollars, thanks to the help of his friend Tom DeLay. Basically, Abramoff and friends--including Ralph Reid, Grover Norquist, and Michael Scanlon--bilked Native American tribes out of $85 million dollars in excessive lobbying fees for the tribes' casino interests. They even organized lobbying against their clients, thus forcing the clients to require more lobbying, and thus more exorbitant fees. As part of Abramoff's scheme, the lobbyists illegally gave gifts and made campaign donations to legislators in return for votes or support of legislation. But that's nothing.
DeLay and Abramoff enabled sex slavery, forced abortion, and workers' rights violations in the Northern Marianas.
The Northern Marianas are a haven for sweatshops, as well as a hotbed of forced prostitution. The Commonwealth government hired Abramoff to lobby congress against an effort by then-President Clinton to bring federal immigration standards, minimum wages, and workers' rights laws to the Commonwealth. They paid Abramoff and his firm $6.7 million dollars to lobby on their behalf, and were able to retain the ability to put "Made in the USA" on their clothing, while openly flouting American labor standards. Young men and women are brought to the islands with the promise of US citizenship and work in the sweatshops, then often forced into the sex trade. The family-values crowd would look the other way when pregnant young workers were forced to have abortions, lest their pregnancies interfere with making more money. The Coalition Against Trafficking Women has more details on the record of abuse in the CNMI.
Of course, Tom DeLay seems to like all of that just fine. TPM Muckraker reports that "DeLay 'aggressively took the lead' in the effort to keep the Marianas deregulated." DeLay was later quoted on NPR speaking about the CNMI:
"You are a shining light for what is happening in the Republican Party and you represent everything that is good about what we're trying to do in America, in leading the world in the free market system."
Sex slavery, worker's rights violations, blatant greed and bribery? Usually the Republicans are a little more subtle about their goals. In a particular high point, Abramoff's team prepared Congressman Ralph Hall (TX-4) to attack the credibility of an escaped teenage sex slave from the island. DeLay blocked a further fact-finding mission to the island by Congressman Pete Hoekstra, and refused to give Clinton's wage-standards bill a date on the House calendar.
Eventually, the Feds busted Michael Scanlon, former DeLay spokesman turned lobbyist, and even got Jack Abramoff himself, who pled guilty and is in prison through 2011. As part of his deal, Abramoff has to rat out his co-conspirators, and already nearly one dozen disgraced Republicans and former government officials have admitted guilt.
So here's to hoping that the house of cards Tom DeLay built comes tumbling all the way down, and ends with Mr. Cha Cha Cha joining Abramoff in a rousing version of Jailhouse Rock.
With less than one week to go until the season premiere, media attention around Tom DeLay's turn on Dancing With the Stars has reached a fever pitch. Alas, most media outlets seem to willfully overlook his political career. Thankfully, Dancing With DeLay-Watch is here to recount how very, very bad DeLay was for Texas, and America.
While in Congress--that is, before he was indicted for massive finance violations, due to the $600,000 in illegal and unreported corporate donations accepted by his PAC, and his efforts to launder $190,000 through the Texas GOP, and forced to step down--DeLay was known as "The Hammer." He earned the nickname while serving as Majority Leader, due to his ability to pass close votes in the House. Let's take a look back at some of what he accomplished.
This Week: 'U Can't Touch This Permanent Republican Majority'
Who better to comment on DeLay's history than the original dancing Hammer? I asked MC Hammer what he thought about Tom DeLay's upcoming appearance. However, despite repeatedTweets at my former favorite musician, I received no response from the self-proclaimed new media expert. Heartbroken, I stifled my sorrows with research into Tom DeLay's time in Congress, looking for evidence of any past Congressional dance training that might help him out now.
In 1998, Slate presciently described him as "the politician who could determine whether Republicans secure their slim majority or degenerate into their usual fratricidal anarchy." Considered to be "as conservative and vitriolic as anyone in the House," he helped lead the charge to impeach Clinton, and referred to the Environmental Protection Agency as "the Gestapo." Slate also reported on the increasing influence awarded by DeLay to corporate lobbyists:
With lobbyists he likes (that is, conservative Republicans), DeLay is as obliging as can be--he even lets them write legislation to benefit their industry. But DeLay essentially extorts contributions from others. ... He also told lobbying firms and trade associations that he wouldn't help them unless they fired Democrats and hired Republicans. Even in the notoriously greasy world of D.C. lobbying, DeLay's shakedowns are considered excessive.
DeLay's do-si-do down K Street basically filled lobbying firms with former employees and loyalists who funneled even more money into the Republican party. DeLay mastered the quick-step of increasing the influence of money in politics, and thus decreasing the ability of regular Americans to make it on to the Congressional dance card. DeLay even enlisted lobbyists to help him line up votes for various pieces of legislation. One lobbyist recalled, "I've had members pull me aside and ask me to talk to another member of Congress about a bill or amendment, but I've never been asked to work on a bill - at least like they are asking us to whip bills now."
In 2002, DeLay was elected Majority Leader, and earned the nickname "The Hammer" for his arm-twisting on close votes and revenge-taking on those who didn't fall in line. He threatened to support primary challengers to Republicans who didn't toe the line, and promised leadership positions to Congressional Republicans who were otherwise not eager to support him. He took care of the rank-and-file Republicans, though--an astute vote-counter, he often made sure contentious bills passed by only one vote, and let moderate Republicans take turns voting against hard-right legislation so as to not harm their reelection chances. If arm-twisting's his game, perhaps dance partner Cheryl Burke should worry that he's going to wrench her limbs right out of their sockets to get her to toe the line on a particular move.
Though DeLay considered the Bush years to be his most halcyon time in the House, at times he found even the President to be insufficiently conservative. DeLay defied the president when he refused to extend Bush's tax cuts to people making between $10,500 and $26,625 a year. Later, DeLay opposed Bush's energy bill because it did not retroactively protect the makers of a poisonous gasoline additive from lawsuits. DeLay's own legislative agenda demonstrates how out-of-touch he is with the American people. In one Congressional term alone, The Nation writes,
He co-sponsored bills to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Energy, make English America's official language, establish right-to-work laws nationally, gut the Endangered Species Act, remove all limits on campaign contributions and enact a host of antilabor and antiabortion standards.
His record might underscore a technical problem when he hits the dance floor: DeLay seems incapable of turning to the left.
Of course, such hard-core right-wing partisanship ultimately became DeLay--and the Republicans'--downfall, when less than two years after Karl Rove crowed about a "permanent Republican majority," the Republicans took a bath in the 2006 Congressional midterms, losing 30 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate. The election--a referendum on Texans Bush and DeLay alike--finally reversed the 1994 "Republican Revolution" that installed DeLay as the Majority Whip. Once describing himself as "the ditch digger who makes it all happen," DeLay ultimately became one of the key figures in burying the Republican majority.
DeLay's dancing feet will hammer America's television screens this Monday, September 21, on the Season Premiere of Dancing With the Disgraced Republicans Stars. If you're here in Austin, join the Travis County Democratic Party for a watch-party, date/time TBA. (Nevermind, not this week, alas.) Unfortunately, the party is BYO-Barf Bag.
There they go again. Texas Republicans continue to bring embarrassment and shame to the people of Texas. This time Kay Bailey Hutchison is busted for lying on national TV. She called the public option in health care reform a "government takeover."
Please. Enough already. No more lies!
No wonder Texas is the butt of national derision and provides great material in the stupidity and jackassery departments for late night comedy.
Reality Check. What a public option really does mean.
Perry made a jack*** of himself once again by talking about the non-existent notion of secession. Former bug guy, crook and now Mr. Dancing Pants Tom Delay stepped up to defend his soul mate in funny farm jack***ery.
All hat no head indeed.
This video clip covers three of the biggest right wing lunatics on the planet.
I'd like to remind Mr. Big Government Hating Dancing Pants that his ol' nearby neighborhood, Houston, now boasts the highest number of teenage Moms under 15.
I bet Jack*** the Governor is so very pleased to know that the right wing abstinence program is a resounding success.
Mr. Dancing Pants and his jack*** buddy might also be proud to know that under their watch Texas killed(s) innocent prisoners.
There are still three weeks left to wait until Tom DeLay's unceremonious debut on Dancing With The Stars. While we anticipate what might be a whole new era in Awkward White People Dancing, ABC released a few early photos of rehearsals. Tom looks a bit nervous there. But then, it can be difficult to learn how to dance.
Much less challenging for Tom DeLay is committing massive campaign finance fraud, laundering money, sneaking Federal funds, helping corporations buy off congresspeople, and retaliating against his enemies with IRS investigations. So as Tom DeLay returns to the national spotlight for his dance moves, let's take a look at his political career and what he did to disenfranchise the citizens of Texas.
The year was 2001. Democrats still held the Texas House, 78-72. That September, Tom DeLay started TRMPAC, the Texas Republican Majority PAC. His goal? To take back the Texas House, and elect a Republican speaker. The end game? Gerrymander Texas' congressional districts to favor Republicans, and institute pay-to-play rules for corporations looking to buy votes in the capitol domes of Austin and D.C.
As the Texas Observer uncovered, TRMPAC collected and spent $600,000 in corporate funds, none of which was reported to the Texas Ethics Commission. In particular, TRMPAC took extensive out-of-state contributions from corporations looking to curry favor with DeLay, then the Majority Whip. Corporate money is not allowed to be spent directly on campaigns, only on PAC administrative costs. Not to be undone, DeLay's TRMPAC sent $190,000 to the RNC, who then split the identical amount in checks to seven GOP house candidates here in Texas. Huh. Convenient.
The Observer tells of one incident two weeks before the 2002 election in which a $100,000 corporate check made out to TRMPAC was handed over to Tom Craddick, whose rise to Speaker was funded in large part by DeLay's organization. And thanks to DeLay's dirty money, in the 2002 elections the Texas House flipped for the first time in over a century, with the Republicans holding a 88-62 majority. This would in turn result in a return to redistricting, in which the state's Congressional lines were redrawn simply to favor the Republican Party. After the 2004 elections, the Texas delegation flipped from 17-15 Democratic to 21-11 Republican, giving DeLay even more influence in D.C., where he was by now installed as Majority Leader.
Now, some folks would write this off as just more partisan politics. No, it's far worse:
It's Cheating.
Tom DeLay and his cronies broke the rules. Many of his staff members and partners in crime have been indicted. While his own indictment winds its way through the court, it's worth noting that he has repeatedly violated the spirit and the letter of the law time and again in a naked power grab only to give more influence and privilege to those who were in the most advantageous positions to start out.
Of course, his own dirty financing didn't stop DeLay from trying to sic the IRS on Texans for Public Justice after the group began investigating DeLay. In 2005, he managed to sneak a $1.5 billion giveaway to Halliburton into an energy bill after the conference committee, 75% of which would wind its way back into his district. And if that weren't enough dirty financing, DeLay and his buddy Roy Blunt even funneled donations for 2000 Inaugural events into private projects of their own.
So while we're waiting to watch the old guy boogie, just remember how he's been tap-dancing on the rights of Texans to have a fair and honest government and genuine representation for years.
As for his fellow cast members? They might want to make sure he hasn't already bought off the judges.
