Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You are here: Home / Politics / DeLay Investigation

DeLay Investigation

by | 8 Comments

This post is in: 

Looks like it might be moving forward:

Retreating under pressure, Republicans on the House ethics committee said Wednesday they were ready to open an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing against Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Four of the five Republicans on the committee were ready to move ahead, said Rep. Doc Hastings, the panel’s Republican chairman. The panel also has five Democratic members.

The Republicans were “prepared to vote at the earliest opportunity to empanel an investigations subcommittee to review various allegations concerning travel and other actions” by DeLay, he said.

The DeLay forces tried to change the rules of the ethics committee, but that seems to have gone by the wayside. Currently, five Republicans and five Democrats make up the Ethics committee, and it only takes five people to trigger an investigation. DeLay and company wanted to change that to require six members. I wonder why?

Via Ace, we see this nonsense from the folks on the other side of the aisle:

Senate Democrats are quietly trying to kill a 10-year legal probe that implicates several senior Clinton administration appointees for obstruction of justice, the Daily News has learned.

The Democrats, saying that the $21 million investigation by Independent Counsel David Barrett should have ended long ago, succeeded in attaching an amendment to a spending bill Tuesday to cut off his funding by June 1…

Barrett’s investigation was wrapped up two years ago, and his 400-page final report was submitted to a three-judge panel last August, said two sources.

Because those named in the report have until the end of June to refute Barrett’s findings, Kerry and Dorgan’s amendment would prevent its release.

Great.

Reader Interactions

8Comments

  1. 1.

    BumperStickerist

    Why six?

    To require some sort of bipartisanship on an inssue before launching an investigation.

    Seems obvious enough.

    mmmmmm……

    kooooooooool-aid…..

  2. 2.

    Just Curious

    hi there. John and all here- I like this blog. I’ve been lurking and for the most part enjoy the commentary. Why? distinctive, thoughtful posts. Not the same old blogosphere hot air (uber left or uber right, all just yelling at each other).

    thanks.

    also- what’s so amazing about DeLay is that I’m thinking we all didn’t truly, fully realize the extent of his power. He clearly has worked very hard to wield this power (monied special interests have been paying very dearly for it).

    That career politicians don’t want to truly open that can o’ worms is not surprising. Is there really a story here?

    What’s relevant, and awfully sad, is how many everyday Americans can’t even tell you who DeLay is; that they are not jumping up and down for his demise is the saddest thing.

    other than that- this seems like the same old thing- from the lambasting of Wright or of Gingrich. It’s good to see the congress critters eventually turn and eat their own.

    I just bemoan how many people in our country can’t be bothered to pay attention.

  3. 3.

    Mr Furious

    Careful John, this isn’t exactly what it looks like. The Republicans are eager (desperate) to get this off the front pages and starting a probe might be the only way to accomplish it at this point. Because the panel would be held in secret, it’s the ultimate trump card for DeLay or any of the rest of them; “I’d love to answer that, but I can’t comment because of the investigation.”

    DeLay would be investigated, but under bullshit rules that would ultimately exonerate him of any wrongdoing. And if they agree to this, it cements the rule changes Hastert and DeLay wanted in January. Ain’t gonna happen. Democrats want DeLay twisting in the wind and they can’t cave on the ethics reforms.

  4. 4.

    norbizness

    Mr. Furious is right. It’s like getting your tires inpsected, but not aligned, with a lifetime guarantee that the mechanic will never look at your tires again.

  5. 5.

    Birkel

    The rules changes that were made in 1997 have been replaced with the pre-1997 rules.

    And Republicans have agreed to restart the committee but Dems have balked at that. Why? Because the three rules changes are still in effect.

  6. 6.

    RW

    From El Rushbo, today (take it for what you will, but here’s “why”):

    RUSH ARCHIVE: Could it possibly be that they think an investigation is the only way to clear this up and end it, or are they buckling to pressure?
    DeLAY: Well, I’ve been asking from an investigation, and if they’re going to do one, I’m very happy.
    RUSH: That’s true. He has been asking for an investigation. He wants an investigation to clear his name. The Democrats are holding up the functioning of the ethics committee. The Democrats are trying to obstruct as much as they can. They don’t want DeLay to have the opportunity to clear his name. At the same time they don’t want any examination of other Democrats who are also under ethics clouds, chief among them Baghdad Jim McDermott for pirating that phone call, that Newt Gingrich and John Boehner had a cell phone call giving that essentially to the New York Times where the transcript of the call was published. Now, here’s the whole story, “Retreating under pressure…” That’s why I asked him: Are Republicans buckling under pressure or is this just a maneuver? Now, this lead “retreating under pressure,” I think mischaracterizes what happened when you read the whole story. “Retreating under pressure, Republicans on the House ethics committee said Wednesday they were ready to open an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing against Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Four of the five Republicans on the committee were ready to move ahead, said Rep. Doc Hastings, the panel’s Republican chairman. The panel also has five Democratic members. The Republicans were ‘prepared to vote at the earliest opportunity to empanel an investigations subcommittee to review various allegations concerning travel and other actions’ by DeLay,” according to Hastings. “The ethics committee has authority to start an investigation based on information it receives through public and other sources. Hastings made his announcements in hopes of breaking a deadlock that has prevented the ethics panel from getting down to business for the year.”
    Okay, how do you write that? How do you say “Hastings made his announcement in hopes of breaking a deadlock,” when the lead says “retreating under pressure”? I don’t think there was any retreating under pressure here at all. I think they tried to maneuver. The Democrats are blocking the committee. DeLay wants to go before the committee. DeLay wants all this stuff examined. He wants to get cleared by the committee. The Democrats don’t want him to be cleared, they want no ethics committee impaneled, no subcommittee looking into any of this so they can continue to make these allegations and charges because to them it is the seriousness of the charge that determines one’s fate not the nature of the evidence. Now, I asked DeLay yesterday: “What is the rules change in the ethics committee that’s got these guys, the Democrats, so bummed out?” If I could remember this, he said the old rule was they got five Democrats and five Republicans on the ethics committee, regardless of the balance in the whole House. It’s always an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the ethics committee. Under the old rule, if there was a tie, 5-5, then the charges stood but they were not investigated. They were not. It was just put off and nothing happened. The Republicans said, “This makes no sense. If you can’t even get a majority vote to investigate why the presumption of guilt with a tie vote that stops the proceeding and yet doesn’t clear anybody? ”
    DeLay said, “If you go to a grand jury and they tie, the charges are thrown out. You don’t get dragged before the grand jury or the court if the grand jury ties. So we changed the rule, if there’s a tie, that dismisses charges, and of course it was also a way to end pure partisanship in the ethics committee.” There’s a couple others but that’s the primary rules change, a 5-5 tie in the ethics committee itself dismisses all charges, and so the Democrats think that that’s changing the rules in the middle of the game, and they don’t like that, and so they’re blocking the ethics committee from even meeting.
    Now, here’s a group of people that doesn’t like changing the rules in the middle of the game, yet over on the Senate side they change the rules on judicial nominations after 200 plus years of the game. So there’s no consistency from these people. It’s all pure partisanship politics and it’s all based on doing everything they can to deny the Republican majority from governing. Now, that’s fine and dandy, that’s politics, but it’s up to the Republicans to then deal with this. This is nothing new, obstructionism in Congress, obstructionism, it’s nothing new. There are just ways people have to go about dealing with it, and it is there, apparently, that the techniques, the tactics and the understanding of how to do it sort of vanish from the Republican side because they’re nice people, and they just don’t get down in the trenches. It’s just not the way they’re made. They’re afraid of offending and angering people and so forth and so on. They’re a little bit better in the House than in the Senate. The Republicans are far better fighters and far better organizers than the Republicans in the Senate.

  7. 7.

    HH

    I’m sure there is nothing whatsoever bad in that 400 page report so it’s nothing the public needs to know about just like that Form 180 thing…

  8. 8.

    wild bird

    Liberals oppse DeLay becuase he is a conservative and would change all what the left-wing liberals want kept the same i mean its getting a dirty place out there

Comments are closed.