Not two weeks ago, I noted the following:
So you have several indictments against you for nefarious fund-raising deeds, to include a charge of money-laundering. If your first instrinct is to launch a website to solicit donations for your legal defense, you might be Rep. Tom DeLay.
For whatever reason, most of the people who I am aware of having a defense fund have been guilty of something. At any rate, in the news today:
Rep. Tom DeLay failed to comply with House requirements that he disclose all contributions to a defense fund that pays his legal bills, the Texas Republican acknowledged to House officials.
He wrote officials that $20,850 contributed in 2000 and 2001 was not reported anywhere. Another $17,300 was included in the defense fund’s quarterly report but not in DeLay’s 2000 annual financial disclosure report — a separate requirement.
Other donations were understated as totaling $2,800, when the figure should have been $4,450.
It was during that period that DeLay was the subject of several House ethics investigations.
Note to future Congressmen- when you have a legal defense fund, try to follow the contribution rules. These Republicans we elected are going to put the Onion out of business.
SomeCallMeTim
“The Republicans are going to …,” not, “These Republicans we elected are going to….” You vote for the drunken conductor, you vote for the train wreck. That’s called “accountability”; as a Republican, I guess you’re not expected to be familiar with the word.
John Cole
By noting I voted for the Republicans, I am explicitly making myself accountable.
Try having only a half dozen martinis after work, SomeCallMeTim.
Mike S
But they’ll keep Jon Stewart in business. I don’t know if you caught him last night but his Coburn amendment take was perfect.
Zifnab
:( Missed Stewart this week, sadly.
Of course, when fund-raising gets you in this much trouble, I can’t help but wonder if using fund-raising to claw your way back out again is the wisest move.
Tim F
The world waits for Frist to deliver US government’s first ever indictment trifecta.
SomeCallMeTim
Given that the Anti-Iraq war Democrats have been pretty much right on everything (Bush is incompetent, Iraq’s a mess, the tax cuts were structured wrong, the deficit will balloon, etc.), I’m reminded of Lincoln’s apocryphal remark about Grant, and suggest that as long as you lot run the country, perhaps you should drink twice as much as whatever I’m having.
John Cole
Believe me, if I could wake up the next morning, I would have a dozen martinis every night.
I do like a martini.
Louise
Well, John, *I* appreciate your comment. It’s one of the reasons I’ve started coming here regularly and linking to you. Sure, I’d like folks like you to have felt this way a long time ago, but after wondering for a few years if the majority of the country had gone stark raving stupid, I’m happy to see reason and reality win out in some quarters.
We do, one hopes, learn a little. At least I don’t have to think about “President Jeb” anymore, right?
Shygetz
I, for one, and not the kind to bitch about taking responsibility whenever a Republican points out how wrong-headed the Republicans are being. It’s called negative reinforcement, and it’s not what I want to be doing.
Kudos, John, for having the balls to point it out. Have a cookie.
Glen
John,
The GOP leadership has been, in effect, writing for The Onion for years. I’m glad to see that the rank and file have finally noticed.
Personally, I favor vodka tonics. Current events may yet cost me my liver.
Krista
Honestly, I feel bad for a lot of people who voted for Bush, who have now realized what a muck he’s made of things. Disillusionment is a very bitter pill to swallow. (Although a sour-apple martini washes it down quite satisfactorily.)
Paul L.
Another DeLay Scandal?
John, you may not like Tom Delay. But I have not yet to see anything that show his fundraising to be crooked.