Wednesday, September 28, 2005
RE: Let me be the first...
As the indictment became official I've had a chance to read a lot about the details (including the three page indictment itself), adding to what I knew beforehand when charges were still being contemplated. All indications from early on were that this was a political witch hunt by a partisan and opportunistic prosecutor in Texas, a gross misuse of power. In the indictment itself there is not one word specifically charging Tom Delay of any wrongdoing and it is a conspiracy indictment, which I've read are usually thrown out. From what I've read from the beginning to now, I believe that this is simply a sign of dem desperation, plain and simple. A saying that dems will no doubt use is the old, "where there's smoke, there's fire", and to that I say sometimes there's a blind, deaf and dumb partisan hack crying smoke. This is going to be ugly and Representative Delay needs support, not piling on to go along with the nonsense that will soon come from the dems.
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8 comments:
I am certainly not doubting the prosecutor's partisanship, especially after Kay Bailey...
However, the stink that bothers me is that if the check from TRMPAC to the RNSEC is real... then we already have a problem. The code for donations to national election committees from PACs states that the yearly limit is 20k.... You can verify on page 19 of the FEC's guidebook here. Whether Delay is or isn't involved doesn't bother me as much as the basic idea that this crap goes on... We vote for these people! If you google TRMPAC, you get thousands of hits about it's entire conspiratorial history, which was of course originated by Delay. Despite his good record in the house and support of the right candidates in his long political history... We really don't need this. It's bad publicity and public perception of the GOP in general is bad enough (due to no fault of its own).
Now as far as the endictment charges go, the only applicable charge would be in violation of... section 253.104 subchapter b -- states:
"(b) A corporation or labor organization may not knowingly
make a contribution authorized by Subsection (a) during a period
beginning on the 60th day before the date of a general election for
state and county officers and continuing through the day of the
election."
This is crap, because the check was written by the PAC, not the individual corporations. Even if the corporate contributors did know exactly where their money was going, it's a legal loophole, and should be fixed at the FEC and/or state level, if so desired.
Anyway, I think Delay should step down, because the past is too clouded to just write it all off. This is why I thought Clinton should have been removed from the Presidency, not so much that his actions were adulterous, but it's baaad mojo for the country to have anyone of any consequential leadership position surrounded in controversy. Delay can't avoid it, as it's part of his past.
First, I'll start with the fact that the purpose of an indictment is to inform a defendant of what they are accused of, and in this instance the indictment is not only vague but it does not specifically accuse Delay of wrongdoing. This means that his lawyers don't even have anything to prepare for, as they have no idea what they are defending Delay of doing. This is completely unserious.
Next, let’s go over the "facts" in the indictment. There is no accusation that the contributions in question were made within the 60 day period before an election. On top of that, it was and is legal under Texas law for TRMPAC to solicit from corporate donors, they cannot give that money to their candidates but they can give the money to the RNSEC and they can give money to individual candidates in Texas, so long as it comes from individual donors, which I have no doubt they can prove. Also, none of the corporations involved have been indicted. What the prosecutor is attempting to do is give the appearance of impropriety to something that is not only not illegal but is done by both sides quite often. This is the result of dubious finance laws and general distrust of money in politics. Yes, TRMPAC sent money to the RNSEC and the RNSEC funded several Texas candidates, but there is nothing illegal about this (and documents show that in October 2002, the Texas Democratic Party had a similar exchange with the DNC. Your contention that the limit is 20k/year is if TRMPAC was defined as a "Nonconnected PAC (Not Multicandidate)" contributing to a National Party Committee. In fact, TRMPAC is recognized as a general purpose committee under Texas law. Can you say with certainty that is the same as what I identified and not a local party committee which has no limits on contributions made to a national party committee?
I’ve worked on campaigns and the result was learning how things work. Some states don’t allow corporate contributions and some do. Often times at the local level work is done to raise funds for the national level and the RNC makes it a priority to raise funds for candidates at the state level all over the country. Because of various laws in different states this money has to be routed accordingly but that does not make it wrong. And so long as it isn’t stated to be so, is not illegal. It has been proven that the most funded candidate doesn’t always win but it does take a lot of money to stage an effective political campaign, to get the message out and it is an ugly game sometimes.
It is overly cynical to suggest that Delay step down because TRMPAC has been accused of wrong doing over the years. There has never been a successful indictment against them or Delay and there will not be one as the result of this incident. TRMPAC has been quite successful and in politics this leads to the emergence of enemies, such as Ronnie Earle. I wouldn’t want to be judged solely by the statements of those who think poorly of me, would you?
This reminds me too much of the Trent Lott ordeal years ago. The Democrats can't say Republicans were witchhunting with Clinton in the 90s - look at friggin what they do!
All Lott said was "if Thurmond was elected President, we wouldn't be in the mess we are seeing today."
WHERE OH WHERE does that imply it's racial? How does that equate to blacks are screwing us over? Exactly, it's the MEDIA that totally distorted that and it just got worst and worst.
The problem though is Lott (like Bush today and many conservatives do) go with the media flow and apologize! Like apologizing for something they really didn't do. They should be like Ronald Reagan, go on TV, and basically say something similar to the effect of "fuck you all, you don't know what you are talking about, and let me spend the next 30 minutes giving facts about what I actually did and how stupid you truly are. The people that accused me of wrongdoing from this day on are fired from their positions - each and every one of them."
Okay, I got on an extreme tangent, but you both pretty much presented cases real well and I sincerely don't think Delay should simply just step down like that *snaps finger* - it's too obvious this has been a witchhunt from the very beginning (this Delay issue has been going on for quite some time now this year) and it's been de-bunked each and every friggin time to the point where I don't have the time to type it ALL out.
Ok, I need some help from everyone in figuring this out, because as much as I'd like to just call it a witchhunt (which of course it is) and leave it at that, I need clarification in my mind that what happened was legal and also ethical...
In Delay's case, it's pretty much crap, as is stated many times above. It was a crafty way of including him in the indictment, and I don't think it will stick.
Now, about the contributions themselves:
According to the FEC, "The term "political action committee" (PAC) refers to two distinct types of political committees registered with the FEC: separate segregated funds (SSFs) and nonconnected committees. Basically, SSFs are political committees established and administered by corporations, labor unions, membership organizations or trade associations. These committees can only solicit contributions from individuals associated with connected or sponsoring organization. By contrast, nonconnected committees--as their name suggests--are not sponsored by or connected to any of the aforementioned entities and are free to solicit contributions from the general public."
Now, the article referred to in Vetes' link calls TRMPAC a 'general purpose committee.' This, I believe is a state-level label, but does it not fall under one of two federally designated PACs above? If it does, then it's contributions to national-level political committees are limited to (as Vetes pointed out) $15k/yr. If it doesn't, well then I haven't been able to find any documentation online whether it is classified as a 'local party committee,' to which case it is allowed unlimited contributions to RNSEC, and therefore would prove that portion of charges in the indictment as completely invalid.
Now, on to state-level regs. The Texas rule book for political committees, found here, states on page 17 that:
CORPORATE CONTRIBUTIONS -- "As a general rule, a political committee may not accept political contributions from corporations or labor organizations. However, a political committee that supports or opposes measures exclusively may accept such contributions. Also, a corporation or labor organization may finance the establishment or administration of a general-purpose political committee, as well as the costs of soliciting contributions to the political committee from the employees, stockholders, or members of the corporation or labor organization and their families. The general-purpose committee is required to report such corporate expenditures. Consult subchapter D, chapter 253, Election Code, for information on corporate or labor organization expenditures."
This is echoed in the Texas Election code section § 253.100:
EXPENDITURES FOR GENERAL-PURPOSE
COMMITTEE. "(a) A corporation, acting alone or with one or more
other corporations, may make one or more political expenditures to
finance the establishment or administration of a general-purpose
committee.
(b) A corporation may make political expenditures to
finance the solicitation of political contributions to a
general-purpose committee assisted under Subsection (a) from the
stockholders, employees, or families of stockholders or employees
of one or more corporations."
Now, here's where I really need help. Can the corporate contributions to TRMPAC (totalling ~ $190k) all be justified as "Administrative or Establishment" costs?... Off the top of my head, NO. As stated in Vetes' article, funds from corporate donations going in and then coming out of the same account to the RNSEC is "what operatives of both political parties referred to for years as 'swapping dollars' - trading corporate or labor union dollars for non-corporate, non-labor union funds or 'hard dollars' to be used where only such funds could be used."
As it sounds, this is 'legal,' however in my mind unethical, and with all due respect to everyone on this site, what the Dems do is irrelevant. We should be the first to ensure we're following ethical guidelines, and it sounds to me (apart from Delay's witchhunt), that neither side wants to admit what goes on on a normal basis because they don't want to give up the advantage during a given election cycle...
Am I wrong? Maybe someone can help me justify where the corporate contributions go...
What I'm getting from you here is that you feel recieving corporate contributions of any kind and in any way are unethical and that the money swapping described is also. For me personally, I don't find either case to be so, that is where I come from. The laws written are vague, much like the tax code and what results is, like tax avoidance (write offs, a myriad of loopholes), campaign finance avoidance which some people don't like, which is their perogative. This doesn't make it illegal and gets to what I feel is the bottom line, Delay did nothing wrong, this indictment is a sham and he should not step down as a congressman. As a leader this hanging over his head was affecting his effectiveness so stepping down, at least temporarily, was neccesary.
I only feel that if the Texas code states that corporate contributions shall be only used for administrative and estabilishment costs, then they should be used as such...
I have no problem with corporate contributions when it follows the ethical codes described. It is their basic intent to not allow undue influence from massive corporate donations over that of the individual, simply stated. But for God sakes, don't make it so easy for someone to make an indictment by writing checks to political committees from your administrative account... all I'm saying.
As for Delay, he should of course not step down as congressman, but I think it would show more class if he would suggest someone of equal effectiveness to replace him as majority whip. This is simply to remove the controversy from the stated position. No admonisment of guilt, whatsoever.
I'm just gonna repeat myself in that it's just an outright witchhunt (I think you guys spend enough time going over the facts so that's good and I don't think any further explanations is necessary). The problem this country is going through these days is the instant a prosecutor says "he's guilty," the public will start thinking that. Look at OJ...look at Robert Blake....look at Bill Clinton....even if they ARE guilty in your mind....it's the mindset that's created due to the prosecutors. It's one of those natural notions you get when someone is charged with something.
Let's look at Ronnie Earle (D) for goodness sake. This guy had a history of dropping charges when you pay him (or technically: contribute funding to one of his causes) and convicted majority conservatives (or tried to) and somehow this guy is BIPARTISAN???????? I mean, THAT ALONE is enough for me to not even investigate what DeLay is "guilty" of (not that I did not).
But the indictment itself is charge-less! Look at it! It's just a 4-page snoozer about campaign finance "abuse." In fact, this indictment is so weak, I don't know WHY Earle is still even in power. Of course, Hollywood and the liberal media eats this up like DeLay is the next Hitler.
It's simple. DeLay is one of the most powerful Representatives and one of the many reasons that got Texas on the map as a conservative state. The Democrats are targeting him.
Interesting footnote: Earle is from Travis County, Texas. The same county that gave Dan Rather the pink slip if you look back on history - you know, the whole Bush AWOL National Guard story.
The puzzle is simply coming together - and it's the media, again, that's not reporting BOTH sides of the story. Overall, Earle and the liberal media are partisan bastards.
Carps,
No one is denying the strength of the combination of partisan devilry, in both origin and reporting of this nonsense.
Again, all I'm saying is that we know the tremendous level of bias exists, and it should be obvious to those in the political profession by now..., that they shouldn't make it this easy for the 'biased ones' to create something like this indictment. IF--IF the check to RNSEC had come from any other account in TRMPAC besides the SAME account that took the corporate donations... Mr. F**KED UP EARLE wouldn't have a damn case AT ALL! That's what has me torqued... I expect this type of behavior from the left, but gosh we need to be smarter about what we do...
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