Last week, I posted on how the Republicans, after Tom DeLay had to step aside because of his indictment, turned to one of the most corrupt politicians in Washington, Roy Blunt of Missouri, to act in his position as Majority Leader.
Under the circumstances, is it surprising that the news today that the two men were partners in a scheme to move campaign donations around in a way that personally enriched both men?
WASHINGTON - Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties at the 2000 presidential convention, then diverted some of the excess to longtime ally Roy Blunt through a series of donations that benefited both men's causes.
When the financial carousel stopped, DeLay's private charity, the consulting firm that employed DeLay's wife and the Missouri campaign of Blunt's son all ended up with money, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
Now, we know that DeLay has been involved with questionable financial transactions for years, and that the same is true about Blunt. So the fact that they worked with each other to obscure the money trail on the way to their personal and family bank accounts is hardly surprising.
What is surprising, or at least concerning, is that Republicans who claim to uphold high standards, chose to elect two men like these as their leaders. I can understand how Republicans in the Senate were as surprised by the revelations about Bill Frist last week as anyone, and he had already been selected as Senate Majority Leader, but DeLay (who has been reprimanded three times in past years by the House Ethics Committee) and Blunt (as I posted last week, already recognized as one of the most corrupt Congressman) were well known to be sleazeballs of the first magnitude, so one has to question both the integrity and the judgement of Republican Congressmen who supported these two.
It's a measure of how much some people have been taught to despise "liberals"
ReplyDeleteI am with you on this one Eli.. from everything I am seeing and reading this guy Delay has it coming. Blunt too.
ReplyDeleteFrom one Republican, I am ashamed when any of our public officials is mixed up in something like this. Send them to trial and let the truth come out.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteMy concern though extends beyond just DeLay and Blunt. It is ultimately about both the judgement and the integrity of people who voted them into leadership postions (that includes Rick Renzi, who is incidentally beholden to DeLay's PAC for thousands of dollars in campaign help).
In contrast, when Speaker Jim Wright (who was elected speaker when nothing was known about his book deal) was forced to step down quite a few years ago, the Democrats in Congress succeeded him with Tom Foley-- a man of unquestioned personal integrity (albeit incompetent).
And, as I said, I am not applying the same brush to Senate Republicans because when they elected Bill Frist as majority leader, there was no reason to suppose that his blind trust was not being operated in the same way as everyone else's. But DeLay's and Blunt's ethics violations and other problems go back many years.