Florida 2000. Ohio 2004. The blast furnace calling the kettle black.

The [CfC] brochure is entitled ‘Donor Packages for the 2004 Republican National Convention,’ leaving no question about the tie between CfC and its convention-related activities. Indeed, the brochure states that CfC’s ‘Marquee event for 2004’ will be ‘events at the Republican National Convention in New York City.’ The ‘net’ proceeds, according to the brochure, ‘will be disbursed to charities dedicated to abused and neglected children,’ but press reports have stated that the donations made to CfC will be used to defray the costs of the convention-related events: ‘[A]ides to Mr. DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas, acknowledged that part of the money [donated to CfC] would go to pay for late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush’s speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises.’ The ‘donor packages’ range from a contribution of $10,000 (the so-called ‘Greenwich Village’ package) to $500,000 (the ‘Upper East Side’). The benefits include a ‘luxury suite for Members, Senators, Executive Branch and CfC Sponsors’ to watch President Bush’s speech to the convention, ‘private dinners’ with Rep. DeLay, a ‘Members reception’ during the President’s speech, tickets to a golf tournament, tickets to Broadway shows and ‘a private yacht cruise with TD [Tom DeLay].’”

Lots more here

The tournament, yacht cruise, etc., were canceled, and there are no CfC hits on Google since.

Earle indicted DeLay for conspiracy to commit felony violations of Texas election law—it’s an unsettled question as to whether election law felonies were covered by the conspiracy laws in Texas as of 2002, although it’s pretty clear that the legislative intent was to make it so, since in 2003 they voted to explicitly state this. The point is moot, though, because Earle also indicted DeLay for money laundering. (This is where the “it’s not money laundering unless you take bags of cash” argument was introduced.

Just to clarify the points in case Jim is arguing in good faith, there were laws in Texas dating back to 1905 prohibiting corporate donations to state political races. Tom DeLay’s associates at TRMPAC, in collusion with the Texas Association of Businesses and a group of out of state donors with ties to DeLay (such as Westar Energy, where some executives just got sentenced to prison for ripping off their shareholders) spent a good deal of time in 2002 attempting to circumvent these laws in a number of farcical and probably illegal ways, so that Texas could redistrict out of season and elect more Republicans to Congress. The Texas Observer wrote a good summary of these events.

DeLay’s got some good lawyers, and I really do think that there’s a good chance that he, if not the TRMPAC people, walks on the Texas charges. The question of whether DeLay’s efforts to shake money out of contributors and inject it into local races in blithe disregard of Texas election law rose to the level of criminal conspiracy or simply encouraged a bunch of his business associates to break the law is hardly obviated by his concern for foster children, though. And the accusations that DeLay was using his children’s charity as a slush fund lend a certain something to the idea that he’s a big-hearted guy deep down inside.

As for corruption in the United States, there is no doubt that Democrats are caught more often than Republicans. (For a particularly gaudy example, check out the East St. Louis vote fraud stories.) I think this shows that Democrats commit more fraud than Republicans, but will listen to alternative hypotheses.

As for DeLay, I concluded some time ago that he had stepped over some ethical lines, much like many of his Democratic predecessors. Whether he has broken any laws has yet to be determined. It is a fact that Ronnie Earle has a reputation for partisanship, and a certain carelessness about legal niceties. (If I recall correctly, among other things he tried to indict DeLay under a law that had not been passed when the supposed crime occurred.) So I am willing to wait for the trial before I conclude that DeLay crossed legal, as well as ethical, lines.

(By the way, those who are interested in knowing more about DeLay—as opposed to having a target to throw darts at—might want to look up his record on foster care, especially in the District of Columbia. Offhand, I can’t think of a Democratic leader in Congress who has shown the same concern.)

I once did some research to try to find out who is behind the Workers World Party. I obtained the government forms that it filed. Those forms are not required to identify donors, so, while I could infer that the WWP is kept afloat by donations from a few wealthy donors, I couldn’t tell who they were. The individual named on the documents did not return calls asking for more information.

what a genius this man is.

Truer words …
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The DeLay case is more complicated, though. The TRM gang are bald-facedly guilty, unless they can get someone to agree with their hairsplitting. (At one point they attempted to convince a judge that the ban on corporate fundraising didn’t apply to them, as they had only distributed checks and not cash.) Proving a conspiracy case against DeLay will be much tougher, and I think it has as much to do with Earle being furious on DeLay’s repeated and proudly acknowledged violations of the spirit of the law as either smart lawyering or a partisan attack. I get the sense that it just cheeses Earle off to hear DeLay bragging about the amount of money he helped spread around in contravention of Texas law.

If DeLay sees jail time, I think it’s much more likely to be fallout from the criminal activities of some of his aides in Washington rather than as a byproduct of the criminal activities going on in Texas, but that’s just my opinion.