No not railroaded, in that instance house rules were followed.

By the way I have received 3 speeding tickets in 45 years of driving. In each case I always request a trial. Two tickets were dismissed and the third (actually the first one) was pled down to failure to obey a traffic control device because I didn’t know then how the game was played.

And those things you call warts…they are house ethics violations and indictments for real crimes. nuff said.

kanda on January 21, 2009 at 11:21 AM

I agree the House rules were followed. I think that was the point of my comments … that the indictment was intended to invoke the House rules to remove DeLay for his Speaker role. The railroading was done by Ronnie Earle. And it matters not in that case about House ethics violations. And in those cases, they were also resolved by the Republican House Rules.

Well, enjoyed the discussion. BTW, not sure how it is where you are but in Texas you can opt for a defensive driving course once a year to alleviate the expense of a traffic ticket.

So regardless of all of his warts, in that instance, he was railroaded.

Texas Gal on January 21, 2009 at 10:58 AM

No not railroaded, in that instance house rules were followed.

By the way I have received 3 speeding tickets in 45 years of driving. In each case I always request a trial. Two tickets were dismissed and the third (actually the first one) was pled down to failure to obey a traffic control device because I didn’t know then how the game was played.

And those things you call warts…they are house ethics violations and indictments for real crimes. nuff said.

No, she isn’t. The GOP needs to save it for others, folks are even more far left

Amen. Cornyn has lost his mind. Other than Joe L., who doesn’t really count, who, pray tell, of Obama’s far left buddies would you rather be Sec of State? At least Hillary will take no crap from anybody.

If he wanted to prove his credentials, he should have taken on the Holder nomination. But I suspect this is the beginning of four years of ODS, which is going to get really old, really fast, and get Obama re-elected, exactly as it did with Clinton.

Some people never learn.

Texas Gal I know you are a really intelligent person who likes Tom Delay a lot. He obviously has you snowed. I know you must feel terribly embarassed that the sleezbag was caught. If the facts of what he did doesn’t convince you he was dirty, I sure won’t be able to.

kanda on January 21, 2009 at 8:11 AM

kanda, so the next time a cop wrongly stops you for speeding and gives you a ticket you should go ahead and pay it because he failed to correctly stop you last week when you were actually speeding. That’s the argument you are presenting here. And it has nothing to do with my affection for or embarrassment about .. or lack thereof… for DeLay.

The charges that were bought and the evidence presented to the Travis County Grand Jury that returned the indictment served the purposes of the Democrats. It forced DeLay to be removed as Speaker of the House. So regardless of all of his warts, in that instance, he was railroaded.

Okay .. you keep believing that DeLay was so dirty that he was never prosecuted for any crimes. It was the District Attorney of Travis County (Austin, the capital of TX) that indicted him, not the House of Representatives. The DA in not a federally elected official, he’s a county employee, elected by the county residents. But he is a Democrat.

Texas Gal on January 21, 2009 at 1:10 AM

Texas Gal I know you are a really intelligent person who likes Tom Delay a lot. He obviously has you snowed. I know you must feel terribly embarassed that the sleezbag was caught. If the facts of what he did doesn’t convince you he was dirty, I sure won’t be able to. Suffice it to say I have been in houston many times between 1999 and 2001 as I worked for a huge computer company no longer in business that was headquartered there. I have many friends from Sugarland and Houston who hate the guy and they are republicans. Politics aside, what he did was sleezy. When you look at all the things he did if becomes a concern. When you look at the paid trips he and his family took it becomes a concern. When you look at the quid pro quo and arm twisting he did to get votes for bills he supported it becomes a concern. When you look at him being admonished by the house ethics committee 4 times in 5 years while the republicans were in charge of the house it becomes a concern. Thats not politically motivated. Thats the republicans getting concerned over his unethical dealings. He set a new standard for corruption even the democrats havent exceeded. Finally when you look at the indictments handed down by a texas grand jury it raises concern.

Your only defense of him comes down to the the criminal case has not come to trial yet. Maybe if you contact the DA’s office they will provide an answer as to why.

Tell me some of the great accomplishments he made for the people of his district. He represented them for 15 or so years in the house. Surely this great man must have done many great things. No one ever talks about his accomplishments.

yup, jihadi here. what cafe will you be eating at again?
Noneya on January 20, 2009 at 3:35 PM

The Blue Moon, think you can find it?

Bishop on January 20, 2009 at 4:35 PM

No No Bishop, not the Blue Moon Candy factory in the mid south! The have the BEST candy eveh! Noneya not allowed.

Probably there was politics behind the indictment but if Delay wasn’t so dirty it never would have happened.

kanda on January 21, 2009 at 12:36 AM

Okay .. you keep believing that DeLay was so dirty that he was never prosecuted for any crimes. It was the District Attorney of Travis County (Austin, the capital of TX) that indicted him, not the House of Representatives. The DA in not a federally elected official, he’s a county employee, elected by the county residents. But he is a Democrat.

Texas Gal on January 20, 2009 at 11:14 PM

Yep the republicans passed the Tom Delay rule then rescinded it since he was so arrogant that the dems were taking it to the republicans. Eventually the republicans put so much pressure on Delay he asked them to rescind the rule. Probably there was politics behind the indictment but if Delay wasn’t so dirty it never would have happened.

Texas Gal on January 20, 2009 at 11:14 PM

I’m aware of that rule but you know they revised that rule for him but then it turned out he kept acting like a jerk so they rescinded that special tom delay rule.

From the Boston Globe.

Coddling Tom DeLay
November 18, 2004

THE HOUSE majority leader, Tom DeLay, who was cited by the House Ethics Committee for three violations this year and another in 1999, was rewarded yesterday by his fellow Republicans with a rules change that will allow him to keep his leadership position even if he is charged with a serious crime.

This shameful action, coming only 15 days after an election supposedly dominated by pledges of morality and reform, casts a cloud over the House and adds evidence — if any were needed — that House Speaker Dennis Hastert, sitting in a chair once occupied by Henry Clay, Sam Rayburn, and Tip O’Neill, provides no more leadership than a cardboard cutout.

DeLay said — apparently with a straight face — that the change was needed to protect Republicans from the Democrats’ “politics of personal destruction.”

Representative Henry Bonilla, who led the effort to benefit his fellow Texan, said, “This takes the power away from any partisan crackpot district attorney who may want to indict” party leaders.

Bonilla might take care about name-calling. It is true that a local Texas prosecutor has already indicted three DeLay associates on charges of illegal fund-raising for the 2002 legislative elections in Texas — elections that gave Republicans the majority they needed to redistrict the congressional delegation, producing a swing of five more GOP congressmen from Texas.

However, one of the four admonishments of DeLay from the House’s own bipartisan Ethics Committee concerned that same redistricting. And the US Supreme Court has intervened, telling lower courts to take a close look at the charges relating to that redistricting.

And from the NY Times

House G.O.P. Voids Rule It Adopted Shielding Leader
By CARL HULSE

Published: January 4, 2005

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 – Stung by criticism that they were lowering ethical standards, House Republicans on Monday night reversed a rule change that would have allowed a party leader to retain his position even if indicted.

Lawmakers and House officials said Republicans, meeting behind the closed doors of the House chamber, had acted at the request of the House majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay, who had been the intended beneficiary of the rule change.

Those attending the Republican meeting, which was held on the day before the opening of the 109th Congress on Tuesday, said Republicans unanimously agreed to restore the old rule after Mr. DeLay told them that the move would clear the air and deny Democrats a potent political issue. In the past year, he has been admonished by the ethics panel three times: for his tactics in trying to persuade a colleague to support the Medicare drug bill, for appearing to link political donations to support for legislation and for involving a federal agency in a political matter in Texas.

Even Rolling Stone gets into the act…

The Hammer Falls
Are the Democrats tough enough to bring down Tom DeLay?
JOSHUA GREENPosted May 19, 2005 12:00 AM

After the revelations of the past few weeks, there is no longer any doubt that Rep. Tom DeLay is the most corrupt official in Washington — which is saying a lot, given the ethical standards of Capitol Hill. The Republican majority leader, known as “The Hammer,” has broken nearly every House ethics rule on the books in recent years, enjoying lavish trips paid for by corporate lobbyists and foreign agents. DeLay stayed at the luxurious Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in Hawaii as a guest of the American Association of Airport Executives, who picked up the $52,000 tab for eight members of Congress. He went golfing in Scotland, Russia and South Korea with family members and aides, racking up $283,000 in expenses that were covered by a host of special interests, including Enron, AT&T and the Nuclear Energy Institute. His wife, Christine, and daughter Danni Ferro have received $500,000 from his campaign for their political work on his behalf — including a late-night party for corporate donors at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where a lobbyist poured champagne over Danni’s head while she was in a hot tub on the balcony of DeLay’s suite. The majority leader — a master at covering his tracks by laundering corporate gifts through seemingly innocuous groups like the National Center for Public Policy Research — insists that his first-class jet-setting is undertaken solely for “educational” purposes.
The accusations against DeLay are hardly new. The congressman from Texas has been openly flouting the law for years, receiving an unprecedented three rebukes in a single week from the House ethics committee after he bribed a fellow Republican to vote for a bill and sold his own vote on another in exchange for a corporate donation. What is new, however, is the momentum that is gathering to oust DeLay for his unethical conduct. With more abuses coming to light each day, even members of his own party are calling for him to resign. DeLay is “an absolute embarrassment to me and to the Republican Party,” Rep. Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, said recently. The man who has long bullied supporters and opponents alike — once going so far as to order the Department of Homeland Security to help hunt down and arrest Democrat legislators in Texas — suddenly appears likely to face censure and even indictment.

As you point out the article continues and points out the democrats went after Delay

The combined Democratic effort has taken a serious toll on the majority leader. Once considered untouchable, DeLay, who has been in Congress since 1984, won re-election last year with only fifty-five percent of the vote in a heavily Republican district. There are signs that even conservatives are becoming fed up: A recent poll taken in his district showed that fifty-one percent of voters disapprove of DeLay. As his situation worsens, longtime supporters are beginning to abandon him. Even DeLay’s connections on K Street are drying up: The corporate lobbyists who routinely supplied him with private jets and other cherished perks are suddenly refusing his requests for fear of being tainted by scandal. “People who rule by fear, as DeLay has done, frequently find that when something happens to them, there are very few people around to support them,” says Thurber of American University.

Sad but apparently true. I hope they bring it to trial. I want to see if it was political or was based on facts of wrongdoing.

House republicans threw him out because they believed it.
kanda on January 20, 2009 at 10:06 PM

No they didn’t. The Republicans have a rule that anyone who is indicted has to resign their role until the indictment is cleared. That’s why he resigned. And the D’s knew he would have to resign his role as Speaker if he was indicted. That’s why Ronnie Earle got a grand jury, after several tries, to deliver an indictment. They didn’t need a trial or conviction to get him out, they just needed the indictment. The Democrats don’t have that rule … surprised, huh?

Only those who don’t know the details and the politics behind the indictment accuse DeLay of wrong doing.

DeLay was my House Rep. I didn’t agree with him on all issues, but I did on most of it. But he was wrongly railroaded by the Democrats. He was right to resign for the good of the Party and his district. The GOP lost our district to a Blue Dog in ’06 but we took it back this election to the GOP.

I’d like to see a picture of Hillary forcefully grabbing Cornyn by the arm at that luncheon today, as I have been hearing

ToddonCapeCod on January 20, 2009 at 10:22 PM

Knowing Hillary he probably learned that crossing Hillary and Obama ain’t too good for his political career. Grandstanding is going to cost him big time for the next 4 years maybe 6. He deserves it for putting his personal feeling ahead of the country in a time of war (pronounced whoa-ah).

Which Cabinet appointment should get the most opposition? I’d suggest Eric Holder at Justice.

I agree with the Captain here but it is still nice to see a Republican on the hill at least act like he has some balls lately.

Well, no, it wasn’t “taken care of”. Rolling back her payroll doesn’t change history or erase the fact that she voted to raise it, which is what the Constitution specifies. It’s unconstitutional by definition, whether or not the Senate agrees to conspire with Obama to circumvent it.

Socratease on January 20, 2009 at 9:36 PM

ok – take congress to court if you feel that strongly about it.

See, it was all about politics. The Dems in the House needed to get DeLay out and the Dems in Texas accommodated them.

Texas Gal on January 20, 2009 at 8:52 PM

You could be right that the Texas Democrats got him but the House republicans threw him out because they believed it. I am not a texan so it doesn’t matter to me in that respect but as a republican he dishonored all of us. As for the DA thats a local issue. If you think it was politically motivated with no basis in fact then you need to get the DA indicted like they did for the DA in the Duke case. You don’t have to take it if you know its wrong. To be honest other than a few diehards most everyone I know thinks Delay was crooked.

Actually this was taken care of when she agreed to receive the same pay as before the raise. In effect the raise was rolled back so this does not apply.

Well, no, it wasn’t “taken care of”. Rolling back her payroll doesn’t change history or erase the fact that she voted to raise it, which is what the Constitution specifies. It’s unconstitutional by definition, whether or not the Senate agrees to conspire with Obama to circumvent it.

kanda on January 20, 2009 at 7:27 PM

So, based on your response, I’m gonna guess that you are not a Texas Republican because all of the Texas Republicans know what was the motivation behind Ronnie Earle and the very fact that he has not moved forward with his (manipulated by restricting the evidence) grand jury indictment. Taking the majority Republican in the House in 2000 is largely attributed to the redistricting that DeLay did in Texas that was approved by the Supreme Court over the objection of the Democrat Party. That’s their bone and Ronnie Earle is their boner.

And your assuming that DeLay quit because he is guilty is a rather novice understanding of the political arena in Texas at the least. DeLay is not the source of the problems in the GOP.

You’re objective question should be that if DeLay is guilty of a crime, why hasn’t Ronnie Earle brought his indictment to a jury 3 years hence? If Ronnie Earle believes DeLay to be guilty of a crime, isn’t he responsible as the District Attorney that brought the grand jury indictment to either follow thru or drop the charge?

See, it was all about politics. The Dems in the House needed to get DeLay out and the Dems in Texas accommodated them.

MirCat on January 20, 2009 at 7:53 PM

Wow that is profound, and true.

I say don’t block her.

- The Cat

DeLay did absolutely nothing wrong but I’m surprise that you believe he did. I’ve come to think you were more discerning. Are you a Democrat? Are you a Texas Democrat?

Texas Gal on January 20, 2009 at 6:57 PM

Actually since you asked I voted for Goldwater in 64. He was gonna nuke the ruskies back to the stone age. I’ve really been a Republican since 1968. Nixon was the one. I stayed during the Nixon years when being a republican wasn’t cool. I’ve beat the street for Saint Ronnie and Bush 41 and 43. Not for McCain though he was too far left for me. I would have voted for Hillary as the most conservative of the bunch but she didn’t get nominated. Never considered Obama but I like Bob Barr the former republican this time around. Could not vote for him here in NC.

Lets see, in those forty years I’ve come to know some sleezy politicians but none so bold as Tom Delay. I know he is trying his best to squirm out of it but his peers in the house could not be fooled thats why he quit. If he was in the right he would have stuck it out to the bitter end. He disgraced our Republican Party. The republican party he left behind is worse than the democrats we were replacing. 40 years of hard work down the drain because of Republican politicians who let power corrupt them. If you asked me in 94 how we would govern I would have told you with honesty, dignity, fairness, and honor. The republicans did not do any of those. Now we will have to rebuild our party. Time is our friend. The democrats are going to own every problem that comes along. If we get good republicans to run for office we can win back the congress and the Presidency. If we keep supporting the bums currently in office we will go the way of the whigs.