(Ring-)Breaking news: As with two of his Texas cronies, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, Boss DeLay has been indicted on criminal conspiracy charges this morning, in connection with the grand jury probe into money laundering at TRMPAC. (TRMPAC itself was indicted a few weeks ago.) As a result, DeLay will be forced to step down as Majority Leader, to be replaced by (corrected, after a possible last-minute switcheroo) Roy Blunt of Missouri. (Of course, even if he beats this indictment, Boss DeLay is also being investigated by federal authorities for his role in the Casino Jack story.)
In 1994, the Republican Contract with America stated that the GOP would “restore accountability to Congress [and] end its cycle of scandal and disgrace.” Today, with the Republicans controlling both sides of Congress and the Oval Office, their leader in the House has been indicted as a criminal, their leader in the Senate is under dual investigations for insider trading, and the top moneyman in the White House was arrested only last week for lying and obstruction. (And that’s not even counting the inquiries into footsoldiers like Casino Jack Abramoff and Randy “Duke” Cunningham, or the continued investigation into Karl Rove’s role in Plamegate.) Simply put, the GOP leadership have broken their promise and embarrassed the nation with their rampant cronyism and illegality. It is time for them to go.
Update: While a vituperative Boss DeLay calls the charges “one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history,” (now that‘s a bold statement), the GOP look to Roy Blunt of Missouri (who will share power with Dreier) as their new leader.
If Delay is actually found guilty, he should resign. If this is nothing more than a political ploy from the Democrats like the Dan Rather lettergate, then it is just another typical attempt one party trying to make the opposing party look bad…surprise, surprise.
Sugarland, we have a problem. Finally we begin to see some justice leak towards the Republican side of the aisle.
Next stop: the Bill Frist version of Hillary’s cattle futures. Only he made a hell of a lot more money.
bjk
TS, thanks for posting. I tend to think that, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And, with this indictment, the Ceverha trial, the Casino Jack boondoggles, the attempt to bribe Nick Smith, the $500,000 campaign salary for his wife and kid, and the general shadiness of his financial operation, the smoke-filled rooms around Boss DeLay have been particularly thick and acrid.
Hey Ben…I expect the White House is working overtime to accelerate the second Justice pick right now, just so there’s something on page 1 besides DeLay’s indictment.
David Dreier was my congressman in California. I get the creeps just typing his name.