GOP Rule Could Force DeLay Aside

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/49_99/news/4908-1.html (subscription required)

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has begun quiet discussions with a handful of colleagues about the possibility that he will have to step down from his leadership post temporarily if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury investigating alleged campaign finance abuses.

The probe, which is being conducted by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, centers on whether Texans for a Republican Majority, a group and its affiliated political action committee started by DeLay, broke a Texas law prohibiting the use of corporate donations in political campaigns during the 2002 state legislative elections.

Republican Conference rules state that a member of the elected leadership who has been indicted on a felony carrying a penalty of at least two years in prison must temporarily step down from the post. He or she may return to the job if found not guilty or if the charges are reduced below a felony or dismissed.

With an increasing amount of press attention on the Texas investigation, a handful of Republican Members have approached DeLay in recent weeks to commiserate and offer their support. Some have also begun pondering how the Conference should proceed if DeLay is forced to temporarily vacate the Majority Leader post.

[wryter2000]

1. I'm not sure my heart can stand it

First, Clarke's testimony. Now this!

:bounce:

[RobertSeattle]

10. Good point - we need to watch the WH/GOP very close

So much crap is flying at them they may try to drop some "Friday" stories while the sh*t is hitting the fan just to get it over with.

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Every dog has his day. Tom's is up soon!

LOL!

[Beetwasher]

3. *Snicker*

What a turd.

[Sandpiper]

4. If I could see Tom Delay do the perp walk

I could die a happy man.

[yellowcanine]

36. Can a congressman be arrested on the house floor?

If not, will Delay hole up on the house floor to keep from being arrested? Wouldn't that be a hoot?

[zbdent]

39. Dunno, let's ask the Republicans who brought the police in to

rein in the Democrats.

Once the police determined that nothing criminal was going on, they left it to the House Sargent at arms.

[BootinUp]

5. Yeaaaaa! Serves you right Tom

[Catfight]

6. I'm going to go tickle myself!

[KC21304]

7. Oh, my. What a wonderful world it would be,

if that cockroach would have to go to prison.

[Hotler]

8. As he meets his new cell mate,

Bubba says, what you want to be, the husband or the wife. You mean I have a choice says Tom. Ya sure says Bubba. Well I want to be the husband says Tom. Bubba replies, good, come over here and give your wife a blow job.:evilgrin:

[GOPisEvil]

9. YOU'RE GOING DOWN BUG MAN!!!!!!!!!!!

I will lead the cheers! Bwahahahahaha! :D

[acmavm]

11. Tis truly a day of wonders and miracles. Clarke and now DeLay may

be indicted and have to step down.

I'm afraid I'm going to wake up and all this will have been a great dream.

[jrthin]

16. Hell, if we're dreaming

then let's imagine Bush doing the perp walk in handcuffs. At that point I'd say DON'T ever, ever, wake me.

[aquart]

12. It's not nice of Tom to tease me this way.

He knows how much I want it.

[bluestateguy]

13. Earle is a total screwup

He botched the investigation of Kay Bailey Hutchinson, railroaded an 11 year old girl into a murder "confession" for a crime she didn't commit and has been a ruthless agent of the war on drugs.

I hate DeLay, but I have no confidence that Earle will handle this radioactive situation correctly.

I refused to vote for him in 2000, and may not this fall.

[amber dog democrat]

18. Hate to say it

but you are essentially correct. All the same, maybe we'll get lucky and he will nail the SOB.

[GaryL]

27. Actually he was screwed by the judge with Hutchison.

He granted her that GD change of venue that landed her the blue ribbon jury. He's got nothing to loose this time and where did you hear he was running? I think he's out. Words out that there WILL be indictments and Tom Craddick will be gone thereafter.

[BOSSHOG]

14. THEY WERE SO SLOPPY AND ARROGANT

they never thought they'd get caught. Tom just didn't take my advice; always tell the truth and you will never have to remember anything.

[JoFerret]

15. Indict, indict

.

[JoFerret]

17. Judicial Watch

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/8267167.htm

[bearfan454]

19. Pound him into the ground !

He is a piece of shit, no that is too good for him.

[AlCzervik]

20. Oh please pretty please

i will pay to see that happen, Delay is the worst, i rate him higher on my cant stand scale above newt gingrich.

[sonias]

21. If anyone deserves it more it is the exterminator

This creep is so blatantly arrogant and full of himself that he really thinks he is god. At least he is in his own little world. I am so tired of this prick and if there is any justice in the world this hypocritical lying sack of shit and all his soulless repuke thug companions will all go to jail.

Please, please make it so.

Keep up with the scandals by shining some light in the bowels of Texas politics here.
http://www.cleanuptexaspolitics.com/scandalblog

Sonia

[Robbien]

22. Question, who would we get in his place?

And would Delay still be directing things behind the scenes?

[NewJerseyDem]

24. The article mentions two options

The first is that House Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri would temporarily become majority leader and republican Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia would become the temporary majority whip.

The other option is that the conference would elect a senior republican congressman who has no ambition for a future role in the leadership to temporarily serve as a caretaker majority leader until DeLay would return, assuming the charges are dropped or DeLay is acquitted.

Of course, DeLay would still have a lot of power and the situation probably wouldn't change the situation. However, it would certainly be an embarrassment for DeLay and would potentially hurt DeLay if he ever wants to become Speaker when Hastert retires. The article says that one republican aide said it would be a "step aside" for DeLay not a "step down."

[0007]

23. What about Tom Craddick?

I didn't read the link

[MasonJar]

25. Oh, what a shame.

[bain_sidhe]

26. Oh, come on. Does anybody really think

that he won't still be running things? They may strip him of his title, they'll never strip him of his power. Besides, he's said himself he prefers working "away from the light" - cockroach that he is, and all.

Still, anything that gives him grief - any grief at all - is a good thing.

And hey, he might even get convicted. I'm not holding my breath, but on the theory that "anything's possible," I'm not gonna rule it out.

[LiviaOlivia]

28. "Oh, come on. I can dream can't I"

I fantasize about the downfall of this puke.

[opihimoimoi]

35. The Pubs trained him to be like the way he is ... an asshole

He got Honors in his class.

[chillwindblowing]

29. be still my heart

What a wonderful day for America..March 24,2004
Remember thsi day , grasshoppers.:donut:

[caledesi]

30. Delay out? Unbelievable. O'Neill, Clarke and Wilson's book this spring.

Could it get any better than this?

[oasis]

31. Yeeeeehaaaaaaw.

[Judi Lynn]

32. A little Tom Delay article to whet your appetite for his retirement

Women Forced to Work

Forced Abortions Are Conducted on U.S. Territory


Workers toil at sewing machines on the main assembly floor of a garment plant in Saipan. (Charles Hanley/AP Photo)





April 1 — A Senate subcommittee on Tuesday heard testimony that there may be what amounts to a Chinese or Korean labor camp on American territory. The 14-mile-long island of Saipan is the capital of the Mariana Islands, a United States commonwealth in the Pacific Ocean. (Magellan Geographix/ABCNEWS.com)



On the Pacific island of Saipan, tens of thousands of workers churn out clothes each year for big American clothing companies, including The Gap and Ralph Lauren.
ABCNEWS Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross has found that legal loopholes allow foreign workers to be shipped in to face conditions that few Americans would tolerate.
Most of the workers are “young women from China who have been promised by recruiters that they are going to good jobs in America,” Ross reported.
“Instead many find themselves kept behind barbed wire, in rat-infested labor camps, and put to work in huge Chinese- and Korean-owned garment factories—often under sweatshop conditions—making clothes for the American market,” he said.
(snip)

Saipan has spent millions on Washington lobbyists and given top Republicans in Congress free trips to the beautiful Pacific island, including one over Christmas for House Majority Whip Tom DeLay.
“You represent everything that is good about what we’re trying to do in America,” he told outgoing Governor Froilan Tenorio, a distant cousin of the current governor, at a dinner in Saipan this past New Year’s eve.
(snip)

~~~~ link ~~~~

[dusty64]

33. Kick!

This would be the icing on the cake!

[dArKeR]

34. Top GOP Leader In Hot Water - CBS

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/25/politics/main608582.shtml

[UTUSN]

37. Kick for Dreaming n/t

[Bandit]

38. Don't forget he is being investigated on ethics charges also

He established a Children's Defense Fund and has been accused of using the monies from that fund to throw elaborate parties and huge lobster and steak dinners. He has said he only used twenty-five percent of the fund for his partying but that is still excessive and very extravagant. His day is coming. He has made a lot of enemies. Nice people do that you know.:crazy: