Wall Street Journal Publishes New Evidence of DeLay Ethics Violations

[Dr Ron]

From Light Up The Darkness (see original post for links):

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?view=plink&id=845

When even the Wall Street Journal goes after a Republican for ethics violations it is hard not to take notice. They have new information on DeLay's trip today, showing it was primarily recreational in violation of House ethics rules:

Rep. Tom DeLay's now-controversial 2000 trip to Scotland was organized by a Washington lobbyist who hired an Arizona golf-tour company to make the arrangements and invited his clients and associates to interact with the House majority leader, newly available documents show.

House rules say such trips are acceptable only if they are principally designed for information gathering, and Mr. DeLay's visit to Scotland and London was billed as an effort to promote an exchange of ideas with British conservatives.

Still, lobbyist Jack Abramoff's heavy involvement and the recreational nature of much of the trip raise questions about the true purpose of the Scottish leg of the expensive outing, which Mr. Abramoff initially helped pay for, according to travel documents and billing records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The new information suggests instead that recreation was the primary purpose of going to Scotland, and the excursion appears more a gift and contrary to House rules defining "necessary" travel expenses as not including "entertainment or recreational activities."

[whistle]

1. Tom DeLay says he is much more humble now, so we can....

...feel comforted that he won't engage in these types of behaviors any more. He'll be providing only complete unselfish love and service to all of mankind moving forward using Jesus Christ as his role model.

Honest to God, he gave a speech yesterday where he said words to that effect, except he was telling all of us, that we needed to practice more humility, so I just assumed he was including himself in there. He is such a humble, caring unselfish person. Oh Tom DeLay, if only we could all just touch your garments, our own character flaws would just melt away from being in your aura. :sarcasm:

[Dr Ron]

2. Maybe I could forgive the trips

provided that he reverse the harm he did with redistricting in Texas along with the reversal of the House Ethics Committee rules changes.

So far one out of two is possible, but the first is far more important.

[whistle]

3. Tommymandering, the same happened in Florida with....

...Tom Feeney's district. How is this possible in modern America?

<snip>
How Proportional Representation Would Finally Solve Our Redistricting and Gerrymandering Problems

Douglas J. Amy
Department of Politics
Mount Holyoke College

Most Americans believe that who wins political races is decided on election day by the voters. But in a single-member district electoral system that is frequently not true. Who wins is often determined before voters even go to the polls – sometimes many years before. The outcome is decided by those who draw the district lines. If they decide to create a district that is 70 percent Republican, there is little chance the Democratic candidate will win. And Republican candidates will usually lose if a district is drawn so that it is predominantly Democratic. Voters go to the polls confident in the illusion that they control the fate of the candidates. But in reality they are often only participating in the last act of political play whose ending has already been written.

In a single-member plurality system, the power of the vote pales in comparison to the power to draw district lines. The districting process not only can determine which candidates will win in specific districts, but also can determine which party ultimately controls our local, state, and federal legislatures. In a very real way, then, the political manipulation of district lines devalues the vote and undermines the democratic process.

Describing the redistricting process in unusually candid terms, North Carolina State Senator Mark McDaniel has said: "We are in the business of rigging elections." This process of drawing district lines to rig elections is known as "gerrymandering," and it is one of the great curses of the single-member plurality (SMP) electoral system. The United States could rid itself of this unscrupulous and undemocratic practice; but eliminating gerrymandering in all of its forms can only be accomplished by abandoning the single-member districts that make it possible and by adopting proportional representation elections.

<link> http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/articles/redistricting.htm