THE SLEAZY WORLD OF REPUBLICAN
HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER TOM DELAY

From the Houston Chronicle:

DeLay rebuked again for ethics violations

For the second time in less than a week, the House ethics committee admonished Republican leader Tom DeLay late Wednesday for two more brushes with House rules.

The lawmaker from Sugar Land was cited for apparently linking political donations to legislation and for recruiting federal aviation officials to help search for Texas House members who fled Austin last year.

Action on a third allegation involving DeLay's political fund-raising practices was deferred until a criminal investigation under way in Austin runs its course.

And

In its report Wednesday, the ethics panel found that DeLay "created an appearance" of favoritism when he attended a Virginia golf outing in 2003 with executives from Westar Energy just days after they gave $25,000 to one of his political committees.

The committee also expressed "serious concerns" about DeLay's effort to get the Federal Aviation Administration to help locate Texas Democratic lawmakers who had fled the state in an effort to thwart Republican legislators from passing a DeLay-engineered redistricting plan.

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And again from the Houston Chronicle:

PAC memo links DeLay to fund-raiser

A newly obtained memo indicates U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had personal involvement in directing some of the fund-raising activities of a political action committee that is under a grand jury investigation.

Three of DeLay's political associates have been indicted by a Travis County grand jury on charges of illegal fund raising involving Texans for a Republican Majority, TRMPAC. DeLay, who was a TRMPAC founder, has distanced himself from its operations.

A memo obtained by the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday indicates DeLay was more than a passive participant in TRMPAC fund-raising events.

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I smell smoke. And where there's smoke...

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