|
How do you like your DeLay toast?
Sorry - you only have one option: BURNT!
:lol: :laugh: :lol: :laugh: :lol: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12141276/ MSNBC: DeLay won't run again Chris Matthews reporting former House majority leader won't seek return BREAKING NEWS MSNBC Updated: 10:32 p.m. ET April 3, 2006 MSNBC's Chris Matthews is reporting that Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, won't seek re-election and will announce his withdrawal from his congressional race on Tuesday. © 2006 MSNBC Interactive |
Delay Withdrawing From Race
"MSNBC's Chris Matthews is reporting that Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, won't seek re-election and will announce his withdrawal from his congressional race on Tuesday."
Hmmm... first his former aide makes a plea bargain with the Feds and now this. Happy day! |
We are twins! Born on the same date and now this! :laugh:
Terry |
We really are birthday twins, Terry!
EXACT same post time, same topic. That's ****in freaky if ya ask me... :D |
I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe - our replies were even the same!
:lol: :lol: :lol: |
I'm not deleting mine - it will take all the fun out of it. Besides it needed to be reported twice! :lol:
|
It's a deal. I think I'm gonna go buy a lottery ticket real quick.
|
Go now - and you have to split it with me!
|
I'm gonna bump yours - just for grins.
I hadn't heard about his aide making a deal. All I've been hearing is that supposedly Abramoff had "cleared" DeLay of wrongdoing ... somehow. Back room whispers and such reported as fact. And, sadly, you can't buy lottery tix after 9:00 PM here - but I'm getting one tomorrow for sure. Surely there will still be a little magic left in the morning. When I win - would you prefer a yellow Ferrari or a bright red one? |
Quote:
|
Breaking: DeLay wont seek re-election
Rep. DeLay Won't Seek Reelection
By Jonathan Weisman and Chris Cillizza Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, April 3, 2006; 11:06 PM Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the House Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, told House allies tonight that he will resign from the House rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable. The decision came just three days after his former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities, but by placing the influence-buying efforts of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff directly in DeLay's operation, the former aide may have made an already difficult reelection bid all but out of reach. DeLay, who turns 59 this Saturday, did not say precisely when he would step down, but under Texas law, he must either die, be convicted of a felony, or move out of his district to be removed from the November ballot. DeLay told Time magazine that he is likely to change his official residence to Alexandria, Va., by the end of May. He said he informed President Bush of his decision this afternoon. "This had become a referendum on me," he told Time in an article posted on the magazine's Web site. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district." "I'm a realist. I've been around awhile," he added. "I can evaluate political situations." Asked if he had done anything illegal or immoral in public office, DeLay replied: "No." Former aides and sources close to DeLay said his decision was not motivated by Rudy's guilty plea, but by DeLay's concerns that he might lose his suburban Houston seat to his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Nick Lampson, and his belief that another Republican would win. DeLay's reelection race was expected to be one of the most expensive House campaigns in history and a drain on GOP coffers. Once DeLay steps aside, the Texas Republican Party will choose a replacement candidate. Senior House Republicans have been saying for several weeks that DeLay would make his decision based on what was best for the Republican Party. Indeed, Democratic House campaign officials have been hoping that in November their candidate would face DeLay, whom they believe could be the weakest Republican candidate they could hope for. DeLay got a temporary political boost last month when he fended off three challengers to win a Republican primary with 62 percent of the vote. But recent polls showed an uphill climb against Lampson and another former congressman, Steve Stockman, who had cut his ties to the Republican Party to run as an independent. In early January, a Houston Chronicle poll showed DeLay trailing Lampson 30 percent to 22 percent, with Stockman taking 11 percent. A December poll by CNN, USA Today and Gallup also indicated that a credible Democrat could beat DeLay. DeLay's decision capped a long, difficult slide from power that began in September, when a Texas grand jury indicted him on money-laundering and illegal campaign finance charges. Under House Republican rules, DeLay had no choice but to relinquish is post as House majority leader, but he vowed to beat the charges and quickly return to power. In the ensuing months, the separate federal corruption probe stemming from Abramoff's activities drew closer to DeLay, first eliciting a guilty plea from DeLay's former press secretary, Michael Scanlon, then from Abramoff, whom DeLay once described as "one of my closest and dearest friends." Some House Republicans publicly stated DeLay could not be allowed to return to the House leadership if his implication in the Abramoff scandal appeared inevitable. In January, DeLay bowed to pressure from fellow Republicans and abandoned his quest to regain the majority leader's post. At that time, however, he pledged to seek reelection, and he quickly snared a coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee. His renunciation of the leader's post touched off a scramble among Republicans eager to move past the DeLay era. A month later, Rep John Boehner (R-Ohio) upset DeLay's protege, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), to win the highest position in the Republican conference, effectively ending the DeLay era of leadership that stretched back to Dec. 6, 1994, and the Republican Revolution. When Republicans swept to power that year, DeLay capitalized on his fundraising prowess in a successful race for majority whip against Rep. Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.). A former pest exterminator, DeLay had already been in Congress since 1985, and his fundraising largesse, especially with the huge freshman class of 1994, helped him overtake Walker, who was Rep. Newt Gingrich's best friend. DeLay became arguably the most effective whip in modern House history. He corralled Republicans into a lock-step discipline that blocked much of former President Bill Clinton's agenda in the 1990s, engineered the impeachment of Clinton -- the first time a sitting president had been impeached in over 100 years -- and later turned the House into President Bush's firewall against Senate Republican dissent. Beyond those legislative accomplishments, DeLay worked to turn Washington's lobbying and business community into a bulwark of Republican support, dispensing legislative favors to those who played along. He was admonished by the House Ethics Committee in 1999 for retaliating against a trade association that hired a Democrat. But his take-no-prisoners style did not begin to undermine his authority until 2002, when in an unprecedented power play, he jumped into Texas state politics to help secure a Republican majority in the state legislature, then personally pushed a redistricting plan to secure six additional House seats for his GOP majority. During the redistricting fight, Texas Democrats fled the state, in an ultimately futile effort to deny Republicans the quorum needed for a final vote. In 2004, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct rebuked DeLay for asking federal aviation officials to track a plane ferrying Democrats to Oklahoma. The panel also rebuked him for improperly pressuring a fellow Republican to vote for the Republicans' Medicare prescription drug benefit and for creating the appearance that Westar Energy Inc. received special consideration in exchange for campaign donations. The Texas redistricting fight is seen by some as a crowning political achievement, but also his undoing. Travis County's Democratic prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, secured an indictment on charges that DeLay solicited business contributions, then laundered them through Washington and into the campaign coffers of Republican state legislative candidates. Texas law forbids business donations to State House campaigns. The indictment cost DeLay his leadership post, but the redistricted map may have cost him his seat. DeLay gave up some Republican strongholds in his district to help elect new Republicans in neighboring districts, bringing his own majority down to 55 percent in the 2004 election. This election year promises to be far more difficult. © 2006 The Washington Post Company ******** WOO HOO! can you say "House of Cards" boys and girls?:woohoo: |
Oh no you didn't, missy.
*snap * snap * neck twitch * :lol: Hey - will you post in Terry's AND my thread if we post in yours? This news is too good to get buried on the forum. :laugh: |
Quote:
so WHICH threads do you want this in? I need clear instructions. Im old and feeble!:lol: |
Quote:
:lol: |
Quote:
|
Quote:
but, per your request Nixxxed: washingtonpost.com NEWS | OPINIONS | SPORTS | ARTS & LIVING | Discussions | Photos & Video | City Guide | CLASSIFIEDS | JOBS | CARS | REAL ESTATE ad_icon Rep. DeLay Won't Seek Reelection By Jonathan Weisman and Chris Cillizza Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, April 3, 2006; 11:06 PM Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the House Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, told House allies tonight that he will resign from the House rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable. The decision came just three days after his former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities, but by placing the influence-buying efforts of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff directly in DeLay's operation, the former aide may have made an already difficult reelection bid all but out of reach. DeLay, who turns 59 this Saturday, did not say precisely when he would step down, but under Texas law, he must either die, be convicted of a felony, or move out of his district to be removed from the November ballot. DeLay told Time magazine that he is likely to change his official residence to Alexandria, Va., by the end of May. He said he informed President Bush of his decision this afternoon. "This had become a referendum on me," he told Time in an article posted on the magazine's Web site. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district." "I'm a realist. I've been around awhile," he added. "I can evaluate political situations." Asked if he had done anything illegal or immoral in public office, DeLay replied: "No." Former aides and sources close to DeLay said his decision was not motivated by Rudy's guilty plea, but by DeLay's concerns that he might lose his suburban Houston seat to his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Nick Lampson, and his belief that another Republican would win. DeLay's reelection race was expected to be one of the most expensive House campaigns in history and a drain on GOP coffers. Once DeLay steps aside, the Texas Republican Party will choose a replacement candidate. Senior House Republicans have been saying for several weeks that DeLay would make his decision based on what was best for the Republican Party. Indeed, Democratic House campaign officials have been hoping that in November their candidate would face DeLay, whom they believe could be the weakest Republican candidate they could hope for. DeLay got a temporary political boost last month when he fended off three challengers to win a Republican primary with 62 percent of the vote. But recent polls showed an uphill climb against Lampson and another former congressman, Steve Stockman, who had cut his ties to the Republican Party to run as an independent. In early January, a Houston Chronicle poll showed DeLay trailing Lampson 30 percent to 22 percent, with Stockman taking 11 percent. A December poll by CNN, USA Today and Gallup also indicated that a credible Democrat could beat DeLay. DeLay's decision capped a long, difficult slide from power that began in September, when a Texas grand jury indicted him on money-laundering and illegal campaign finance charges. Under House Republican rules, DeLay had no choice but to relinquish is post as House majority leader, but he vowed to beat the charges and quickly return to power. In the ensuing months, the separate federal corruption probe stemming from Abramoff's activities drew closer to DeLay, first eliciting a guilty plea from DeLay's former press secretary, Michael Scanlon, then from Abramoff, whom DeLay once described as "one of my closest and dearest friends." Some House Republicans publicly stated DeLay could not be allowed to return to the House leadership if his implication in the Abramoff scandal appeared inevitable. In January, DeLay bowed to pressure from fellow Republicans and abandoned his quest to regain the majority leader's post. At that time, however, he pledged to seek reelection, and he quickly snared a coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee. His renunciation of the leader's post touched off a scramble among Republicans eager to move past the DeLay era. A month later, Rep John Boehner (R-Ohio) upset DeLay's protege, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), to win the highest position in the Republican conference, effectively ending the DeLay era of leadership that stretched back to Dec. 6, 1994, and the Republican Revolution. When Republicans swept to power that year, DeLay capitalized on his fundraising prowess in a successful race for majority whip against Rep. Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.). A former pest exterminator, DeLay had already been in Congress since 1985, and his fundraising largesse, especially with the huge freshman class of 1994, helped him overtake Walker, who was Rep. Newt Gingrich's best friend. DeLay became arguably the most effective whip in modern House history. He corralled Republicans into a lock-step discipline that blocked much of former President Bill Clinton's agenda in the 1990s, engineered the impeachment of Clinton -- the first time a sitting president had been impeached in over 100 years -- and later turned the House into President Bush's firewall against Senate Republican dissent. Beyond those legislative accomplishments, DeLay worked to turn Washington's lobbying and business community into a bulwark of Republican support, dispensing legislative favors to those who played along. He was admonished by the House Ethics Committee in 1999 for retaliating against a trade association that hired a Democrat. But his take-no-prisoners style did not begin to undermine his authority until 2002, when in an unprecedented power play, he jumped into Texas state politics to help secure a Republican majority in the state legislature, then personally pushed a redistricting plan to secure six additional House seats for his GOP majority. During the redistricting fight, Texas Democrats fled the state, in an ultimately futile effort to deny Republicans the quorum needed for a final vote. In 2004, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct rebuked DeLay for asking federal aviation officials to track a plane ferrying Democrats to Oklahoma. The panel also rebuked him for improperly pressuring a fellow Republican to vote for the Republicans' Medicare prescription drug benefit and for creating the appearance that Westar Energy Inc. received special consideration in exchange for campaign donations. The Texas redistricting fight is seen by some as a crowning political achievement, but also his undoing. Travis County's Democratic prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, secured an indictment on charges that DeLay solicited business contributions, then laundered them through Washington and into the campaign coffers of Republican state legislative candidates. Texas law forbids business donations to State House campaigns. The indictment cost DeLay his leadership post, but the redistricted map may have cost him his seat. DeLay gave up some Republican strongholds in his district to help elect new Republicans in neighboring districts, bringing his own majority down to 55 percent in the 2004 election. This election year promises to be far more difficult. © 2006 The Washington Post Company |
Quote:
Delay Withdrawing From Race http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=26187 or mine: How do you like your DeLay Toast? http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=26186 Let's keep all 3 going, until people get really pissed and we get in trouble. I've never had a strike!!! :D |
TIME Article:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...179853,00.html Exclusive: Tom DeLay Says He Will Give Up His Seat The embattled former Republican leader tells TIME that he will leave Congress and not seek reelection By MIKE ALLEN/SUGAR LAND, TEXAS Posted Monday, Apr. 03, 2006 Rep. Tom DeLay, whose iron hold on the House Republicans melted as a lobbying corruption scandal engulfed the Capitol, told TIME that he will not seek reelection and will leave Congress within months. Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government. "I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress," DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. "I'm very much at peace with it." He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. "This had become a referendum on me," he said. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district." DeLay's fall has been stunningly swift, one of the most brutal and decisive in American history. He had to give up his title of Majority Leader, the No. 2 spot in the House Republican leadership, in September when a Texas grand jury indicted him on charges of trying to evade the state's election law. So he moved out of his palatial suite in the Capitol, where he once brandished a "No Whining" mug during feisty weekly sessions with reporters, and moved across the street to the Cannon House Office Building, home of many freshmen. The surprise decision was based on the sort of ruthless calculation that had once given him unchallenged dominance of House Republicans and their wealthy friends in Washington's lobbying community: he realized he might lose in this November's election. DeLay got a scare in a Republican primary last month, and a recent poll taken by his campaign gave him a roughly 50-50 shot of winning, in an election season when Republicans need every seat they can hang onto to avoid a Democratic takeover of the House. "I'm a realist. I've been around awhile. I can evaluate political situations," DeLay told TIME at his kitchen table in Sugar Land, a former sugar plantation in suburban Houston. Bluebonnets are blooming along the highways. "I feel that I could have won the race. I just felt like I didn't want to risk the seat and that I can do more on the outside of the House than I can on the inside right now. I want to continue to fight for the conservative cause. I want to continue to work for a Republican majority." Asked if he had done anything illegal or immoral in public office, DeLay replied curtly, "No." Asked if he'd done anything immoral, he said with a laugh, "We're all sinners." Asked what he would do differently, he said, "Nothing." He denied having failed to adequately supervise members of his staff, even though two of his former aides have pleaded guilty to committing crimes while on his staff. "Two people violated my trust over 21 years," he said. "I guarantee you if other offices were under the scrutiny I've been under in the last 10 years, with the Democrat Party announcing that they're going to destroy me, destroy my reputation, and that's how they're going to get rid of me, I guarantee you you're going to find, out of hundreds of people, somebody that's probably done something wrong." DeLay brushed off the torrent of investigative news articles questioning the funding behind the golf, private planes and resort hotels that marked his travel at home and abroad. He even accepted a plane from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco to go to his arraignment. "There's nothing wrong with it," he said. "They had a plane available. My schedule was such that I couldn't do it commercially — that I had to get up there and then get back and do my job. And that's the only plane that was available at the time." "You can't prove to me one thing that I have done for my own personal gain," he added. "Yes, I play golf. I'm very proud of the fact that I play golf. It's the only thing that I do for myself. And when you go to a country and you're there for seven days and you take an afternoon off to play golf, what does the national media write? All about the golf, not about the meeting that went to. I'm not ashamed of anything I've done. I've never done anything in my political career for my own personal gain. You can look at my bank account and my house to understand that." "I don't care what history writes, " he continued. "What I care about, what's important to me is who I am, what I've done and what I can accomplish in the future. What I care about it what I believe in and how I conduct myself in fighting for what I believe in." Appearing relaxed despite three cups of coffee, DeLay played with his petite dogs and led a leisurely tour of his home. Upstairs, he offered a frame-by-frame description of the photos reflecting his past political clout, such as a private session on the Truman Balcony with the President and First Lady Laura Bush. The first frame marks the beginning of his arc from pest-control entrepreneur to a feared and ingenious power broker. It's the front page from a local paper, the Herald-Coaster, from 1978, proclaiming, "DeLay Is House Winner." That was the Texas House; voters sent him to Washington six years later, starting him on a 21-year congressional career. During the tour, he gave an indication of his early deftness at the political game when he showed off a picture of his wife, Christine, and their daughter, Danielle, with President Ronald Reagan. "I had to withhold my vote," he said, "to get my daughter's picture with Ronald Reagan as a freshman." His wife, a formidable daily force in his office with a voice in nearly all scheduling and media decisions, pointed to a photo of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and noted, "That's when we thought she was going to be conservative." Putting the best face on the poll taken by his campaign, DeLay said it gave him "a little bit better than a 50/50 chance of winning reelection." Asked if that didn't mean that he could lose, he replied, "Could have. There's no reason to risk a seat. This is a very strong Republican district. It's obvious to me that anybody but me running here will overwhelmingly win the seat." DeLay said he is likely to leave by the end of May, depending on the Congressional schedule and finishing his work on a couple of issues. He said he will change his legal residence to his condominium in Alexandria, Va., from his modest two-story home on a golf course here in the 22nd District of Texas. "I become ineligible to run for election if I'm not a resident of the state of Texas," he said, turning election law to his purposes for perhaps on last time. State Republican officials will then be able to name another Republican candidate to face Democrat Nick Lampson, a former House members who lost his seat in a redistricting engineered by DeLay. Lampson has made a major issue of the lobbying scandal, and his campaign home page has a petition headed, "Tell Tom DeLay to Return the Dirty Money!," referring to contributions from he and his political action committees have received from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a one-time DeLay ally who pleaded guilty in January to three felonies, including conspiring to defraud clients and bribe public officials. DeLay's decision means that he no longer has to fear any further sanctions from the House ethics committee, which admonished him three times in 1994 for official conduct deemed inappropriate by members, but has been paralyzed for more than a year and has taken no action in the more recent scandal. Sources close to DeLay said he remains under investigation by the Justice Department prosecutors, who now have Abramoff's cooperation, but the lawmaker said he has nothing to fear from the feds. "I paid lawyers to investigate me as if they were prosecuting me," he said. "They found nothing. There is absolutely nothing — no connection with Jack Abramoff that is illegal, dishonest, unethical or against the House rules." Richard Cullen, a former U.S. attorney who is DeLay's Washington lawyer, told TIME that in December, the lawmaker's legal team turned over to the Justice Department about 1,000 e-mails from his office computers. "This was to show we had nothing to hide," Cullen said. "They were everything we felt related to the Abramoff investigation. None are from DeLay. They're from staffers, showing their give and take with Abramoff. There was nothing that I said to myself or DeLay, wow, this is really bad for him. Prosecutors are looking to see whether anyone on the government payroll, whether a congressman or a staffer, performed official acts in return for a bribe or gratuity." A Texas district attorney, Ronnie Earle of Travis County, indicted DeLay last year on money-laundering charges for transactions involving Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), a political action committee DeLay founded. Earle is a Democrat and DeLay has attacked the charges as "a political hit job." He says he did not personally carry out the transactions and that, in any case, they are standard practice for parties around the country. Regardless, DeLay was forced to vacate his post as majority leader because of a House Republican rule (known as "the DeLay rule," because it was enacted amid concern about his legal situation) that requires a leader under indictment to step down. DeLay, a Baptist born in the border city of Laredo, said he "spent a lot of time" praying about his decision and that his personal relationship with Jesus drives his day-to-day actions. "My faith is who I am," he said. When DeLay was booked on the Texas charges, he wore his Congressional I.D. pin and flashed a broad smile designed to thwart Democrats who had hoped to make wide use of an image of a glowering DeLay. "I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture," he said. "My prayer was basically: 'Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile.' Now, when they took the shot, from my side, I thought it was fakiest smile I'd ever given. But through the camera, it was glowing. I mean, it had the right impact. Poor old left couldn't use it at all." Recently, he said, he has been hearing from many people who want his help on projects outside Congress. He said his decision was cemented by the thunderous response at a conference in Washington last Wednesday decrying the "War on Christianity." "You talk to a lot of people, give a lot of people opportunities to give you message," DeLay said. "If it's the wrong decision, doors don't open — they're closed to you, and you don't feel good about it, and you have doubts. Doors are opening already." He said he has no plans to write a book. "I'm not a very good writer, " he said. In what must be a relief to his many lawyers, he said he has not kept a diary. |
Personally I think my Washington Post article is MUUUUUUUUUUCH BETTAH
washingtonpost.com NEWS | OPINIONS | SPORTS | ARTS & LIVING | Discussions | Photos & Video | City Guide | CLASSIFIEDS | JOBS | CARS | REAL ESTATE ad_icon Rep. DeLay Won't Seek Reelection By Jonathan Weisman and Chris Cillizza Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, April 3, 2006; 11:06 PM Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the House Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, told House allies tonight that he will resign from the House rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable. The decision came just three days after his former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities, but by placing the influence-buying efforts of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff directly in DeLay's operation, the former aide may have made an already difficult reelection bid all but out of reach. DeLay, who turns 59 this Saturday, did not say precisely when he would step down, but under Texas law, he must either die, be convicted of a felony, or move out of his district to be removed from the November ballot. DeLay told Time magazine that he is likely to change his official residence to Alexandria, Va., by the end of May. He said he informed President Bush of his decision this afternoon. "This had become a referendum on me," he told Time in an article posted on the magazine's Web site. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district." "I'm a realist. I've been around awhile," he added. "I can evaluate political situations." Asked if he had done anything illegal or immoral in public office, DeLay replied: "No." Former aides and sources close to DeLay said his decision was not motivated by Rudy's guilty plea, but by DeLay's concerns that he might lose his suburban Houston seat to his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Nick Lampson, and his belief that another Republican would win. DeLay's reelection race was expected to be one of the most expensive House campaigns in history and a drain on GOP coffers. Once DeLay steps aside, the Texas Republican Party will choose a replacement candidate. Senior House Republicans have been saying for several weeks that DeLay would make his decision based on what was best for the Republican Party. Indeed, Democratic House campaign officials have been hoping that in November their candidate would face DeLay, whom they believe could be the weakest Republican candidate they could hope for. DeLay got a temporary political boost last month when he fended off three challengers to win a Republican primary with 62 percent of the vote. But recent polls showed an uphill climb against Lampson and another former congressman, Steve Stockman, who had cut his ties to the Republican Party to run as an independent. In early January, a Houston Chronicle poll showed DeLay trailing Lampson 30 percent to 22 percent, with Stockman taking 11 percent. A December poll by CNN, USA Today and Gallup also indicated that a credible Democrat could beat DeLay. DeLay's decision capped a long, difficult slide from power that began in September, when a Texas grand jury indicted him on money-laundering and illegal campaign finance charges. Under House Republican rules, DeLay had no choice but to relinquish is post as House majority leader, but he vowed to beat the charges and quickly return to power. In the ensuing months, the separate federal corruption probe stemming from Abramoff's activities drew closer to DeLay, first eliciting a guilty plea from DeLay's former press secretary, Michael Scanlon, then from Abramoff, whom DeLay once described as "one of my closest and dearest friends." Some House Republicans publicly stated DeLay could not be allowed to return to the House leadership if his implication in the Abramoff scandal appeared inevitable. In January, DeLay bowed to pressure from fellow Republicans and abandoned his quest to regain the majority leader's post. At that time, however, he pledged to seek reelection, and he quickly snared a coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee. His renunciation of the leader's post touched off a scramble among Republicans eager to move past the DeLay era. A month later, Rep John Boehner (R-Ohio) upset DeLay's protege, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), to win the highest position in the Republican conference, effectively ending the DeLay era of leadership that stretched back to Dec. 6, 1994, and the Republican Revolution. When Republicans swept to power that year, DeLay capitalized on his fundraising prowess in a successful race for majority whip against Rep. Robert S. Walker (R-Pa.). A former pest exterminator, DeLay had already been in Congress since 1985, and his fundraising largesse, especially with the huge freshman class of 1994, helped him overtake Walker, who was Rep. Newt Gingrich's best friend. DeLay became arguably the most effective whip in modern House history. He corralled Republicans into a lock-step discipline that blocked much of former President Bill Clinton's agenda in the 1990s, engineered the impeachment of Clinton -- the first time a sitting president had been impeached in over 100 years -- and later turned the House into President Bush's firewall against Senate Republican dissent. Beyond those legislative accomplishments, DeLay worked to turn Washington's lobbying and business community into a bulwark of Republican support, dispensing legislative favors to those who played along. He was admonished by the House Ethics Committee in 1999 for retaliating against a trade association that hired a Democrat. But his take-no-prisoners style did not begin to undermine his authority until 2002, when in an unprecedented power play, he jumped into Texas state politics to help secure a Republican majority in the state legislature, then personally pushed a redistricting plan to secure six additional House seats for his GOP majority. During the redistricting fight, Texas Democrats fled the state, in an ultimately futile effort to deny Republicans the quorum needed for a final vote. In 2004, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct rebuked DeLay for asking federal aviation officials to track a plane ferrying Democrats to Oklahoma. The panel also rebuked him for improperly pressuring a fellow Republican to vote for the Republicans' Medicare prescription drug benefit and for creating the appearance that Westar Energy Inc. received special consideration in exchange for campaign donations. The Texas redistricting fight is seen by some as a crowning political achievement, but also his undoing. Travis County's Democratic prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, secured an indictment on charges that DeLay solicited business contributions, then laundered them through Washington and into the campaign coffers of Republican state legislative candidates. Texas law forbids business donations to State House campaigns. The indictment cost DeLay his leadership post, but the redistricted map may have cost him his seat. DeLay gave up some Republican strongholds in his district to help elect new Republicans in neighboring districts, bringing his own majority down to 55 percent in the 2004 election. This election year promises to be far more difficult. © 2006 The Washington Post Company |
Quote:
so, youse guys have to split yer winnings 3 ways! :wavey: |
Okayyyyyy, I did what you asked compadre! Ive lengthened your posts considerably! I HOPE you'll return the favor! :laugh:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
There ya go! I can't keep this up much more - I'm getting dizzy. :lol: |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
OMG! that would be priceless! and Rove can be the Grimace! (how DO you spell that?) edit: I checked, I guess its right but it looks funny! |
Ah shucks...
another crook not runnin' for re-election...Darn, ruins my whole evening :thumbsup:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Did you do the thread consolidation? I hope it was automated, otherwise I'm sure it wasn't very fun. And did people complain? :D Terry's and my twin threads had me giggling, but when Mary added hers a few minutes later I busted out into uncontrollable laughter. Good news travels fast... :laugh: |
I hope a democrat wins his district, Now that would REALLY piss him off!:laugh:
|
MY thread is obviously the CLASSIER version LOL! Im the SOLE SURVIVOR!
btw: DeLay really IS stepping down. he's finished. kaput. a cypher. a has been. a popped pimple. a spent wad. (oops, maybe going a little far there!) :eek: |
Quote:
|
Quote:
Oh yeah, did you hear he also said he didn't want to put his constituents through having the Michael Moore's and Barbara Streisands come down to his state to harrass them? He's a power tool. |
Quote:
|
good riddance to a f**king scumbag.
|
Quote:
(whats that you say?) TOM DE LAY! Ding Dong that horse's ASS is dead! Hi Ho the merry-O! sing it high sing it low Ding Dong That smelly fart is dead....... :eek: :shocked: :thumbsup: :laugh: :blob1: :blob2: |
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:09 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2026, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
© 1995-2003 Martin and Lisa Adelson, All Rights Reserved