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Gold9472
04-06-2005, 07:54 PM
More Trouble For Tom DeLay

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2005

(CBS/AP)^There's fresh controversy swirling around embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The New York Times reported Wednesday that DeLay's wife and daughter have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by his political action and campaign committees.

Separately, the Washington Post reports there are questions about who paid for a 1997 trip the Texas Republican took to Russia.

The Times reports the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in Federal Election Commission disclosure forms as "fund-raising fees," "campaign management" or "payroll."

DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, defended the payments as a reflection of the key roles the women play in DeLay's political career:

"Mrs. DeLay provides big-picture, long-term strategic guidance and helps with personnel decisions. Ms. Ferro is a skilled and experienced professional event planner who assists ... in arranging and organizing individual events," the committee said in a statement.

Ferro has been manager for several of her father's re-election campaigns, the Times reports. A DeLay spokesman said the majority leader had no additional comment.

Members of Congress are allowed to employ family members to work on their campaigns and political action committees. Critics, however, say the payments to DeLay's wife and daughter are unusually large and warrant new scrutiny of the majority leader.

In recent weeks, DeLay has mounted a spirited defense against a number of ethics charges against him made by Democrats and campaign watchdog groups – including accusations that he violated House travel rules on at least two occasions.

A report in Wednesday's Washington Post raises questions about a third foreign trip – a six-day visit by DeLay to Moscow in 1997 when he was House majority whip. The Post reports the trip was sponsored by business groups lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to several people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.

House members are barred from accepting travel reimbursement from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.

DeLay reported that a non-profit group based in Washington paid for the Russia trip. But the Post cites those involved in planning the trip as saying it was bankrolled by "a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign."

Aides to DeLay told the Post he thought the nonprofit group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, was funding the trip on its own. An aide said suggestions to the contrary have only recently come to light.

"The trip was initiated by the National Center," spokesman Dan Allen said, "and they were the ones who organized it, planned it and paid for it."

While in Russia, DeLay met with Russian politicians, church leaders and businessman, as well as two Washington-based registered lobbyists. One of those lobbyists, Jack Abramoff, is now under investigation for federal influence-peddling and corruption related to his representation of Indian tribes.

The trip by DeLay and four staff members cost $57,238, according to records filed by DeLay's office.

DeLay was slapped three times by the House ethics committee last year. The panel deferred action in another area, saying it would wait until the outcome of a state investigation in Texas.

Contrary to some advice, DeLay used the recent two-week congressional break to raise his political profile.

A leader in the effort to pass legislation designed to keep alive Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman in a persistent vegetative state, he criticized the judges involved in her case in the hours following her death.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," he said, raising the prospect of impeachment. Later, he complained of "an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the president."

Few other Republicans have gone that far in criticizing an independent branch of government. "They handled it in a fair and independent way," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday of the judges in the case, although he added he had hoped for a different result.

Meanwhile, a new poll shows the controversies have taken their toll on support for DeLay in his own district.

Forty-five percent of 501 voters questioned by the Houston Chronicle last week said they would vote for someone else if a congressional election were at hand, while about 38 percent said they would re-elect DeLay.

Nearly 58 percent of those surveyed said they opposed his decision to get Congress involved in the Schiavo cae, while about 33 percent expressed support.

Simply_sexy
04-06-2005, 07:59 PM
Cut his ass already!!

lightening
04-06-2005, 10:06 PM
there's a lot of people needing to be fired in government! we can start with him if you like :)

Gold9472
04-07-2005, 12:06 PM
DeLay blasts media over report of payments to family

From Ted Barrett
CNN Washington Bureau

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 Posted: 8:17 PM EDT (0017 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay defended his family Wednesday, saying newspaper articles about his wife and daughter and about his trip to Russia were "seedy" efforts by the "liberal media" to humiliate him.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that DeLay's wife and daughter have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Texas.

The newspaper reports were the latest political controversies for DeLay. He has been admonished three times by the House Ethics Committee, and he faces possible indictment in Texas in connection with a campaign finance probe.

The Times said the payments to DeLay's wife, Christine DeLay, and his only child, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about how they earned the money.

"My wife and daughter have any right, just like any other American, to be employed and be compensated for their employment," DeLay said. "It's pretty disgusting, particularly when my wife and daughter are singled out and others are not, in similar situations in the Senate and as well as the House.

"But it's just another seedy attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me."

Separately, The Washington Post reported Wednesday that a six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by DeLay when he was majority whip was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government.

DeLay, R-Texas, said the trip was properly reported and paid for by a nonprofit group, but indicated he was unaware of the group's ties.

"No member can be responsible for going into the bowels of researching what this organization, how it gets its money or how it's funded," he said. "The rules say if it's a legitimate organization that funds the trip and it's reported, it's legal."

He said the Republican Party continues to back him. He said that at a GOP conference Wednesday morning he had "an incredible show of support. ... I know it disappoints you guys, but it's true."

"I don't see any wavering of the support for the leader. I think a lot of members think he's taking arrows for all of us," Rep. Roy Blunt, third-ranking among GOP leaders, told The Associated Press.

Since 1984, DeLay has represented counties near Houston, Texas in the House of Representatives.

Gold9472
04-07-2005, 12:09 PM
By Tom Delay speaking out like this, essentially creates a "Tie" between the newspaper that originally reported the story, and himself. Thereby cancelling out the original story... I would almost guarantee it.