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Scott in Florida

"Scott in Florida" <JustAskl@verizon.net> wrote in message
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> Scott in Florida


Guardian
FBI raids pro-Republicans
Duncan Campbell
March 25, 2002

The target of an anti-terrorist raid in the United States last week provided
funds for an Islamic group with close ties to the Republican party and the
White House. The Safa trust, a Saudi-backed charity, has provided funds for
a political group called the Islamic Institute, which was set up to mobilise
support for the Republican party. It shares an office in Washington with the
Republican activist Grover Norquist.

The institute, founded in 1999 to win influence in the Republican party, has
helped to arrange meetings between senior Bush officials and Islamic
leaders, according to the report in Newsweek magazine. Its s chairman,
Khaled Saffuri, and Mr Norquist cooperated to arrange the meetings.

The trust gave $20,000 (£14,000) to the institute, which also received
$20,000 from a board member of the Success Foundation, according to the
report. The institute has also received money from abroad, including$200,000
from Qatar and $55,000 from Kuwait. The institute says that none of the
money came with strings attached.

Mr Norquist, who is a member of the institute's board, said that it existed
"to promote democracy and free markets. Any effort to imply guilt by
association is incompetent McCarthyism". ...
-----------------
ALL OF THIS devolves back to mysterious Sheik al-Hussayen, the "epileptic"
holy man and his room at the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia on
December 10, 2001 ... and those three hijackers down the hall. Some would
find this certain evidence of Saudi sponsorship of the 911 air assaults, and
have (National Review and David Horowitz).

October 10, 1998
Lawmaker Broke Rules, Ethics Panel Says
The House ethics committee said today that Representative Jay C. Kim,
Republican of California, violated Federal campaign law and House rules when
he accepted illegal contributions and improper gifts.

The committee did not recommend any punishment because Mr. Kim, who lost his
primary election, is leaving Congress.

The panel found six violations, four of them related to Mr. Kim's 1997
guilty plea to receiving illegal campaign contributions, and two additional
violations of House gift rules and outside income limits.

According to the panel, Mr. Kim received $30,000 from an employee of Hanbo
Steel and General Construction, a South Korean company, as well as $3,640
worth of travel expenses and golf equipment from the company.

He also received $30,000 in gifts from other sources, which were used to
reimburse the Treasury for outside income that exceeded Congressional
limits, the committee found.

Mr. Kim has denied any wrongdoing except for the matters to which he pleaded
guilty.

March 11, 1998
Lawmaker Votes in Congress After Conviction for a Crime
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Representative Jay C. Kim, the California Republican sentenced on Monday for
accepting illegal campaign contributions, walked onto the House floor today
and, to the surprise of his colleagues, cast his first vote as a man
convicted of a Federal crime.

In a few days time, Mr. Kim will surprise them again. He is expected to
become the first member of Congress to wander the chamber wearing a
court-ordered electronic monitoring bracelet.

''It's a very strange situation,'' said Representative Martin Frost, the
Texas Democrat who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

On Monday in California, Mr. Kim was sentenced to one year of probation, a
$5,000 fine and two months of electronic monitoring in what prosecutors
called the largest case of campaign finance violations in United States
history. Last year, the Congressman pleaded guilty to accepting $250,000 in
illegal contributions, a misdemeanor.

In general, House members convicted of crimes can remain in Congress, but
those convicted of felonies cannot vote.

Judge Richard A. Paez of Federal District Court ordered Mr. Kim to wear an
electronic monitoring device for 60 days. Mr. Kim did not have to wear the
device today because the details of his sentence were still being sorted
out, said his press secretary, P. J. O'Neil.

''I am truly sorry for my mistakes,'' Mr. Kim said in a written statement
read to reporters after his sentencing Monday. ''All I can ask is
forgiveness.''

Swinging back into action one day later, the Congressman returned to Capitol
Hill today, refusing to spoil his voting record by missing a single House
vote. Mr. O'Neil said Mr. Kim would complete his term and then run for a
fourth term in November, a decision that delights Democrats and irks
Republicans, who believe their party may wind up losing the seat.

''He will be able to go between Washington and the district as he would
normally,'' Mr. Neil said of his boss, ''and he would be able to run a
campaign This has not slowed that down a bit.''

But Mr. Kim's political future in Congress -- at least this term -- is not
entirely up to him. The House ethics committee is investigating Mr. Kim and
could recommend a reprimand, censure, expulsion or nothing at all, once its
inquiry is complete. The full House would have to approve the committee's
report, with expulsion requiring a two-thirds vote.

MZM employee indicted for illegal campaign contribution

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer

Prosecutors have charged a former employee of a defense firm tied to
convicted former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham with making illegal
campaign contributions to another member of Congress, a spokesman for the
U.S. attorney's office in Washington said Friday.

Prosecutors allege that during the 2005-06 election cycle, Richard A.
Berglund helped his boss Mitchell Wade ---- founder of the now-defunct
defense firm MZM, Inc. ---- channel $8,000 in illegal contributions to the
campaign of a candidate identified in the documents only as "Representative
A."

Asked to confirm whether the candidate was U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode,
Washington U.S. attorneys office spokesman Channing Phillips said Friday he
could not name anyone unless that person had been indicted.

But Goode spokesman Linwood Duncan confirmed the Virginia Republican is the
representative identified as having received the contributions. They are
alleged to have been so-called "straw donations," in which a campaign
contributor uses another person to hide the origin of the money he or she is
giving to a candidate.

"I did not know that the donations from Mr. Berglund and his wife were straw
donations," Goode said in a statement issued through Duncan. "Mr. Wade
stated in his agreement with the U.S. attorney that he did not inform me
that the contributions were straw contributions."

According to published newspaper reports in Virginia, Goode, who sits on the
powerful House Appropriations Committee, was instrumental in obtaining
government funding to bring MZM's "Foreign Supplier Assessment Center" to
Martinsville, Va., which is in his district.

In February, Wade pleaded guilty in federal court to bribing Cunningham with
more than $1 million and committing election fraud in a scheme to enrich
himself and his company.

Wade, whose company received tens of millions of dollars in defense
contracts between 2000 and 2005, is awaiting sentencing and faces up to 11
years in prison.

In early March, Cunningham, the former North County Republican lawmaker, was
sentenced to more than eight years behind bars and now sits in a federal
prison in Butner, N.C.

Wade also pleaded guilty to one count of election fraud after steering tens
of thousands in illegally raised campaign contributions to Goode and U.S.
Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Florida.

At the time of the guilty pleas, the prosecutor said neither Goode nor
Harris knew the money was tainted, but both were working on projects Wade
was seeking for his company.

U.S. Attorney Ken Wainstein in Washington said at the time that Wade
targeted Goode and Harris, because "he believed they had the ability to
request appropriations funding that would benefit MZM."

According to the court document, in early 2005, Wade met with Berglund and
gave cash to him and asked him to use it to fund contributions to
"Representative A's campaign," in the name of Berglund, Berglund's wife and
two other unnamed MZM employees.

After news of the investigation into Wade surfaced last year, Goode donated
the nearly $90,000 in contributions received from Wade, MZM or its employees
to charities in his district.

Goode has not been interviewed by law enforcement officials or prosecutors,
his spokesman said.

Keith Ashdown of the nonprofit government watchdog group Taxpayers for
Common Sense said this latest indictment related to Cunningham "shows the
prosecution is serious about getting to the bottom of this."

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426 or
wbennett@nctimes.com.

Police say trash hauler's campaign contributions were illegal



A Danbury businessman indicted last year in a federal probe of mob influence
in the trash industry is facing new state charges of making illegal campaign
contributions. A lawyer for James Galante says his client intends to turn
himself in at the Bethany state police barracks today to face six counts of
illegal campaign contributions, according to The Associated Press. Attorney
Hugh Keefe says Galante is accused of contributing about $38,000 to three
political action committees in 2002 through straw donors. Keefe says the
PACs have not been identified, and he declined to say who the alleged
contributions were for. Galante was at the center of a scandal involving
state Senator Louis DeLuca, R-Woodbury. DeLuca was convicted of a
misdemeanor in June after he admitted asking Galante to threaten a man he
believed was abusing his granddaughter. The threat was never carried out,
and DeLuca avoided jail time.

Galante/Boughton illegal campaign contribution drumbeat continues
This story isn't going away.

Yesterday's roundtable discussion on Beyond the Headlines centered on the
growing Galante illegal contribution political scandal.

With Joe Lieberman being the latest in an ever-growing list of
elected-officials caught in the politician-organized crime connection, it's
becoming more and more clear that the press is particularly interested in
the last honest man's involvement with Galante.

As I stated several times before, Boughton's LIES excuses about the
contributions aren't passing the smell test...it's only a matter of time.

http://hatcityblog.blogspot.com/2007...-campaign.html

Cannon Under Gun For Appeals to Hispanics
Sunday , June 20, 2004

By Sharon Kehnemui


WASHINGTON - As voters gear up for the Utah Republican primary on Tuesday,
four-term Rep. Chris Cannon (search) is fighting off charges that he is in
violation of campaign finance laws (search) after making an appeal to
illegal immigrants for campaign donations.

Cannon, sponsor of the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security
Act of 2003 (search), which gives long-time illegal immigrants employed in
the U.S. agriculture industry the chance to qualify for work visas, appeared
on Salt Lake City Spanish-language radio station KBJA last month with a
part-time congressional aide.

During the 90-minute interview, which was conducted entirely in Spanish,
Cannon's aide, Marco Diaz, urged illegal immigrants and those under
18-years-old to send in donations to Cannon's campaign.

"Really, if you are undocumented you must find, we welcome this money, but
you have to find someone who is legal in order to donate money," Diaz told
listeners, according to a translation of the broadcast.

A bit later in the interview, Cannon, a proficient Spanish speaker, said
minor children of citizens can donate, leading Diaz to exclaim: "Very good!
I hadn't thought of that! But if your child is a citizen, you can donate in
the name of your child. The only thing that you need is, is to be a citizen.
Many of you, perhaps, have children who are citizens."

Despite the advice, the suggestions by Cannon and Diaz violate three federal
campaign laws: children under 18 are prohibited from donating; foreign
nationals, which illegal aliens are by definition, are prohibited from
donating; and individuals are prohibited from donating cash in another
person's name.

"He is my representative and I expect him to be honest, and if he does not
do so, I am going to hold his feet to the fire," Russell Sias, a Provo
resident and Republican precinct captain, told Foxnews.com. Sias filed a
complaint to the Federal Election Commission (search) on Monday, asking it
to investigate what he says are blatant violations.

But Cannon spokesman Joe Hunter said that during the interview, Cannon
quickly corrected the record on who is legal to donate.

"The folks who shopped this transcript and tape around ... have been after
us for months," said Hunter, who described how a coalition of
anti-immigration groups have posted billboards, run ads and sent around
e-mails in an effort to oust Cannon, mainly over the legislation giving
illegals a chance to come clean.

"There is a vocal minority who is concerned about [the bill]. Once people
understand what it does - as opposed to being told what it does by others -
it's well received," Hunter said, adding that in two or three polls taken on
the topic, "a majority of folks, a majority of Republicans, agree with what
the bill tries to do."

Sias made clear that he opposes the legislation, saying that he doesn't
agree with what he described as an outright amnesty for illegals.

"My grandson in Montana could not come here to the University of Utah
without paying non-resident fees... unless I could prove he's the child of
an illegal alien," Sias said. "I have a responsibility to obey the law, and
in Cannon's case, I am just sick and tired of his misrepresentations. He
apparently doesn't have a dictionary. He certainly doesn't know the meaning
of the word 'amnesty.'"

Wanda Carrasquillo, a professor at Western Governors University and former
colleague of Diaz's in the Utah Republican Hispanic Assembly, said she too
is dissatisfied with Cannon's approach to handling immigration concerns.

"His position is to fix laws, but the way he has approached it ... he has
not taken into consideration protecting our borders," she said, adding that
the law disproportionately favors Mexican illegals and is an attempt to
favor one particular group.

Hunter said the law doesn't identify the country of origin for agriculture
workers, but acknowledged that many Mexicans will benefit as a result of
their being in the agriculture trade. He added that the bill is not an
amnesty, it just gives illegals a chance to do things the right way.

"By virtue of statistics," Mexicans may benefit in larger numbers, he said,
but the argument in the bill would apply to agricultural workers wherever
they're from.

"It allows them, in essence, to get in the legal line without having to, as
the congressman says, 'make the walk of shame,'" he said.

The FEC does not comment on the status of complaints until they are
dispatched, but Craig Holman of Public Citizen (search), a non-profit
advocacy group and campaign finance watchdog, said Cannon did violate the
rules.

"It's quite obvious that a violation of federal law was made... while Chris
Cannon was on the radio show," Holman said, pointing out that Cannon never
directly asked for money, but is nonetheless culpable as his sat there and
listened to his aide solicit donations.

But, Holman said, Public Citizen declined to file a complaint with the FEC
because he thought the tape demonstrated that there really wasn't a
concerted effort to violate federal election finance law.

"The violation is not sufficiently egregious to warrant the time and effort
of Public Citizen to file a complaint," Holman said, calling Cannon's role
more one of carelessness and poor judgment. "If he were to do it twice, I
would not hesitate."

Hunter said Cannon's quick correction, as recollected by the representative,
his wife and three or four other people there at the time, shows that he was
not trying to break the law. He also defended Diaz's gregariousness as more
a side effect of overzealousness than any sinister plan to enlist the help
of an illegal Hispanic community. Hunter said neither he nor the radio
station had a taped copy of the interview to point to the corrections he
made.

Sias, who describes himself as "99 and 9/10 pure anti-Cannon" said he heard
about the Spanish-language interview through word-of-mouth. He declined to
comment on whether he had a complete tape of the conversation that would
prove whether Cannon tried to correct himself.

"I am perfectly happy to let him climb out on the limb a little further
before I cut it off, and I am happy to cut it off," he said. "Rep. Cannon is
going to be held accountable for his actions."

Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Feds: No politics in Fieger case
GOP supporters have also been charged with illegal campaign
contributions, Justice Department says.
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
A GOP fundraiser in Ohio was sentenced to 27 months in prison last
year for illegally funneling $45,400 to the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Tom Noe pleaded guilty to conspiracy, making illegal campaign
contributions and causing false statements -- three of the four charges
Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger was charged with in an indictment
unsealed Friday.

Like Fieger, Noe was accused of reimbursing "straw donors" who
disguised the fact Noe was the actual source of donations to the Bush-Cheney
campaign. Fieger asserts he is being singled out and the case is politically
motivated, but the U.S. Justice Department on Monday released what it said
is a partial list of 29 federal criminal cases resulting in convictions for
similar "conduit" campaign contribution cases dating to 1990.

"Obviously, they've prosecuted Republicans on this," said Richard
Walinski of Toledo, one of Noe's lawyers.

The charge that his prosecution is politically motivated is expected
to form a central plank in a motion for dismissal Fieger and his lawyers
have said they plan to file in U.S. District Court today.

The court documents associated with those 29 convictions don't state
whether the politicians who received the illegal contributions were
Democrats or Republicans. But of the six listed convictions from 2006, at
least one other in addition to Noe's case involved illegal contributions to
a Republican.

Mitchell Wade, the former president of MZM Corp., pleaded guilty in
the District of Columbia to using his employees as straw donors to make
$46,000 in illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr.,
R-Va.

Fieger, 56, of Bloomfield Hills and his law partner, Ven Johnson, 45,
of Birmingham are charged with conspiring to make about $127,000 in illegal
contributions to the 2004 presidential campaign of Democrat John Edwards by
using employees, employee spouses and children, and vendors as straw donors
who were reimbursed. Fieger and Johnson are also charged with making illegal
campaign contributions and causing false statements. Fieger alone is charged
with obstruction of justice.

Fieger alleged in an interview with The Detroit News on Monday there
was a link between his indictment Friday and the Monday resignation of U.S.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

A spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department dismissed Fieger's
allegation as "absolutely ridiculous."

"I don't think there's any question there's a relationship," Fieger
said. "They were frantic about getting the indictment out on Friday. They
gave us about five minutes' notice.

"I knew something was up, but I didn't know what. Now it all makes
sense."

Fieger said the reason Gonzales resigned is "he's been caught engaging
in lying to Congress," but the link to his own indictment is "he couldn't
leave office until he knew it was done."

But Brian Sierra, a spokesman for the Justice Department in
Washington, D.C., said the indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury
on Tuesday, was kept sealed until Friday to await the completion of a civil
case that Fieger was trying all last week before U.S. District Judge Paul D.
Borman.

"Our goal is to not interfere with other cases," Sierra said.

"It's completely absurd to suggest or to think or to believe in any
way, shape or form that today's announcement from the attorney general had
anything even remotely to do with Geoffrey Fieger," Sierra said.

Borman will now also handle Fieger's criminal case after U.S. District
Judge Sean Cox, who was assigned the case Friday by random draw, recused
himself Monday.

Cox, who did not give a reason, is the brother of Michigan Attorney
General Mike Cox, who has clashed publicly with Fieger.

The Michigan attorney general held a news conference last year at
which he confessed infidelity to his wife and accused Fieger of trying to
use knowledge of the affair to blackmail him into ending a criminal
investigation of Fieger.

Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute
in Washington, D.C., said cases such as Fieger's and Noe's are relatively
rare, mainly because the conduct required to make up the offense does not
happen very often.

"It's illegal to reimburse people for their contributions; that's
pretty straightforward law," Malbin said.

Allowing individuals to contribute unlimited amounts directly to
candidates would create the appearance of or indicate a conflict of
interest, he said.

Fieger is to appear at a news conference this morning with two
nationally prominent attorneys who are helping to defend him, Gerry Spence
of Wyoming and Alan Dershowitz, a criminal law professor at Harvard Law
School.

Fieger, who has maintained Gonzales personally approved a search of
Fieger's Southfield law offices in November 2005, questioned whether the
Justice Department would now proceed with his case. With Gonzales gone, the
case should go away, said Fieger, adding he did not know if that would
happen.

You can reach Paul Egan at (313) 222-2069 or pegan@detnews.com.

February 19, 2004
Illegal Corporate Money Used to Fund Texas GOP in 2002
By Byron LaMasters
Charles Kuffner has done a great job keeping up with the investigation of
Tom DeLay on this matter, here and here. Today's Dallas Morning News has
more evidence of how Tom DeLay and groups associated with the Texas
Republican Party illegally took money from corporations to fund their
campaigns:

A political committee connected to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay
sent $190,000 in what internal memos say were corporate donations to the
Republican National Committee, which then doled out the same amount to seven
candidates in Texas House races.

It is illegal in Texas to use corporate money in political races, and some
open-government advocates suggest the transaction smells of a
money-laundering exercise.

The $190,000 in donations came in the last crucial month of the November
2002 election campaign, in which Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC)
had targeted 20 House races. Victory in 15 of those races led to a GOP
majority and the first Republican House speaker since the 1800s.

After the Republicans took control of the Texas House in the 2002
elections, Rep. Tom Craddick of Midland was elected speaker. He helped Mr.
DeLay achieve the goal of redrawing the Texas congressional map to favor
Republicans.

The Travis County district attorney's office acknowledged Wednesday that
it was looking into the transaction between TRMPAC and the RNC as part of an
investigation into corporate fund raising by the political committee created
by Mr. DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

Officials of both TRMPAC and the RNC denied any wrongdoing, saying that
their dealings were legal and that the contributions were coincidental.

In e-mails obtained by The Dallas Morning News, officials with TRMPAC in
September 2002 discussed using corporate funds, which they referred to as
"soft money," to send a check to the national party.

According to the e-mails, the check was written by Jim Ellis, who works
for Mr. DeLay as director of Americans for a Republican Majority and also
shares some responsibilities with the PAC's little sister, Texans for a
Republican Majority.

Mr. Ellis did not return phone calls.

The $190,000 check to the RNC is reflected in September 2002 federal
disclosure records submitted by TRMPAC.

Within the next three weeks, according to federal and state disclosure
records, the RNC sent seven checks to Republican House candidates totaling
$190,000.

Jim Dyke, a spokesman for the RNC, said the $190,000 that went out from
the RNC a short time later was unrelated and that the national committee
does not make any deals about how donations will be used.

"We don't allow people to earmark their contributions, and so, while the
coincidence is there, the fact of the matter is that you can't tell us how
to spend the money," Mr. Dyke said.

TRMPAC raised more than $600,000 in corporate contributions, which it has
said was used for administrative overhead and not for political purposes, as
mandated by law.

A citizen's complaint filed by Texans for Public Justice with the Travis
County district attorney last year questions hundreds of thousands of
dollars in TRMPAC expenditures - including polling and political
consultants - and whether those services can legally be classified as
nonpolitical administrative costs.

Another $650,000 raised by TRMPAC from individuals was used for direct and
in-kind contributions to the key House races.

The $190,000 transaction "is something we've been aware of since we've
been conducting this investigation," said Gregg Cox, chief prosecutor of the
district attorney's Public Integrity Unit. "Everything related to TRMPAC's
raising of and use of corporate dollars is part of our investigation."

Fred Lewis, director of the citizens interest group Campaigns for People,
said he questions why a Texas-based group trying to elect state legislators
would suddenly send $190,000 to Washington, unless it knew it couldn't
donate it to races itself.

"I think there are circumstantial indications that they laundered money,"
Mr. Lewis said. "I think the $190,000 is very suspicious and deserves all
the scrutiny it can get."

[...]

The district attorney's office also is conducting a separate investigation
into corporate contributions used by the Texas Association of Business,
which spent $1.9 million on the same key legislative races in favor of the
Republican candidates.

The TAB money was used to produce and mail brochures that attacked the
Democratic candidates as anti-education and anti-business.

TAB officials have argued that the money was not a political contribution
to aid a particular candidate but was for issue ads for which anonymous
corporate donations can be used legally.



It's pretty clear that Republicans will do anything to win, be it not count
votes or break the law. At least Travis County has a good Democratic DA to
investigate this stuff.

Update: Today's Austin American Statesman has called for a full explaination
from Speaker Tom Craddick:



Perhaps if you stand in a sewer long enough, you get used to the smell.
When someone comes along and says it stinks, you wonder how anyone could
think such a thing.

Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, seems to smell nothing
offensive, never mind plain wrong -- maybe even illegal -- in his personal
delivery of campaign contributions totaling $152,000 from business interests
to 14 GOP candidates for the state House in the 2002 election.

Craddick wasn't just helping those interests save on postage. The 150
state representatives, not the state's voters, elect the speaker, a powerful
post that appoints committee chairmen and committee members and determines
whose legislation moves forward -- and whose doesn't. Imagine the GOP's
reaction if a Democratic candidate for speaker was handing out campaign
contributions from trial lawyer interests.

Craddick has refused comment, and his spokesman, Bob Richter, says
Craddick did nothing wrong. He says Craddick had virtually sewn up the
speaker's race by March 2002 (the speaker's election was in January 2003)
and thus didn't need any political help by delivering campaign contributions
that year from Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action
committee fed by business interests.

But Richter also said Craddick will not release the correspondence, pledge
cards and other records from his campaign for speaker that might -- or might
not -- prove that the race was over as early as he claims. He should release
the records.

[...]

As American-Statesman writer Laylan Copelin detailed in Tuesday's and
Wednesday's editions, Craddick delivered those campaign contributions on
behalf of Texans for a Republican Majority, which is under investigation by
the Travis County district attorney for possible violation of state election
laws.

The district attorney is trying to determine if the political group
illegally funneled corporate contributions to candidates. Texas law bans
corporations and unions from giving company funds to political campaigns.
(However, a company's executives can set up their own political action
committee and give money to it out of their own pockets.)

Texans for a Republican Majority denies wrongdoing. It was organized by
U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, who, when he wishes,
wields far more power in the state and the Texas GOP than either of the
state's U.S. senators or Gov. Rick Perry. The political action committee
raised about $1.5 million for the 2002 election, including $600,000 in
corporate money. DeLay accomplished his goal: With a new Republican majority
in the Texas House, the Legislature redrew the congressional district lines
in a way that may result in up to seven more Republican U.S. representatives
from Texas being elected this year.

Craddick was well within his rights to campaign for Republican House
candidates and to campaign for his own election as speaker, but his personal
delivery of political action committee checks to candidates stinks -- and he
may have broken the law. Time for him to explain, if not to the public, then
to the district attorney.



I pretty doubtful that Tom Craddick will come clean. I'll just cheer on
Ronnie Earle and his department's investigation of this garbage.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at February 19, 2004 09:58 AM