Sweet Charity: For years Tom DeLay has used nonprofits to help himself. Now the heat is on.
Ethics probe of DeLay sought: Democrat Bell plans to file complaint
These are warmed-over and factually deficient allegations from a bitter partisan seeking liberal martyrdom on his way out of office. This election-year kamikaze mission is doomed to fail, as have all previous attempts of this cynical and sad sort that make a mockery of the process.
- Jonathan Grella, spokesman for DeLay
I think this filing will really push the ethics committee to take a hard look at this. When no one has been willing to do this for seven years, it is not an easy thing to suddenly go and file a complaint against DeLay, who is known to be one of the most vindictive people in government.
- Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics
Republicans will no doubt attempt to spin Chris Bell's actions as sour grapes, the last, desperate act of a man who lost an election and now seeks revenge. The reality, thought, is that Tom DeLay has evolved into a politician so powerful that he is accountable to no one. It's about time that someone tried to hit him where he lives.
WASHINGTON -- In a new twist to a bitter Texas political feud, Rep. Chris Bell, a Houston Democrat, is finalizing a House ethics complaint against Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land.
Bell, a first-term congressman who lost his House seat in a redistricting battle engineered by DeLay, plans to file documents Tuesday seeking an investigation by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, said spokesman Eric Burns.
Officials who have seen a draft of the complaint say it focuses on DeLay's relationship with Westar Energy Inc. and the Texans for a Republican Majority political action committee. Also included, they said, is DeLay's effort to get federal law enforcement officials to track Texas lawmakers who fled last year to Ardmore, Okla.
I am tired of Senator McCarthy- er, Rep. DeLay- getting a free ride for actions that would (justifiably) find Democrats up on ethics charges and hoisted on the own petards. Of course, the House being under Republican control would lead one to logically assume that no Republican is going to have the cojones (or the urge to commit career suicide) to take on DeLay. To call the man vindictive would be like calling Martha Stewart a good cook.
I wish Chris Bell nothing but the best. Unfortunately, those who piss into the prevailing political winds often end up merely getting soaked and smelling badly.
