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04/07/2005: "DeLay Forever!"

Some years ago the New York Times ran an editorial saying that the country needed to “lighten up and learn how to laugh again.” A responding Letter to the Editor was right on target. It said “a newspaper without a comics section had no business lecturing about laughter!” The Times still doesn’t have a comics section, but I’m coming to think of the front page as more than sufficing, but only on the days they run a piece on DeLay’s latest ethical shenanigans. This seems lately to be pretty much every day! Today’s was pure, unadulterated DeLay, all the way from the outrageous DeLay conduct triggering the story to humorous and increasingly colorful DeLay accusations of vendetta on part of the Liberal Media (LM) for printing it. The most recent examples of outrageous, prima facie (and in your facie) ethical lapses are: 1) his trip to Russia paid for by agents of the Russian government, and (this is REALLY good), HIS WIFE AND DAUGHTER GETTING PAID HALF A MILLION DOLLARS BY THE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE HE OVERSEES! Just for clarification, a Political Action Committee is a group of contributors who seek to make financial contributions that enable the PAC to make outlays that aid the achievement of a particular political policy result. The only political outcome that results from paying Mrs. and Miss DeLay this much is to push the DeLay household into a high earning tier. In other words, those salary payments turned contributions into bribes. If there’s a difference between a bribe and a contribution that fattens a politician’s household bank account, I sure don’t see what it could be! If it’s legal, it must mean that bribery is legal as long as you adhere to contribution limits! Maybe a helpful volunteer from the legions of right wing bloggers could clarify this for SherWright.com’s readers. The other half of the story – DeLay’s reaction – is, unbelievably enough, even MORE entertaining: “No member can be responsible for going into the bowels of researching” the non-profit group that financed the trip or “how it's funded.” Since DeLay is speaking in native Dittohead, SherWright.com helpfully offers the following translation: “I needed to go to Russia to represent the interests of the good people of Sugar Land, my congressional district, but the trip exceeded my office’s budget (given the deficit and all). Then, magically, I had my plane and hotel tickets! How can I be expected to keep up with trivial matters like WHO’S PAYING THE FREIGHT!? (emphasis added to highlight the triviality of this detail, and thus the inappropriate zeal the LM are exhibiting with their bowel-crawling). Then consider the reaction from DeLay’s office about the extra half-mill going into the DeLay coffers from his PAC: “both family members play central roles in his fundraising efforts.” To put this all in perspective, it’s like a bank robber who, when caught in the act, whines about the personal vendetta that the cops are displaying by having the effrontery to arrest him. All of this raises a very serious concern. DeLay might actually be forced out of his title as House Majority Leader. What a tragedy that would be for bloggers like yours truly! Coming up with punchy, amusing content every day of the year is hard work. DeLay makes it so much easier! So here’s an open message to Tom from SherWright.com: “Hang in there, buddy! Don’t let the vicious bowel-crawling Liberal Media grind you down! DeLay Forever!”