Friday, November 19, 2004
Hubris Alert
House Ethics Panel Rebukes DeLay Accuser0 comments
The balls of some people.
The House ethics committee Thursday night turned the tables on Majority Leader Tom DeLay's accuser, rebuking Rep. Chris Bell for exaggerating misconduct allegations against the GOP leader.
While the complaint by Bell, D-Texas, led to an ethics report that admonished DeLay, Bell nonetheless violated a rule barring "innuendo, speculative assertions or conclusory statements," a committee letter said.
The committee's Republican chairman and senior Democrat used the four-page letter to Bell to warn lawmakers that making exaggerated allegations of wrongdoing could result in disciplinary action against the accuser.
Bell was not disciplined. He lost in a primary earlier this year because of a DeLay-engineered redistricting plan, and will leave Congress when the session adjourns.
In the future, exaggerations and misstatements also could lead to dismissal of a complaint, said the letter from Chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo., and senior Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia. The panel they lead is formally called the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.
They can't get Bell, but they (including a Democrat) can send a chilling dictate to the entire incoming Congress:
"This is DeLay's House.
Don't Fuck with us!"
Question #1:
However can you have an "innuendo, speculative assertions or conclusory statements" infraction when your allegations result in an official admonishment of a member on the exact infractions mentioned in your charges, and when your charges aligned with an on-going criminal investigation in the member's home city???
Question #2:
Who the hell is this DeLay buttboy, Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, and when do we set up a war chest to dump him in the primary in 2006?
The letter said the most serious exaggeration was Bell's contention that DeLay violated a bribery law "by soliciting campaign contributions" from a Kansas corporation, Westar Energy, in return for legislative assistance on an energy bill.
Funny. I was just writing about DeLay and Westar today. See earlier post.
"There can hardly be a more serious charge against a public official than that he or she solicited a bribe," the committee letter said. It added that DeLay's actions "did not come even close to supporting this extremely serious claim."
The committee found in October that DeLay "created an appearance" of favoritism when he mingled at a 2003 golf outing with Westar executives just days after they contributed to a political organization associated with DeLay.
Bell's complaint also asserted:
*The majority leader "engaged in a concerted and relentless effort to use the official resources of office" for "blatantly partisan political activities."
The Hefley-Mollohan letter said this broad allegation was not supported by the facts. [Which is why there's a criminal investigation under way. I see.]
*DeLay dispensed special favors to Westar.
The committee said the Bell complaint cited no action taken by DeLay for Westar. The committee findings in the DeLay case did say that Westar was seeking help with legislation at the time of the golf outing. [Again, see earlier post.]
*DeLay was solely responsible for federal aviation authorities tracking down an airplane in an effort to locate Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state. The legislators left Texas in an effort to thwart state Republican legislators from passing DeLay's redistricting plan.
The letter said it was a misstatement to attribute actions of federal officials solely to DeLay, when the Texas Department of Public Safety also contacted federal aviation authorities. [Now, are you really going to try to tell us that the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety would simply piss away their jurisdiction over this, especially when they dragged their heels at even being forced by the Governor to get involved in this nuttiness? And that they weren't directed by DeLay himself to call Washington? Well...Good morning, Sunshine!]
*DeLay contacted the FBI in the effort to locate the Texas lawmakers.
The letter said there is no indication that DeLay called the FBI. [Yes, the letter says that. But that doesn't mean that every gossip in Washington wasn't abuzz with DeLay's yelling at everyone in town who he thought would help drag the Texas Dems back to Austin.]
These guys are mobsters, simply hiding in plain sight.
posted by Gotham 7:38 PM
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