One shouldn't think that Delay was to be held to account. Accountibility is NOT what Republicans are about. Certainly and never. Republicans reward the best of their criminals and smear all critics. Who is better suited to fix the Abramoff mess than Delay? That is what exterminators do, exterminate the bugs and those pesky nagging suspicions. Crawling around and underneath the posh desks of the U.S. House of Reprehensives.
American democracy is rife with corruption and the rot that is spilling out of the House and Senate and the White House is so shameful, it's sheer grandeur is beyond comprehension. The only sure cure will be to replace every last member of the House come November's elections. Party affiliation is meaningless. The actual and only party our wondrous Congress belongs to is the 'special interest lobbying' party and to be able to attend, one must have that special invitation.

Mind boggling.

Chutzpah!

Is Boehner going down? Now THAT would really rock the GOP boat.

What's to predict? The Republican party will fall, no - check that - has fallen into line.

That's it.

The squeeze will be put on the justice department to backoff on its investigations, and these too, will continue to "fade away" just like the investigations into what led up to 9/11; Part Two of the senate investigations led by Republican Senator, Roberts; the Plame affair (which reminds me, why was her name ever brought into discussions by the White House anyway other than to try and discredit her husband's criticisms of Bush/Iraq); the jamming of phones in Ohio to prevent voters from voting; no contract bids for Halliburton; illegal spying on Americans; the list is endless.

If anything, this placement of Tom DeLay on the Appropriations Committee highlights the lack of integrity by the Republican party, it's corruption by special interests, and not least, its disdain for the best interests of the American people.

Ethical Republicans and not-gonna-take-it Democrats? Hahahaha! You made a funny.

DeLayshould be ineligible to sit on the senate subcommittee, but then Ted Kennedy should also be ineligible to question the ethics of any supreme court nominee. The outrages continue.....everywhere.

OT: Remember our earlier conversation about Dennis Ross? I just read this and thought about Sharon's very uncharacteristic move to the center. The neo cons, as well as AIPAC, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and JINSA may learn the wisdom of the adage: Be careful of what you wish for.

Israel 'may rue Saddam overthrow'

Story from BBC NEWS
http://tinyurl.com/azyll

"The head of Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, has said his country may come to regret the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Yuval Diskin said a strong dictatorship would be preferable to the present "chaos" in Iraq, in a speech to teenage Jewish settlers in the West Bank..."

"His speech to the students at the Eli settlement as they prepared for military service was secretly recorded and broadcast on Israeli TV.

When asked about the growing destabilisation of Iraq, Mr Diskin said Israel might come to rue its decision to support the US-led invasion in 2003.

"When you dismantle a system in which there is a despot who controls his people by force, you have chaos," he said.

"I'm not sure we won't miss Saddam."

Does anything suprise you? Bush Whitehouse names Abramoff prosceuter to judgeship.Yawn. DeLay new commitee appointments.Yawn. Tapping US citizens phones.Yawn.Whitey pundits telling Afro/American how to honor a deceased icon.Yawn. When will somebody say enought.
JHickey

JHickey,
If someone said "enough", would the media report it? One leg of our Democracy is almost missing, and that is the problem.

I found a typo in your text here:
ethical Republicans

I think Obama should now come out publicly and state: "this is why Republicans, including the well respected John McCain, cannot be trusted to handle ethics/lobby/earmark reform."

Dems should stand up and say they are FURIOUS over Bush policies. However, they won't because they are afraid of being labeled "angry" by Republicans. What a bunch of sniveling cowards.

"GOP's 'anger' strategy has Dems defensive

By BETH FOUHY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NEW YORK -- The Republican national chairman created a furor this week when he suggested Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is too "angry" to win the White House in 2008. And to hear Republicans tell it, Clinton is just one of many Democrats with an anger management problem.

Former Vice President Al Gore is angry. So is Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. The party is held hostage by the "angry left."

In recent months, GOP operatives and officeholders have cast the Democrats as the anger party, long on emotion and short on ideas. Analysts say the strategy has been effective, trivializing Democrats' differences with the GOP as temperamental rather than substantive..."

http://tinyurl.com/bxlx7

Bubba, waiting for Obama to lead the way is akin to Waiting for Godot. He's more cautious than Hillary and I did not that was possible in a human.

Yep, people like that there RE-form.

Same soup, warmed over.

What gets me about this is how your average voter, when told this stuff, shrugs and says, "Everyone does it. Same old, same old." By default, Democrats must be guilty of the same crime. It might also be a reflection of the fact that the media doesn't care.

I'm tempted to say this is the way the game is played, but you know that once Democrats start doing this stuff, they'll be clobbered by the echo chamber.

It may be that the public takes their cues from "balanced" journalists on what to be enraged by. Or the Democratic party has been so successfully "branded" that we have irretrievably become the "nerds" everyone picks on.

An "angry and not-gonna-take-it-anymore Democratic establishment"????

WHAT THE HELL???

Steve, have you entered another dimension??? Do you dwell in the Twilight Zone????

Who, pray tell, resides in the camp you describe?

Steve, I fear that the Washington air has finally gotten to you. You seem to be hallucinating gonads where none exist.

I think Obama should now come out publicly and state: "this is why Republicans, including the well respected John McCain, cannot be trusted to handle ethics/lobby/earmark reform."
Posted by bubba at February 9, 2006 11:07 AM

Amen Bubba!!

I mean damn, how much more artilliary do we need before SOMEONE shoots a freak'n shot? The RNC has a bull's eye on their foreheads and the only ones looking to truly take the gloves off are us.

Get'n a headache,

Tony

"ethical republicans"????

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Steve, you kill me. You really do.

Next time you fax, email or call a senator or representative, include this in with your demand:

Until the legislation or action I demand gets done I will boycott products from Republican contributors Walmart, Wendy's, Outback Steak House, Dominos Pizza, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Eckerd, CVS and Walgreens, Curves for women health clubs, GE and Exxon/Mobil.

Hold Republican contributors accountable for their officeholders opposition to progress.

So you say that a boycott will take time or will not work?
Nonsense.

Idiot conservatives called CBS 3 or 4 years ago in droves to protest the airing of a Reagan movie they did not see but heard that it would not portray Reagan well. They threatened a boycott of CBS and the advertisers.

That did not take long to get CBS to shift the movie over to showtime which had a much smaller viewership.

Many progressives called Sinclair Broadcasting in droves before the 2004 election threatening a boycott of them and their advertisers if they would not take a movie smearing John Kerry off the air. It worked quickly.

If we can get a movie off Sinclair stations then whey can't we call companies in droves that give money to the Republican party and their candidates and Republican senators and representatives and threaten them with a boycott in order to get a comprehensive progressive agenda passed?

Why?

People must CALL their senators and representative AND these companies in droves making the connection between a boycott of these companies and a demand that they want a progressive agenda passed in congress.

Do you want to increase the minimum wage?
Write your senators and representative and demand they increase the minimum wage.

Browse http://tinyurl.com/bl2fa

Do you want to scrap the current meager Medicare Part D discount and replace it with 80 percent medication coverage under Medicare Part B?

Write your senators and representative.

Browse http://tinyurl.com/7zj69

DeLay relishes in this. He uses his corruption as a weapon. He smiles in his mugshots!

The Guillotine for them all; the only solution.

My hope is that his position will be short lived. Looks like Cheney, boner and hastert are toast as well.

Bush & The Boogiemen using those NSA intercepts to consolidate power

Elected Democrats have NO gonads

Who will bell this cat ?

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." - Niccoló Machiavelli

"Until the legislation or action I demand gets done I will boycott products from Republican contributors Walmart, Wendy's, Outback Steak House, Dominos Pizza, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Eckerd, CVS and Walgreens, Curves for women health clubs, GE and Exxon/Mobil."

Amazing. All places I already don't frequent, because they all suck.

Democrats still won't be able to use this as a platform to run on.

When their proudest moment at the SOTU was how they blocked Social Security reform, they're not going to become the party that stands for something anytime soon. Not even reform. Especially not something edgy, bold, and ethical.

It's because Delay has balls and most other politicians in D.C. are dickless eunuchs as detailed in another blog earlier this week.

Any one with balls scares the dickens out of these guys. It's why Ariel Sharon has been able to do pretty much as he pleases. That guy has massive ones.

Damn. The "Hammer's" still got it.

Democrats arent angels either.

If there was an investigation of Congress, youd find just as many Democrats with conflicts of interest and fundraising issues, its just that DeLay's is of a ridiculously ballsy and standoffish type.

I dont know about anyone else, but im so sick of Congress, both Dems and Republicans.

All they do is find new ways to shrink and destroy the middle class and make you pay more to get less in taxes.

Mighty Maximus - A few years ago, Dobson and Focus on the Family were upset about the Abercrombie and Fitch catalog, which they said promoted group sex, sex in general, and who knows what else. For 3 or 4 years, they complained bitterly, ran boycotts among their base, and the publicity greatly increased the exposure and distribution of their sexy catalogs. Then one year, Dobson or someone in his organization, came up with the idea of buying a full page ad opposite several op-ed pages in major newspapers, and posting the names, photos and contact information for the entire Board of Directors for A & F. The company, announced, within 3 or 4 days, if memory serves correctly, that the existing catalogs would be withdrawn, and no similar catalogs would be produced.

Someone who can afford to buy expensive advertising space opposite major op-ed pages should do the same thing to the Boards of those companies that are sponsoring bad behavior in Congress, and see how they like it.

Hillary angry? The Neos obviously haven't been out among the people. Compared to Hillary there are many many people who are the nuclear equivalent of angry.

BTW, if you want to keep up with the all the ongoing Bush Administration scandals or look back at past scandal stories here is an excellent resource.

http://www.perrspectives.com/resources/documents.htm

Let's see--we have someone accused of money-laundering being put on the Appropriations Committee and potentially a multi-jurisdictional criminal looking over the affairs of the Department of Justice. Yeah, that sounds about right: Republicans running Congress...

A bit off topic, but since we haven't had an open thread in forever and ever and ever.

Keith brought up a good point tonight. What happened to Karen Hughes? She seems to have been completely ineffective, and Juan Cole is calling Rice a blatant liar when she blames Syria and Iran for fomenting more problems over the cartoons. He especially takes to task blaming Syria, which is secular and the wrong sect. Any other opinions?

Two. And something mentioned at the panel on Jan 30. We're obviously heavily in debt to Japan and China. But the last time I looked Japan and China were holding steady to selling off some US debt,and some entity called Caribbean Banks was becoming the new leader in buying US bonds. Since I don't know of any economic power houses in that area, so are there any guesses as to who's money is being represented in those purchases? Is that all those funds that have gone off-shore to earn tax free income? Oil? Or some other foreign governments?

Delay is the obvious choice for continuity. You have an opening created by the conviction of one congressman (Duke); who better to replace him than one under indictment?

Unless of course one was planning to put an end to the corruption, theft and fraud.

New meaning for the RICO acronym: Republicans In COngress.

hey steve.

i caught your comments on the majority report tonight - sounds like the fire is back in the belly... nice work and great proffessionalism. i think it would be good to point any criticism of the democats to the leadership (pelosi (ahem), lieberman (a given), reid(he's doing what he can), dayton(jeezus... let's hope klobuchar is ready to step into wellstones shoes), in general those of us that support dems have been working our asses off to help save this country.

SNAFU

Steve,
How about a mug shot of Frist? Delay is bad, but Frist seems at least as corrupt, albeit more venally. Frist and Hastert inserted language into a DoD appropriations bill to benefit the drug industry---AFTER the bill was voted on.
You'd think that would be a big story, especially since Frist is a big time recipient of Pharma dollars.
You'd think that what he and Hastert did would be illegal, actually. Does anyone know?

I think Delay's troubles will take care of themselves and him along with them. I'm not sure if you've written about Frist's corruption, but you should.

I was disappointed to find that Harry Reid is also all twisted up with Abramoff, writing letters on behalf of his clients and taking money from them too. I wondered why he wasn't out front and center on the abramoff issue. Now we know.

"Hillary angry?"

Yeah and humorless too. I cannot tell you how much I'd like to vote for a female candidate for Pres, but we just don't elect angry, humorless people, with one possible exception. Nixon was both angry and humorless but I'm not sure that many people knew it when he was elected.

Avaroo,
Are you some sort of paid troll? You've sure got the talking points down. If you want to find the truth of the Abramoff-Reid connection, read Josh Marshal at talkingpointsmemo.com, where you'll find the latest smear (easily) deconstructed.

Marky, I generally ignore off subject personal stuff, so if that's what you're interested in, find someone else to talk to. If Josh Marshall can make Reid's letters on behalf of the Indian tribes disappear, more power to him. So far, I haven't seen it.

Jesussss H. Christ!! What is happening in America??? The guy is under indictment and gets put on committees???? Any sort of committee, let alone the one's he has been allotted. I cannot believe how the general integrity level of most American politicians has fallen to such an abysmal level. Incredible. Just incredible.

I think it's a bit naive to think that the integrity level of pols has fallen. As far as I can tell, pols have NEVER had a whole lot of integrity. Much as I hate the idea of term limits, they would go a long way towards getting the career pols out. They seem to be the most unethical.

The latest on Reid, (who I actually like and think has done a halfway decent job, which is why I am so disappointed in him.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/09/D8FLPHO80.html

The activities _ detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press _ are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients.

Avaroo,
Unlike many of the Republicans who received money from Indian tribes, Reid already had a history of being involved in Indian issues. There was nothing odd about him accepting money from Indian client. You really should read TPM in relation to the claims about Reid intervening on Abramoff's behalf in favor of sweatshops.
The AP report was scandalously dishonest: it listed numerous contacts between Abramoff's office and Reid's on this issue, and completely failed to note the Reid did NOT vote the way Abramoff wanted.

If there is no quid pro quo, then there is no crime.

As far as my last suggestion and your response, I would say that your latest posts have done nothing to dispel the impression that you are here to post Republican talking points.

Last night, within a few hours of the AP article on Reid and Abramoff, the top story on MSNBC was that Reid and Abramoff had met numerous times.
They were in such a rush to smear Reid that they printed a false headline, as there were no meetings between Abramoff and Reid disclosed. Only later did they correct the headline, but the damage was done.
There is no question that the corporate media is a willing participant in the effort to obscure the nature of Abramoff's crimes.

Abramoff was a Republican operative collecting money for Republican slush funds and bribing Republican congressmen for their votes.
You know that, and yet you write half a dozen posts on how Reid is implicated.

Give it up. You're busted.

Marky, the public isn't going to buy Reid not being involved, epecially when these revelations are only now coming to light. To my knowledge, no one has ever claimed that all republicans voted the way Abramoff wanted either.

You may keep whatever notions you want. I could care less if you think I'm here to post anyone's talking points.

You can blame it all on the media if you want to, but the public won't buy that either. There are some dems who are disappointed to find any democratic involvement with Abramoff. I happen to be one of them. Disappointed but not surprised.

Avaroo,
You're doing a good job, Brownie, but you're transparent as Jenna's top at a club on Saturday.
There's nothing more to say about this, except: the racist focus on Abramoff's Indian clients to the exclusion of his other clients is extremely offensive, with its suggestion that they were not free agents. You fail to distinguish between Abramoff and his various clients, which is the exact Republican ploy to tar the Dems.
There was nothing illegal about Reid receiving campaign donations from Indians, nor was it odd that his office would communicate with Abramoff's Abramoff was a major player, and in the case of the Mariannas minimum wage bill which Reid co-sponsored, the communication was natural for procedural discussions.
Contrast Reid's behavior with Young (AK), who changed his vote on the bill after going on a junket to the Mariannas, paid for by Abramoff.

You're welcome to criticize Reid, but it's really over the top for you to say you're doing it as a Democrat. We read you loud and clear.

I'm a native american, you dolt.

I said I was disappointed in Reid, and I am. Although not my first choice for a presidential candidate in 2007, he would have been in the top 3.

Avaroo,
I'm glad you thought Reid was a good choice for Presidential candidate. Unfortunately, since he has already had a TIA, I doubt he is a good health risk for the job.
Anyway, I cam back to give a link to this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060211/ap_on_go_co/lobbyist_probe

WASHINGTON - Three members of Congress have been linked to efforts by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former General Services Administration official to secure leases of government property for Abramoff's clients, according to court filings by federal prosecutors on Friday
.......

I suspect this story is the reason for the smear of Reid yesterday. There's not even a hint of quid pro quo between Reid and Abramoff, which tells me it didn't happen: If Reid really did change a vote because of an Abramoff contribution, the corporate media would trumpet the news like the Second Coming. Still, they can't stop giving in the college try.

ROFLMAO!!!!!! Avaroo is a native American Democrat!!!! Gads, and I thought BUSH was a lousy liar. How come so many of these RW trolls are so damned transparently FRAUDULENT in the way they try to present themsewlves???

Marky, a TIA isn't actually that bad, especially if he had an endarterectomy. Which I believe he did.

Quid pro quo isn't the criteria that republicans have been judged on and it won't be the criteria for dems either. Unfortunately, Reid did accept money from Abramoff clients as did many republicans. That alone is enough to tie him into this. In my view. You are, of course, free to disagree. I'm disappointed in Reid.

Avaroo,
I am trying to read your posts with an open mind, but when you say that quid pro quo is not the standard by which Republicans have been judged, I have to say that you need to look at the record again. You are just wrong on this point of fact, and if you fail to address the difference between Reid and the Republicans in this regard, you miss the nub of the issue. By the way, since you are a Native American, I don't understand why you would object to Reid receiving money from Native American tribes. Did Indians suddenly start to glow in the dark when they became Abramoff clients?

Marky, I guess I should make it clear that I am not at all interested in whether or not you think I goose step to whatever your idea of a democrat is. OK?

If you can show that every republican who has been shown to have taken money from either Abramoff or his clients actually changed a vote because of it, then you might have a point.

I didn't object to Reid taking money from native american tribes. I said I was disappointed that Reid has been tarred with the Abramoff brush.

Avaroo,
Your standard is not correct. Let's leave it at that.

It isn't my standard. It was actually yours. From your post at 10:19, Feb 10:

"There's not even a hint of quid pro quo between Reid and Abramoff"

Avaroo,
You are being deliberately obtuse.
As far as I know, EVERY Republican Congressman whose name has come up in the Abramoff investigation is suspected of being bribed or influenced in some other, illegal manner.
NONE of the Democrats are under such suspicion.
Do I have solid proof? Of course not--the investigations are not complete.
You have thoroughly convinced me of your political orientation now. I'm surpised to see you working on a weekend, RNC-boy