The Hammer going to the slammer?

That nice man Tom DeLay just got indicted on conspiracy charges related to campaign financing schemes.

He's says the bad Democratic distrrict attorney is picking on him.  The "Hammer" (aka, the Bugman, related to his previous profession as an exterminator) has been picked on a lot.  Like when he wanted to join the service.  Joe Conason tells the story in his Big Lies (2003) about how poor Tom couldn't get into the Army during the Vietnam War days:

Not every one excused from service was a chicken hawk, but every chicken hawk has an excuse.  Few were ever as creatively comical as Tom DeLay, a beligerent politician who loudly maligns the patriotism of his betters.  At the Republican Covention in 1988, he explained to reporters that there had been no space in the Army for "patriotic folks" like himself and Dan Quayle during the Vietnam War - because too many minority youths had joined the service to earn money and escape the ghetto.

Poor Tom.  And he really, really, really wanted to go fight in the war.

Anyway, The Hammer will be in the news a lot for a while.  I wanted to mention this collection of articles about DeLay's dirty-money political environment in Texas, from the Texas Monthly magazine:

TRMPAC in Its Own Words: Exhibits from a civil trial reveal potential illegality and influence peddling by Jake Bernstein 04/01/05.

Specifically, TRMPAC took corporate money in 2002 from companies with business before the Texas Legislature or the U.S. Congress and used it for fund-raising, phone banks, polling, and campaign support for individual state candidates. The interpretation of what constituted legal administrative expenses—up until now—consisted primarily of items such as rent, utilities, and clerical needs. Spending corporate or union money on candidates has been illegal in Texas since 1905, when farsighted legislators recognized that if the vast treasuries of corporations and unions were applied to elections, they could easily overwhelm our democratic system.

All told, TRMPAC spent $1.5 million, of which more than $600,000 was undeclared corporate money. (The PAC’s use of corporate cash went unreported to the Texas Ethics Commission.) TRMPAC documents, entered as exhibits during a week-long civil trial brought by losing Democratic candidates that ended March 4, refer to the historic opportunity that presented itself in 2002. (At press time, Senior District Judge Joe Hart, before whom the case was tried, had yet to reach a verdict.) Redistricting in 2001 had created new, solidly Republican House districts. And a number of corporate interests were bursting with pent-up desire for goodies past legislatures had failed to bestow.

The Rise of the Machine: How a small group of politicians and corporations bought themselves a legislature by Jake Berstein and Dave Mann 08/29/03.

In Austin, Texas, home to the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney, a grand jury is empanelled. Its mission is to investigate one of the most audacious electoral efforts seen in Texas since Lyndon Johnson stole the 1948 U.S. Senate election from Coke Stevenson. The inquiry revolves around whether business leaders and Republicans–including possibly U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land)–conspired to break state law to funnel corporate cash into local elections. At the center of the scheme is the Texas Association of Business (TAB), which purports to represent business and chambers of commerce, but in reality has become a de facto appendage of the Republican Party.

Although Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle launched his inquiry in December 2002, TAB lawyers have prevented a complete airing of the facts, delaying the grand jury’s work with a series of appeals. While the full picture of the multi-million-dollar operation has yet to be revealed, what is beyond dispute are the results of the machine’s activities. In 2002, for the first time in 130 years, Republicans won a majority of seats in the Texas House. These winning candidates did not resemble your grandmother’s GOP. By systematically marking for elimination moderate Republicans in contested primaries, the TAB and DeLay furnished a right-wing majority guaranteed to elect their anointed candidate for Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick (R-Midland). What transpired in the legislative session that followed is public record. Under Craddick, wielding his Republican majority like acudgel, the Texas House passed legislation that saved their corporate patrons hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars.

Scandal in the Speaker's Office: A campaign finance scandal threatens to swallow Tom Craddick by Jake Berstein and Dave Mann 02/27/04

Craddick and DeLay have been friends since they served in the Lege together in the early 1980s. Only with his good friend Craddick as speaker and a compliant House membership could DeLay force his much-desired mid-decade congressional redistricting through the Lege. Assembling a majority to elect Craddick to the post wouldn’t be easy. Five-term House speaker Pete Laney (D-Hale Center) had considerable Republican support, especially among his fellow rural West Texans. Then there was the danger that a more moderate Republican would emerge as a compromise candidate. The conventional wisdom before the election was that Craddick needed a minimum of 85 Republicans to become speaker, meaning the GOP needed to gain at least 13 seats—an enormous electoral task. The Craddick-DeLay machine also needed money for Republican primaries to ensure that victors would be beholden to it. To do all this, TRMPAC and TAB required a ton of money. Old funding sources wouldn’t suffice. They needed corporate money. The only problem is that it’s illegal to use corporate money for electioneering.

TRMPAC spent roughly $600,000 in corporate cash during the 2002 campaign (just over half the $1.5 million it raised was individual donations). Meddling with corporate money in politics puts one into risky legal territory, campaign experts say, and PACs that dip into the corporate pool must be extremely careful. Texas has prohibited corporate and union money in elections for a century. Lawmakers realized the potential for corruption if big business was able to funnel torrents of undisclosed, corporate money into the process—cash disbursements that shareholders would never be given the chance to approve.

Rate of Exchange: What might $1.5 million get you in the Texas Legislature? by Jake Berstein and Dave Mann 02/12/04

"I think the memo confirms people's suspicions about how the campaign finance system works," saysCraigMcDonald, who is executive director of the watchdog group Texans for Public Justice and who has heard about the documents. "Donors give for policy or access or even more explicitly it appears here, they have a specific legislative agenda that they are trying to buy and the politicians look like they were easily willing to sell."

After meeting with energy industry people all morning, it’s not clear Woolley and Lilly even had time to grab lunch before diving into the arms of other special interests. At 1:30 p.m. that Monday afternoon, Woolley and Lilly visited the Houston office of Charles McMahen, according to their itinerary. The 2002 general election was just 60 days away, and TRMPAC had big goals. The political action committee - along with a highly organized group of allies that included the Texas Association of Business - had targeted 22 House races in hopes of electing a large enough Republican majority in the Texas House to install Craddick as speaker. To do this, TRMPAC needed a lot of money. That’s where McMahen came in. He was then vice chairman of Alabama-based Compass Bank, which had amassed a significant amount of cash in its political action committee to spend on the 2002 election. Lilly, Woolley, and TRMPAC hoped to tap that Compass cash flow.

Bankrolling Beltway Badges: Meet the Law Enforcement Alliance that violates the law with IRS impunity by Frank Smyth 07/30/04

Those who track campaign money believe that the LEAA represents a troubling trend. “LEAA is one of a new breed of shadowy front groups that is willing to serve as a corporate money conduit and attack dog to benefit GOP candidates,” says Craig McDonald of the public policy organization Texans for Public Justice. “Its ‘issue ads’ are a mere hoax. When GOP candidates need a political attack from a so-called law-and-order group, they appear to funnel money to the LEAA to carry it out. “

What’s beyond dispute is the result of Greg Abbott’s ascension to attorney general. Without the attorney general’s approval, DeLay never would have been able to push through his redistricting plan. It was Abbott who was the first to rule that the state could pursue mid-decade congressional redistricting. This November, if Republicans do as well as expected, the GOP could lock in theircontrolling majority in the House of Representatives for years to come.

And some of the Texas papers will be providing their own coverage of the further trials and tribulations of The Hammer, including: the Austin American-Statesman, the Houston Chronicle and the Dallas-Ft Worth Star-Telegram.  (Annoying registration required at a couple of them, maybe all three.) A sample:

Indictment 'a sham,' DeLay says by John Moritz and Maria Recio Star-Telegram 09/28/05.

The indictment is the culmination of a three-year investigation by [District Attorney Ronnie] Earle into fund-raising activities during the 2002 election cycle. Texas Republicans gained complete control over state government for the first time since Reconstruction.

The indictment, handed down as the grand jury's term expired, accuses DeLay and his political associates of conspiring to influence a number of swing races for the Texas House.

Earle said his investigation is no witch hunt.

"We prosecute abuses of power," said Earle, a Democrat who has investigated politicians of both parties. "You have to have power before you can abuse it.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican; former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, a Democrat; and former Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort Worth, are among those Earle has taken on during his long tenure in Austin.

Suspension could hamper GOP agenda: DeLay has been a key ally for Bush on Capitol Hill by Michael Hedges and Bennett Roth Houston Chronicle 09/28/05

Bush stood by the Sugar Land legislator Wednesday, after the indictment of DeLay by a grand jury in Austin triggered House rules requiring him to step down temporarily.

"Congressman DeLay is a good ally, a leader who we have worked closely with to get things done for the American people," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "I think the president's view is that we need to let the legal process work."

For Republicans, the timing of the indictment was horrible. It comes as GOP Senate leader Bill Frist contends with allegations that he used insider information to bail out of a stock market investment before its value dropped. Also, Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, may be in jeopardy from a federal probe into the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identify.

Editorial: The felony indictment of Tom DeLay Austin American-Statesman 09/29/05

DeLay sowed the seeds that led to a GOP majority in the Texas Legislature after the 2002 elections, a majority that returned the favor in a mid-census redistricting that gave DeLay a more Republican Congress. But he reaped the whirlwind because he pushed too hard and demanded too much.

An angry and defiant DeLay blamed the indictment, which temporarily cost him his leadership position, on partisan politics by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat. Coming from one of the most fanatical partisans in the country, that charge is risible.

DeLay also ignores the fact that the indictment came not from Earle but from a grand jury of 12 local citizens who investigated a complex political scheme. They sacrificed long hours for one of the most important duties of citizenship.