DeLay recap

Ol Tex gives us an excellent recap of DeLay's madcap judge-shopping spree. The situation is changing rapidly. As of yesterday, the parties seemed to have settled on a nominally Democratic semi-retired judge from San Antonio, but now it looks like he too may be challenged:

But judicial wrangling left the validity of Thursday's appointment of semiretired Senior Judge Pat Priest of San Antonio in question.

Priest, a Democrat, was selected to replace District Judge Bob Perkins, who was removed Tuesday at DeLay's request because of his contributions to Democrats. [AP]

It's deliciously ironic that DeLay's wrangling is exposing how far his own corrupt machine had permeated the Texas legal system. I wonder if DeLay and his lawyer DeGuerin demand that the trial should be moved because they'd given themselves too much bad press. Now, that would be chutzpah.

In other DeLay news...Megan Scott of the Daily DeLay points to a fascinating New York Times story about how Tom DeLay asked Jack Abramoff to raise money through charity:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - Representative Tom DeLay asked the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through a private charity controlled by Mr. Abramoff, an unusual request that led the lobbyist to try to gather at least $150,000 from his Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations, according to newly disclosed e-mail from the lobbyist's files.
The electronic messages from 2002, which refer to "Tom" and "Tom's requests," appear to be the clearest evidence to date of an effort by Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican, to pressure Mr. Abramoff and his lobbying partners to raise money for him. The e-mail messages do not specify why Mr. DeLay wanted the money, how it was to be used or why he would want money raised through the auspices of a private charity. [...]

The Justice Department signaled last month that it was investigating the propriety of Mr. DeLay's ties to Mr. Abramoff, including trips that the lobbyist organized for Mr. DeLay and his wife. Mr. Abramoff is under indictment in a separate federal fraud investigation in Florida. [NYT permalink]

Hunter is certainly right when he says that these scandals are just the tip of the iceberg.

Comments

[Marc Lawrence]

Don't embalm him, stuff him with crab meat!