Day: September 28, 2005

Roy Blunt of Missouri will assume Tom DeLay’s House Majority leadership duties.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously elected Roy Blunt of Missouri as their majority leader, replacing Tom DeLay, who was forced to give up the job after being indicted by a Texas grand jury, lawmakers said.

After a closed-door meeting of House Republicans, lawmakers said Blunt’s position was an interim arrangement for the rest of the year and that he would share leadership responsibilities with Rep. David Dreier of California.

It was not immediately clear how Blunt, who had had been the third ranking Republican member of the House, would share duties with Dreier, the chairman of the House Rules Committee.

“We all believe that he (DeLay) will return once this indictment is out of the way, and be the leader again,” Blunt said.

According to Patrick O’Connor of ‘The Hill’, conservative activists flooded speaker Dennis Hastert’s phone with calls of protest against Rep. Dreier, citing a blemish on his voting record.

By late afternoon, the conference had named Blunt to the post. After press reports shortly after the indictment that Dreier would assume the temporary position of majority leader, conservative activists from around the country flooded the Speaker’s office with phone calls protesting the selection of Dreier, according to one leadership aide. Many of the callers protested his vote on a controversial stem-cell measure earlier this year.

Given the ugly stories pushed from the Left today regarding David Dreier, one has to wonder if that was a factor in the decision to give the nod to Roy. Dreier isn’t completely out of the picture. He’ll help Blunt along with chief deputy whip, Rep. Eric Cantor.

In addition, Blunt’s chief deputy whip, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), will take on an expanded role within the whip office and Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.) will work closely with committee chairmen to monitor legislation coming to the floor, a role DeLay previously filled in his capacity as majority leader.

Blunt had this to say about the indictment against DeLay:

In his first remarks as majority leader, Blunt said he expected DeLay to return to the post and called the indictment “terribly unfair.”

“It’s not easy to fill the gap left by Tom DeLay,” Blunt said. “He will continue to be an important member in this House.”

And lest you think there wasn’t any soap opera ‘behind the scenes’ drama in Blunt’s selection…

Ever since 1998 when DeLay backed former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) for GOP Conference Chairman and pushed Rep. John Boehner out of the job, Boehner has been waiting for a ripe opportunity to return to the leadership ranks. While Boehner has his eye on the Speakership, he is likely salivating at the No. 2 post as well.

After the indictment was announced, Boehner met with several allies in the Speaker’s Lobby.

But even some Boehner allies, however, warn that the ambitious Ohioan and anyone else who may be mulling a run should keep his or her powder dry for now.

“[Boehner] would be foolish to try to do something … when there’s so much turmoil in the conference and so much anxiety about the coming election,” the source said. “It would be very unwise to do any kind of maneuvering for a future job under these circumstances.”

“Like sand in the hourglass, so are the days of our lives”.

Others: Joe Gandelman |

UPDATE: Attempt to Pick Successor is Foiled

From NRO:

I was an attorney for the [AGENCY NAME WITHHELD] for almost five years, and dealt with the civil side of the law at issue in the DeLay indictment. To say that the law is vague is an understatement – we didn’t know what it meant half the time. And Earle knows that, too. So even if there were a conviction, I don’t see how it could be upheld on appeal.

But Earle’s goal isn’t getting a conviction upheld, it’s the chance to have all the media descend on Austin for another “trial of the century.” If this mess does go to trial, there probably will be a conviction. Ronnie’s Austin jury pool will be made up of the most wacked-out liberals in all of Texas (Austin just loooooves Howard Dean). All the Volvo-driving, latte-slurping, blind salamander-loving nuts that make up this town must be drooling at the thought of getting on the jury.

Please don’t disclose my name or where I used to work – I still have a wife and kid to support!”

Heh.

Bryon York – From June 20, 2005

Ronnie Earle, the Texas prosecutor who has indicted associates of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in an ongoing campaign-finance investigation, dropped felony charges against several corporations indicted in the probe in return for the corporations’ agreement to make five- and six-figure contributions to one of Earle’s pet causes.

A grand jury in Travis County, Texas, last September indicted eight corporations in connection with the DeLay investigation. All were charged with making illegal contributions (Texas law forbids corporate giving to political campaigns). Since then, however, Earle has agreed to dismiss charges against four of the companies — retail giant Sears, the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, the Internet company Questerra, and the collection company Diversified Collection Services — after the companies pledged to contribute to a program designed to publicize Earle’s belief that corporate involvement in politics is harmful to American democracy.

Some legal observers called the arrangement an unusual resolution to a criminal case, at least in Texas, where the matter is being prosecuted. “I don’t think you’re going to find anybody who will say it’s a common practice,” says Jack Strickland, a Fort Worth lawyer who serves as vice-chairman of the criminal-justice section of the Texas State Bar. Earle himself told National Review Online that he has never settled a case in a similar fashion during his years as Travis County district attorney. And allies of DeLay, who has accused Earle of conducting a politically motivated investigation, called Earle’s actions “dollars for dismissals.”

In going through the DeLay indictment, I can’t find anything that ties Majority Leader Tom DeLay directly to any charge.  DeLay’s name is not linked to a single act. There’s no specificity whatsoever. The document mentions his name on the front and then at the end it cites a couple of indictment waivers signed by DeLay. That’s it.

Taken on face value, it appears that Tom DeLay is guilty of knowing two other guys.

Now, before you jump all over me I do understand that indictments are not required to list all of the evidence and facts of the case. But if you’re the district attorney who is going to put the slam on a powerful congressman and you know that delivering an indictment will create a media firestorm, wouldn’t you want to list a least a few charges against him that carry weight?

Does County District Attorney Ronnie Earle really think he won’t have to explain his reasons for indicting Tom DeLay?

The MSM and the Left are absolutely giddy over this. They’re hand in hand singing “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!” I wonder how many of them have read the actual indictment document? If they have, I’d like them to point me to the spot in the document where DeLay is directly linked to the charge against him.

I’ll put forth this prediction – Ronnie Earle will delay the actual trial for as long as possible. Years probably. History plays this out. The case he brought against Kay Bailey Hutchinson was only kept alive long enough to derail her first Senate campaign.

Let’s get the facts behind this charge publicized quickly, then we can debate substance. Right now, with this flimsy indictment, we’ve got nothing.

Others: Lorie Byrd | Nasty, baseless rumor circulating around DeLay successor Rep. David Dreier | Jonah Goldberg |

Look what happens when there’s no hurricane news to cover.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been indicted on one count of criminal conspiracy by a Texas grand jury, according to Travis County clerk’s office.

Indictment document

Drudge

TOM DELAY SAYS HE WILL STEP ASIDE AS HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER FOLLOWING INDICTMENT: ‘I have notified the Speaker that I will temporarily step aside from my position as majority leader pursuant to rules of the House Republican Conference and the actions of the Travis County District Attorney today’ …

Defiant

A defiant DeLay insisted he was innocent and called the prosecutor a “fanatic.”

“I have done nothing wrong … I am innocent,” DeLay told a Capitol Hill news conference in which he criticized the prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, repeatedly. DeLay called Earle an “unabashed partisan zealot” and a “fanatic.”

Hastert recommends Dreier for majority leader.

USAToday Backgrounder

Others: Michelle Malkin | Lorie Byrd | Mark Levin |