Delay scandal widening; fissures in GOP party are starting to show
Quote from CBSNews.com, with internal links to wikipedia for more information on the players in the wide-scale GOP corruption:
The indictment sent a shock wave through the GOP establishment, which is already reeling from a swath of criminal and ethics investigations. Three individuals, eight corporations and two political action committees connected to DeLay have been indicted as a result of the probe. In addition, the government’s top procurement official, David Safavian, was arrested in September for obstructing a criminal investigation into uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close DeLay ally. Abramoff himself is under criminal investigation for defrauding Indian tribes and was indicted for wire fraud in Florida in a separate case. Top White House aides, including Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, have been targeted by a special prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Representative Duke Cunningham announced he would not run for re-election after overselling his house for $700,000 to a military industry lobbyist; he too has been indicted. FDA chief Lester Crawford resigned unexpectedly after just two months on the job, possibly because of failure to report his wife’s sizable pharmaceutical-industry holdings. And DeLay’s Senate counterpart, Bill Frist, is battling possible insider-trading charges for dumping millions in HCA stock, a company founded by his father and run by his brother, weeks before it plunged in value. The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into Frist and HCA in September.
“The fact that Tom DeLay is under criminal indictment and Senate majority leader Bill Frist is under criminal investigation is a historic first,” says Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “This demonstrates the culture of corruption among the Congressional leadership that has become a cancer on our country.”
Fleshing out that tidbit about David Safavian a bit more: he was the White House’s top federal procurement official, and was in the midst of the lucrative Gulf Coast rebuilding plans when he had to resign to be arrested for the obstruction of justice charge. He’s responsible for giving some of the no-bid contracts to Halliburton and other companies with a track record of corruption. So you know about how the government money for Katrina relief is going to be spent.
Also, Abramoff has links to organized crime, and a mob murder investigation: “3 Arrested in Killing of Businessman With Whom Abramoff Feuded.”
All of these guys have sleazy scandals, and all of them are interconnected, with Delay at the top greasing the wheels with dirty money… for a complete picture of how wide the corruption spreads, read “Beyond Delay: the 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress” by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
