Democrats and the DeLay Scandal

Minority Retort ^ | 4/12/05 | Bob Chandra

[jagrmeister]

First, we have the media overkill on whatever Delay may or may have not done over the last twenty years. Rich Lowry shows how the NYTimes is dredging up news from years ago and putting it on the front page. Next, we have people like the DLC saying things like it's ridiculous for Republicans to think this is a Soros plot cause we're in on it too! Well, I'm glad to know that other wealthy Democratic financiers are behind it as well. The "Get DeLay" campaign remains a base, partisan smear campaign, not a genuine pursuit of the truth. There are high stakes: Rahm Emanuel, DCCC chair, is taking a page from Gingrich's 1994 strategy of painting the majority party as "ethically challenged"; he hopes that Democrats can rise back to power in 2006 should the people see the GOP as corrupt with power. The fabricated "DeLay scandal" is Exhibit A in making that case; so the scandal must be pursued whether or not it is honest, worthy, or a good use of congress' time. And it's inconsequential that Republican Congressman Shays is siding with Democrats in this witch-hunt - Shays has been at odds with DeLay for years over disagreements on House votes- he is only too happy to backstab his longtime adversary. --

The Press' "Blackout" on Senate Minority Leader Reid's Ethical Violations

What is important is to keep on the media for their complicity in airing Democratic Party propaganda and refusal to report ethical violations by Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. This is an opportunity for bloggers to maintain "checks and balances" on the mainstream press. The MSM must tell the "whole story". If ethics violations by high-ranking officials is newsworthy, why the whitewashing on Reid? I'll consider Day 1 of the blackout. And I'll keep counting.

Here is the transcript from the Rush Limbaugh show where he detailed the Reid ethical violations which are remarkably similar to what the MSM is bludgeoning DeLay with:

--

So in researching this last night I found a story from the Los Angeles Times June 23rd, 2003: "It was the kind of legislation that slips under the radar here.

The name alone made the eyes glaze over: 'The Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002.' In a welter of technical jargon, it dealt with boundary shifts, land trades and other arcane matters ­ all in Nevada.

As he introduced it, Nevada's senior U.S. senator, Democrat Harry Reid, assured colleagues that his bill was a bipartisan measure to protect the environment and help the economy in America's fastest-growing state.

What Reid did not explain was that the bill promised a cavalcade of benefits to real estate developers, corporations and local institutions that were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees to his sons' and son-in-law's firms, federal lobbyist reports show.

The Howard Hughes Corp. alone paid $300,000 to the tiny Washington consulting firm of son-in-law Steven Barringer," this is Hughes Corporation, to allow them "to acquire 998 acres of federal land ripe for development in the exploding Las Vegas..." This is just one instance.

"Barringer is listed in federal lobbyist reports as one of Hughes' representatives on the measure that his father-in-law introduced.

Other provisions were intended to benefit a real estate development headed by a senior partner in the Nevada law firm that employs all four of Reid's sons ­ by moving the right-of-way for a federal power-transmission line off his property and onto what had been protected federal wilderness.

The governments of three of Nevada's biggest cities ­ Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson ­ also gained from the legislation, which freed up tens of thousands of acres of federal land for development and annexation.

All three were represented by Reid's family members who contacted his staff on their clients' behalf.

The Clark County land bill, which was approved in a late-night session just before Congress recessed in October, reflects a new twist in an old game: These days, when corporations and other interests want to cement a vital relationship with someone in Congress, they're likely to reach out to hire a member of the family.

Reid said he supported the bill because it was good for Nevada ­ and not because it helped his family's clients.

And when it comes to lobbying relatives, he said, he has plenty of company. 'Lots of people have children, wives and stuff that work back here,' he said. 'It is not as if a lot of cash is changing hands.'"

It isn't? Three hundred grand from Hughes alone?
--

I'm looking for a few blogs to help with this effort. The other half of the story deserves to be told. It's not the media's job to run a protection racket for Democrat Senators nor serve as a propaganda outlet for the DNC. Their responsibility is to tell the whole story- and we should encourage them to do so.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

I have been adding the Keyword "Propaganda Wing of DNC"
I forget who came up with it but it sure fits the Delay issue.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=propagandawingofdnc

[rainabear]

The New York Times isn't just dredging up old news, they are activly trying to find a Republican to say on their editorial page that he should resign "for the good of the party."

Yeah...the New York Times is really concerned about what's good for the GOP.

http://www.aclearvoice.org/archives/2005/04/dems_to_delay_r.php

[jagrmeister]

I like the term. I don't think we can afford to lose our sense of outrage at the mainstream press. It's that outrage that powers the alternative press, which is ultimately the driver of media reform.