Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Nearly 32 months after a Texas grand jury indicted him for election-law violations, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay still hasn’t gotten his day in court on one count of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. More than two years ago DeLay surrendered to a Harris County jail. Even by Texas standards, that lag is an unusually long time for a relatively minor criminal case to remain unresolved.

According to the video below, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey has said that “many Republicans will vote for Libertarian candidates in House races.” The Washington Times is reporting that former House Whip Tom DeLay’s wife plans to pull the Bob Barr lever on Election Day: Tom DeLay will vote for John McCain but the former House Republican leader said his wife, Christine, is planning to vote for Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr. “I’m trying to convince my wife not to do that,” the Texas Republican told editors and reporters at The Washington Times on Friday. “She said it publicly...

Former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay (Texas) called Barack Obama a "Marxist" on the Mike Gallagher radio show Thursday. Explaining that Obama clinching the Democratic nomination is a good thing for John McCain, DeLay said Obama's "weakness" is that "nobody knows him." "And if McCain does not define him as what he is — hey, I have said publicly, and I will again, that unless he proves me wrong, he is a Marxist," DeLay said. The radio host agreed with DeLay, who is facing money laundering charges, saying Obama is "desperately trying to cover up what seems to be the...

Former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay (Texas) called Barack Obama a "Marxist" on the Mike Gallagher radio show Thursday. Explaining that Obama clinching the Democratic nomination is a good thing for John McCain, DeLay said Obama's "weakness" is that "nobody knows him." "And if McCain does not define him as what he is — hey, I have said publicly, and I will again, that unless he proves me wrong, he is a Marxist," DeLay said. The radio host agreed with DeLay, who is facing money laundering charges, saying Obama is "desperately trying to cover up what seems to be the...

TWO DAYS after former Republican Rep. Bob Barr announced his candidacy for President as a Libertarian, and one day after a Republican lost a special election to a Democrat in a strongly GOP Mississippi district, more than half of House Republicans voted for the pork-saturated, $300 billion farm bill. Idiots. Three weeks ago, a Rasmussen Reports poll found that 48 percent of Americans trusted Democrats more than Republicans on the economy. Only 40 percent trusted Republicans more. That is the legacy of big-spending Republican policies pushed by leaders like Tom DeLay and President Bush and continued by the current GOP...

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's presidential run-off poll is to be delayed by as much as 10 weeks, a government document obtained by AFP showed Wednesday, in a move denounced by the opposition as an attempt to "resuscitate" veteran President Robert Mugabe. A second round of voting had been expected by May 23 under Zimbabwean law, but the country's top electoral body is to announce Thursday that an election can take place as late as July 31. In a first round of voting on March 29, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat Mugabe by 47.9 to 43.2 percent but fell short of...

PAUL KANGAS: At its annual meeting in Chicago today, the Boeing Company assured shareholders its hot-selling 787 will take off late next year. The fuel-efficient jet has been plagued with production problems and some analysts think there could be further delays down the road. Diane Eastabrook has more from Chicago. DIANE EASTABROOK, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Boeing Company Chairman and CEO James McNerny kicked off the company's annual meeting today touting Boeing's recent earnings successes. But McNerney quickly turned his attention to the topic on the minds of most Boeing shareholders: the delayed delivery of the new 787 Dreamliner. JAMES...

QANTAS directors will be asked today to sign off on a $200 million deal, paid for with compensation from Boeing, to lease a fleet of jetliners built by Airbus Jetstar, the Australian flag carrier's budget brand, will ask the Qantas board to sign off on a lease deal for up to six French-built A330 jetliners. [...] Yesterday Qantas sources said only that the amount will be well in excess of the $200 million Airbus paid after it pushed back by two years the delivery to Qantas and other airlines of its first A380 super jumbo because of wiring problems. [...]...

LUFKIN — Mae Smith, the 64-year-old mayor of the teeny Central Texas town of Holland, seized the civic center lectern like a dragon-slayer ascending the throne. In a fiery red pantsuit and a voice that echoed without the help of a malfunctioning microphone, she and her cohorts revealed to a crowd of about 50 souls clad in denim and plaid a little-known weapon against the foe of all in the room: Gov. Rick Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor. The weapon, Smith said, doesn't involve marching on the Texas Capitol, like more than 1,000 did last year, some on tractors and horses. It...

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Republicans are still hot over the loss of two congressional districts to Democrats in 2006 — especially the one that had been held by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay — and they're looking to win them back this fall. But first, they must choose their challengers in the March 4 primary. Both seats drew multiple GOP candidates eager to take on incumbent Democratic Reps. Nick Lampson in the 22nd District and Ciro Rodriguez in the 23rd District. National Republicans have set their sights on finding someone who might evict Lampson and Rodriguez in November. "These are...

When Attorney General Janet Reno deployed federal law enforcement agencies to Waco, Texas to arrest the Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, one of the the tactics used was to constantly blast loud music 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eventually, men, women and children died from a brutal attack by their own countrymen. And, except for a few Republican lawmakers, the GOP and Democrat senators and congressmen displayed no outrage. And Senator John McCain was among those who remained silent. However, in the new millennium McCain has become the protector of imprisoned terrorists and enemy combatants and fights...

Dear Past Your Eyes, Before he was driven out of town on corruption charges, they used to call Tom DeLay "the Hammer." Well, lo and behold, it turns out the Hammer has a sensitive side -- and we've apparently hurt his feelings. Not long ago, I emailed to alert you that DeLay and other hard-right reactionaries had formed the Coalition for a Conservative Majority with plans to put "boots on the ground" in all 50 states to combat the "liberal agenda." In DeLay's twisted view, my telling the truth about him and his plans is practicing "the politics of personal...

John McCain’s win in New Hampshire did not impress former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Revealing a divide in the Republican Party between moderates and conservatives, DeLay slammed McCain in an interview Wednesday with FOX News. “There’s nothing redeeming about John McCain,” DeLay said. The Texas Republican added that McCain “does betray conservative principles.” When asked on which issues McCain was not a conservative, he said: “Mercy, there’s tons of them” and proceeded to list the Senator’s positions on the environment, immigration, the International Criminal Court, his support for affirmative action and taxes. He also called McCain a “hypocrite” when...

CQ TODAY Jan. 3, 2008 – 5:09 p.m. GOP Looking for Revenge in Texas By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff In one of the earliest deadlines in the country, the period to qualify for Texas’ March 4 primary election ended on Wednesday, and it’s clear that Republicans will fight hard to reclaim the two Texas districts they lost in 2006. The 22nd is a Houston-area district that is represented by Nick Lampson , and the 23rd District is a San Antonio-centered district that is held by Ciro D. Rodriguez . Those are the districts the Democrats wrested from Republican control in...

WASHINGTON - Congress is seeking to delay a new security rule requiring passports at all U.S. border crossings next year in hopes of avoiding a repeat of last summer's vacation-killing backlog of passport applications. The Bush administration said Monday it opposed the measure and still plans to go forward with implementing the planned passport rule next summer. Lawmakers said Monday that under a major end-of-the-year spending bill to be voted on this week, the border passport rule would be moved back even further, to no earlier than June 1, 2009. The first phase of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, or...

AUSTIN—Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle on Friday announced he won’t seek re-election next year. The 65-year-old Democrat was at the center of the criminal investigation of Republican former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. DeLay quit Congress last year. Earle’s term has one year remaining, and his resignation will bring to an end to his three-decade reign in which he battled some of the biggest names in Texas politics. Earle has been criticized by DeLay and other Republicans, who say some of his prosecutions of elected leaders are politically motivated. "This is a no-brainer for him. He never had...

Candidates lining up to replace longtime Travis County district attorney. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who has led that office since 1977, told his staff today that he will not seek re-election. He was expected to issue a statement later. Earle, 65, will serve the one year remaining on his term, but his retirement will end an era. "Is the district attorney's job an elective office?" Ken Oden, a former county attorney, once quipped about his friend's long tenure. Earle, a Democrat, might not be done with politics. By retiring, he would be available for a gubernatorial bid in...

Lubbock police say a claim made by a south Lubbock man that Texas Tech coach Bob Knight shot at him during a hunting outing is unfounded. James Simpson, 51, said he believes Knight or a member of his hunting party shot at him after he told them to stop hunting dove near his property near south University Avenue Oct. 21. Simpson said bird shot struck his residence while he was cleaning his pool, and he was later shot in the back and neck after he confronted Knight. Knight"This guy is lying," said John Sims, Knight's attorney. "In my opinion he's...

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay may not be in a leadership position on Capitol Hill anymore, but that doesn't mean he can't weigh in on the current GOP leadership. DeLay told Yeas & Nays that Republicans in Congress are "looking for something to believe in" and "they're not getting it out of this Republican leadership. … The leadership just isn't getting it." "They're looking for some backbone," said DeLay, who also chimed in on the 2008 election. He said the Republican party is "going to get our clocks cleaned in 2008" and unequivocally said that "Hillary [Clinton] will be...

Two polarizing Republican political figures have joined forces to launch an organization that will seek to counter Democratic message groups on a wide range of issues. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) explained in an interview on Thursday that he and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell opted to promote the Coalition for a Conservative Majority (CCM) in conservative-leaning media markets rather than the more traditional method of focusing on swing congressional districts. The markets, which include Houston; Scranton, Pa.; Pittsburgh; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Denver; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Phoenix and Las Vegas were identified by DeLay as...

There are hundreds of pages worth of memos and correspondence that involve Hillary's healthcare plan in the early 1990s. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-archives11nov11,0,4319964.story?page=1&coll=la-home-nation But you will probably never get to see any of this correspondence, because federal government archivists have deemed the material "confidential." It is being withheld under federal law allowing the restriction of "private communications between presidential advisors." Let's take a look at some of the memos: "Positioning ourselves on healthcare." Not available. This is confidential advice. How about, "General targeting strategy." Also not available. So guess who the Clintons are blaming for all of this mysteriously unavailable material? The Government!...

NAVAL STATION GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba, Nov. 8, 2007 – The case against a Canadian detainee accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan and supporting al Qaeda took another strange twist today when the judge delayed the proceedings to give the defense team time to review last-minute evidence likely to favor the defendant. Army Col. Peter Brownback arraigned Omar Ahmed Khadr here today on charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, supporting terrorism and spying. Khadr, who sat in the courtroom in a white detainee uniform with his hair tucked up under a black skull cap, waived the right to raise...

For a decade, Tom DeLay ruthlessly enforced Republican rule in Washington with such vigour that he was nicknamed "The Hammer". But the party's former leader in the House of Representatives will this month launch a national grassroots movement to combat the liberal activists who he believes outfoxed and outmanoeuvred Republicans to win the 2006 mid-term elections. Mr DeLay, who revelled in his reputation as a no-holds-barred Washington operator as the party's chief whip and then majority leader from 1995 to 2005, aims to instil an army of conservatives across the country with his political street-fighting skills. Tom DeLay: 'I have...

Do As I Say, Not as I do Please note, the first paragraphs of this post are excerpted from my book as the topic discussed dovetails perfectly with the story I will shortly reference. I saw no need to reinvent the wheel. "When we [Republicans] came to power in 1994, most lobbying firms were headed by Democrats, staffed by Democrats and funded Democrat initiatives with millions of dollars. In fact, K-Street had actually been built by the Democrat majority over the previous fifty years or so. Then they had to deal with us. Picture it: a senior lobbyist would...

SAN DIEGO – A conflict between passengers at Lindbergh Field Tuesday night caused the overnight delay of an American Airlines flight headed to Chicago. Flight 590 was scheduled to depart at 11 p.m. for Chicago O'Hare International Airport but was rescheduled for Wednesday at 10:15 a.m. after some kind of dispute among customers started at the gate and continued onto the plane, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner. While Wagner said it is the airlines policy not to disclose any information about their passengers, televised reports claimed that the incident involved a group of six to seven Iraqi Americans and...

Biden Says Bush Wants to Delay Chaos Wednesday August 29, 2007 12:01 AM By MIKE GLOVER Associated Press Writer DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) - Democrat Joe Biden charged Tuesday that President Bush's policies in Iraq are designed to confuse voters and ensure that a chaotic end to the war is delayed until after he leaves office. Biden pointed to the turmoil that accompanied the end of the Vietnam War, with Americans plucked from the roof of the U.S. Embassy as enemy troops poured into Saigon. He said Bush wants to avoid such a stain on the end of his presidency. ``They...

Denny Hastert never met a problem he couldn’t solve. He was so good at legislating that it’s possible he would have been just as successful in his career had he never been Speaker at all. That is to say, Denny didn’t need the gavel to lead, but to a greater degree than many know, Congress needed him to govern. He was as committed a conservative and as loyal a Republican as I ever met, and yet principled liberals and partisan Democrats never had a harsh word for him. Whether as a back-bencher, as my chief deputy whip, or as Speaker...

Two Koreas agree to postpone summit until early October: presidential office By Yoo Cheong-mo SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Saturday asked South Korea to postpone the inter-Korean summit slated for Aug. 28-30 in Pyongyang until early October, citing severe flood damage sustained by the North, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said. In response, South Korea accepted the North's request and proposed holding the summit on Oct. 2-4 in the North Korean capital, Cheon said.

Holocaust survivors are dying off, yet the most complete records of the genocide remain difficult for them to see A bitter, public war has erupted between grass-roots Holocaust survivor organizations and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum over some 16 miles of Holocaust-era records held by the International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen, Germany. The archive contains some 42 million records of the incarceration and enslavement of 17 million Nazi victims, about 70 percent of which are digitized. Until recently, the files were secret. A 2006 treaty negotiated among the 11 nations of the International Tracing Commission that control the...

Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News Canadian Lindsay McCreith came to Buffalo for an MRI after being told he would have to wait over four months for one at home. After battling brain cancer, Lindsay McCreith is ready for his next fight: He’s taking on the Canadian health care system. His case has potential repercussions on both sides of the border as pressure grows for health reform. It started when McCreith, a resident of Newmarket, north of Toronto, suffered a seizure last year. He was told in Canada he would have to wait more than four months for an MRI to rule...

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told a gathering that legalized abortion is in large part responsible for illegal immigration in the United States. . .(he)said: "I contend [abortion] affects you in immigration. If we had those 40 million children that were killed over the last 30 years, we wouldn’t need the illegal immigrants to fill the jobs that they are doing today.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay finally won one Wednesday in his effort to beat back a campaign-related indictment in Texas. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided not to reinstate one charge of conspiracy to violate a state election law that had already been thrown out by a lower court judge.

Texas High Court Dismisses Charge Against DeLay, Big Three Ignore It Posted by Matthew Sheffield on June 28, 2007 - 00:37. After immediately jumping on the news that then-House majority leader Tom DeLay was indicted by a Democratic Texas prosecutor, the big three networks refused to mention the Wednesday news that the Texas supreme court has approved the dismissal of one of the charges against him.The charges were originally dismissed by a lower court judge (an event which the big three just barely covered) who ruled that the laws under which the former congressman was indicted did not exist during...

AUSTIN, Texas - The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday refused to reinstate a dropped conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

“The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today ruled that I was wrongfully indicted by Ronnie Earle, the Mike Nifong of Texas, on laws that didn’t even exist. The court affirmed the decision to throw out the conspiracy indictments because they were based on laws that weren’t even on the books. What Ronnie Earle accomplished is no rookie error – it’s a political attack using our legal system as the primary weapon. “Ronnie Earle’s politically motivated indictments cost Republicans the leader of their choice, and my family hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. The damage he has done to...

The state’s highest criminal court today affirmed the 2005 dismissal of a felony indictment against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two associates. In the 5-4 decision, the court affirmed Judge Pat Priest’s decision to throw out an indictment accusing DeLay and his associates, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, of conspiring to violate state election laws. The Sugar Land Republican, who retired from Congress in 2006 because of the indictments arising from the 2002 elections, still faces a charge of conspiring to launder corporate money into campaign donations. In 2005, just months after the indictments, Priest ruled that...

NewYorker article. Only link allowed by Excerpt and Link rules. Interesting material inside. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/04/070604fa_fact_goldberg?printable=true

This picture shows Pope Benedict XVI meeting Alice von Hildebrand in a private audience at the Vatican on 26 March. That was when he indicated, as we report today, that the indult, or permission, for universal celebration of the Tridentine Mass could be published this month. That meeting did however take place before the German bishops sent a seven-page letter outlining their objections. Another person who witnessed the audience tells me that when she asked Pope Benedict XVI to grant the indult, his precise reponse to her was: 'Something is coming in May.' Another extremely senior clerical source tells me...

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is calling on the Justice Department either to drop its investigation of his wife and former political associates or else to bring charges quickly. DeLay said he has given the FBI documents exonerating his wife, but an associate of the former lawmaker said that agents have followed up with a fresh round of subpoenas. The inquiry appears to be focused on determining whether DeLay’s wife, Christine, earned her pay from two organizations controlled by Ed Buckham, a lobbyist once closely affiliated with the former Republican leader, according to sources interviewed by federal investigators....

Democratic leaders are acting like traitors by opposing the Iraq war, and President Bush must answer with a toughened stance, former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Monday. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "are getting very, very close to treason," DeLay said in a meeting with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "We have people dying," he said. "Not just our soldiers, but innocent citizens dying in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of these evil people, and you have your elected leaders making these kinds of statements that embolden the enemy. It's unbelievable." [Snip] Bush...

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2007 – President Bush yesterday once again called for Congress to send him a clean emergency war-spending bill that does not include tacked on funding measures and a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. Without the supplemental funds requested by the White House in early February, military officials will be compelled to shift money around to fill expenditure disparities, Bush said during his weekly radio address to the nation. “In the next few days, our military leaders will notify Congress that they will be forced to transfer $1.6 billion from other military accounts to make...

After Imus, DeLay Calls for Rosie to Be Fired Wants Conservatives to Lead Anti-O'Donnell Push AOL (April 13) -- Fanning the flames of discontent sparked by the Imus controversy, former congressman Tom DeLay is making a plea for his fellow conservatives to get Rosie O'Donnell fired for recent remarks she made. Is Rosie the Next Imus? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rosie vs. O'Reilly: The Feud Behind the Firing Calls? Rosie's Rant O'Reilly's Response -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sound Off at the Cooler: Did Rosie Cross the Line? "I'm calling for conservatives to take on Rosie O'Donnell," DeLay said during an interview with CNN. "She criticized...

After Imus, DeLay Calls for Rosie to Be Fired Wants Conservatives to Lead Anti-O'Donnell Push (April 13) -- Fanning the flames of discontent sparked by the Imus controversy, former congressman Tom DeLay is making a plea for his fellow conservatives to get Rosie O'Donnell fired for recent remarks she made. "I'm calling for conservatives to take on Rosie O'Donnell," DeLay said during an interview with CNN. "She criticized and ridiculed Chinese-Americans, she accused the president of being responsible for 9/11. Let's now start calling for her resignation." He also recently penned an article on TownHall.com titled "If the Left Takes...

Don Imus was recently fired from his nationally syndicated radio show and television simulcast. He has become that radio guy who got fired for saying something racist. But that wasn't be the real reason. Yes, his comments were deplorable, and, especially for a broadcaster of his experience, truly odd. He says it was a misfired joke, and he has apologized, several times, and seems genuinely sorry for letting such a joke cross his lips. But that’s not enough – the Left, true to form, wants him publicly and professionally destroyed. The message of the ongoing Imus scandal is simple: Verbal...

ABC's Jake Tapper Reports: In his new book "No Retreat, No Surrender," former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, compares liberals to Adolph Hitler. “I believe it was Adolf Hitler who first acknowledged that the big lie is more effective than the little lie, because the big lie is so audacious, such an astonishing immorality, that people have a hard time believing anyone would say it if it wasn’t true. You know, the big lie — like the Holocaust never happened or dark-skinned people are less intelligent than light-skinned people. Well, by charging this big lie” — that DeLay broke...

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats postponed on Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' first chance to testify in his own defense over the firings of eight federal prosecutors. The decision to shelve next week's Senate Appropriations hearing frustrated the White House, which wants Gonzales to quickly give lawmakers his side of the story amid calls for his resignation. But Sen. Barbara Mikulski (news, bio, voting record), D-Md, said the political firestorm should be resolved before Gonzales talks about the Justice Department's spending plan for next year. "It would be very difficult in this environment to give the department's budget request the attention...

Conservatives need to stop "pointing fingers at each other" and unite or Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the U.S., former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said in an exclusive NewsMax interview. The Texas Republican also admitted he was a "self-centered jerk" before he was born again, called Nancy Pelosi "dangerous" – and said he spent five weeks "on my knees" praying before deciding to resign from congress last June. DeLay, whose new book is "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight" – spoke with Paul Crespo. [snip] NewsMax: I'm switching gears. How was the left able to...

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2007 – Further congressional delay in forwarding an appropriate emergency war spending bill to the White House will damage military readiness and morale as well as endanger the nation, President Bush told reporters today at a White House news conference. “Congress’s failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines, and others could see their loved ones headed back to the war sooner than they need to,” Bush said. That scenario is “unacceptable,” Bush said,...

March 21, 2007 Editorial Tom DeLay Looks Back Since his forced retreat from power in a corruption scandal, Tom DeLay, the former House Republican majority leader, must have been watching re-runs of “Cool Hand Luke.” That film’s cynical rationalization of life’s conflicts as merely a “failure to communicate” is Mr. DeLay’s approach to explaining the Republicans’ loss of Congress last year. No, no, he insists in a new memoir, it wasn’t voters revolting against the quid pro quo corruption that Mr. DeLay turned into a dark art. Rather, Republicans “did not communicate their message” and overcome “short-term, media-fed issues.”...

State regulators are exploring whether to ask the federal government for a waiver that would allow California more time to meet air quality standards in heavily polluted areas. At issue is a federal requirement that the California Air Resources Board reduce tiny particles of pollution by the year 2015. The microscopic specs, known as PM 2.5, come primarily from diesel engine exhaust and can lodge in the lungs. Studies have linked the particles to lung disease and heart problems. In a March 12 letter that was made public Monday, board executive director Catherine Witherspoon suggested that the San Joaquin Valley...