Delay and Company.......(CNN)

[RedEarth]

Delay and Company
By KAREN TUMULTY
Monday, March 14, 2005 Posted: 2:07 PM EST (1907 GMT
The G.O.P. leader's troubles mount, with new questions about his dealings with the former aide who helped build his political machine.

Ed Buckham's name was one you didn't hear much outside the secluded corridor where he worked on the first floor of the Capitol. But in that suite, which houses the majority whip's offices, Buckham was far more than an ordinary congressional aide in the three heady years following the Republican takeover of the House in 1994.

Thanks to an unusually close and trusting relationship with his boss, Tom DeLay's chief of staff quietly became one of the most powerful people in Washington.

"He was the guy DeLay turned to when he made a final decision," recalls a former aide to a member of the House Republican leadership, "and even after he made the final decision, the guy who could talk him out of it."

What even fewer people outside that office knew was that the two shared a bond that transcended power and politics: Buckham, a licensed nondenominational minister, was also DeLay's pastor.

For a while, in DeLay's early days as whip, they organized daily voluntary prayer sessions for the staff--until it began making some aides uncomfortable. After that, according to two sources who worked in the office at the time, the two of them frequently prayed together privately, joining hands in DeLay's office.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/14/delay.company.tm/

[truthisfreedom]

1. how precious.

how utterly precious. i love it.

[GetTheRightVote]

2. Nice to see CNN bringing the story out

:kick:

[burythehatchet]

3. don't get too hopeful, it only means that the big house has

cut delay loose. He's done. He's become a liability to the big boys.

on edit, if you think I'm being cynical, consider that CNN has had this information for years. Did they investigate? Did they dig for facts and report them? NO. They only put their crap out after its common knowledge for years.

[rainbow4321]

9. Growing list of recent Delay articles....

http://dailydelay.blogspot.com/

TIME magazine -- exposes relationship between DeLay and former aide, now power-broker Ed Beckham

Newsweek -- Breaking news that the FBI is investigating money that was contributed to the think tank that may have funded DeLay's trip to England and Scotland

NY Times (Sunday) -- DeLay is continuing to rake in money from corporate interests and members of Congress for his legal defense fund

LA Times -- Chuck Neubauer follows up his reporting last week about who funded DeLay's golf trip to Scotland

Washington Post (Saturday) -- Gambling interests funded DeLay's travel

Houston Chronicle -- DeLay's hometown paper does a wrap up of all his troubles

[lonestarnot]

17. Yep CNN is just blowing in the wind with the story...biatches!

[0007]

19. You've got that right! CNN is no better than Tom DeLay

....and anyone that thinks different needs a saliva test.

[Robeson]

27. You're right. He wouldn't be going down, unless he was becoming...

...a liability, and the media was given the OK to help out. Its kind of like the mob. When a Capo starts sticking his head out and becoming an embarassment, they take care of it "in-house".

[gratuitous]

4. Hint for CNN

If you're going to lead off your story talking about Ed Buckham, it might be a good idea to tell us what's going on with Ed Buckham, rather than blathering on and on about his prayer meetings and behind the scenes power plays, and report on why he's a significant person today.

Journalism not much in evidence in this story . . .

[Career Prole]

5. It's actually Karen Tumulty's Time magazine article

reprinted on sibling CNN.com...
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1037676,00.html

Getting kind of tricky figuring out whose is what anymore.

[gratuitous]

6. Oh, okay

Hint for Time.

But what do I expect from the magazine that hired Whittaker Chambers?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

21. It's one dude pounding out missives in the

White House basement.

[Career Prole]

23. That must be the same basement Cheney lives in!

He's even wearing some of Crashcart's "formal occasion" finery! :7

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

24. Laying on the floor, just off camera:

[Career Prole]

25. BWAAAHAHAHA! You've got to admire his perseverance...

...it must have taken months to scoop up enough roadkill to make that tux!
But then he probably makes the Secret Service dudes fetch it.

[0007]

20. CNN is a entertainment center for the mindless freepers!

[rainbow4321]

7. Repukes are starting to panic re: mainstream media tracking Delay shit

Yeah..cuz it is easier for repukes to trash bloggers for telling the truth about Delay than it is to trash mainstream...



http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3083290

House Republicans are publicly standing by DeLay, R-Sugar Land, but some wonder privately whether the reports by Washington-based reporters will seep into news media outlets in their districts and derail their legislative initiatives

<snip>

Potentially most damaging was a story in the Washington Post about a trip to Britain by DeLay, his wife, two congressional aides and two lobbyists.

In his financial disclosure forms, DeLay said the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research paid for the trip, which was verified by the center. But the Post reported that it may have been underwritten by Jack Abramoff, a registered lobbyist, and two Indian tribes that were his clients. House rules prohibit registered lobbyists from paying for members' travels.

Two months after the trip, the Post reported, DeLay voted against a bill that could have hurt the tribes' gambling interests. Six months after the trip, the report said, he made a floor speech in which he called one of the tribe's leaders a "champion of peace and prosperity."

[leftofthedial]

8. how can these religiously insane wack jobs

pray like a student the night before the seminary finals

and then be such thugs, conmen and criminals all day every day?

punk thug motherfuckers.

[Brooklyn Michael]

10. I wonder....

While I myself do not subscribe to any particular religion, I've known too many good Christians who are NOT like those on the religious right to dismiss someone's devotion out of hand....

The thing I wonder about is: Who do people like Delay and Buckham, Delay being one of the more evil sonofabitches I've seen in the last 20 years, pray to?

I really don't mean to be flip, but I truly don't understand. Do they really kneel in their plush offices and pray to a god who hates fags and sent AIDS to afflict them, who not just supports but encourages the killing of innocents in the name of "democracy", and who "favors" the United States over all other nations, even though we let huge amounts of our own citizens live in poverty?

I remember after 9/11, when people were saying (and, I believe, rightly so) that one of the biggest steps in fighting terrorism was for mainstream Muslims, individuals and entire nations, to denounce what the more extremist factions of their otherwise peaceful religion were doing (i.e. using violence and terror tactics to effect social/political change, or at least say it was for social/political change).

Now, I realize the above article was not about religion per se, but considering what an unmitigated bastard Delay is, and that his right hand man is a minister, isn't it now time that the more SANE Christians in this country started standing up and doing more to counter the growing (but stil disproportionate) influence of our own homegrown religious extremists?

Or am I just a crazy ol' heathen, worrying needlessly that we're well on our way to becoming a totalitarian theocracy?

O8) :evilfrown: :wtf:

[Laurab]

26. I often wonder the same thing

Since I think of myself as a (somewhat) good Christian. They don't pray to any God that I am familiar with. I think there are a LOT of good Christians - those are the ones who don't go around telling everyone what good Christians they are. They SHOW it, in their deeds, and in their lives. The current regime is giving real Christians a bad name, which they don't deserve IMO.

I do think just recently some of the saner Christians have started speaking out. All I know is, it's not the God I pray to, and the God I pray to is definitely NOT the God who "talks" to the shrub.

I certainly don't think you're worrying needlessly. These people are destroying our country (and several others), in the name of their God. I'm sure worried.

[Gman]

11. Every prison needs a chaplain

they'll put this guy to good use when he serves his term.

[rodeodance]

12. others are getting ready for his position in case he falls

......"As members head home, they'll review the various media reports," says Arizona's Hayworth, who has been burned by revelations that he used a skybox supplied by Abramoff for fund raising. "I'm sure that it's in the best interest of the majority leader and the majority to have an accounting of what transpired."

A more ominous sign for DeLay: those who might succeed him have begun quietly positioning themselves to make a move if the opportunity arises, sources say.

Among the possible successors most frequently mentioned are majority whip Roy Blount of Missouri, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Reynolds of New York, House Education Committee chairman John Boehner and leadership chairman Rob Portman of Ohio.

Not so long ago, it looked as though the speakership would be DeLay's for the taking after Hastert left the post, probably after the next election. But if DeLay is doing any praying in his office these days, it's probably to hold on to the job he has.

[Tansy_Gold]

22. Hayworth

:puke:

(there are no words sufficient)

:puke:

[sendero]

13. They'll handle this just like they did Newtie...

... (a similar lying, cheating, intern fucking hypocrital sack of shit).

They'll send him packing quietly. The news media will hardly make mention of it. And a few years later he'll resurface as a sage savant.

[lonestarnot]

18. Newtie the pootie....What about McCain...his Keeting 6 ordeal... that's

been swept under the heap pile too. Now he's into some dealing with select you channels cable...sorry can't remember the name. He's taking money from them while pushing this select your channels crap that he knows in advance is going to cost cable users a bundle! Hike ALL rates not just the select your fundie channel users.

[Trish1168]

14. They said this morning on CNN....."Will the hammer get nailed?"

I sure hope so. He is one big corrupt m*th*r f*ck*r....although, he's a big one in a see of many smaller ones (from both parties, although its worse in the GOP).

Washington is so corrupt. The lobbyists are writing bills that no one in congress reads.

Since when does industry write our laws? I guess its since republicans had control of everything.

[UpInArms]

15. also from your link

For a while, in DeLay's early days as whip, they organized daily voluntary prayer sessions for the staff--until it began making some aides uncomfortable. After that, according to two sources who worked in the office at the time, the two of them frequently prayed together privately, joining hands in DeLay's office.

Buckham shared not only DeLay's religious faith but also his audacious vision for harnessing the financial and political clout of business and conservative interests to carry out the G.O.P. agenda and increase its majority in Congress.

<snip>

In Washington that seamless coordination between his office and the lobbying corridor of K Street has become known as DeLay Inc. It developed the muscle to push or block pretty much everything DeLay asked for, from protecting tax breaks for low-wage garment manufacturers on the Northern Mariana Islands (where DeLay spent New Year's Day 1998 with his wife and Buckham) to creating a Medicare prescription-drug plan that critics say is a better deal for pharmaceutical companies than it is for seniors.

:puke:

[Democrat 4 Ever]

16. WP Reporter was defending DeLay this morning on C-Span

He was practically a cheerleader for DeLay and many of the callers pointed that out to him. He tried to deflect their comments about saying that he didn't think the DeLay camp would feel that the Washington Post was shilling for DeLay. The caller didn't say the WP was - but that the reporter, David Allen was shilling for DeLay. He was obviously a big fan of Delay's, could not say anything bad and glossed over all of the ethical concerns while mentioned that Dems were "guilty" too. Allen, also, laughed off the suggestion that Democrats were upset over the rule changes in the "Ethics" committee. Said by refusing to cooperate under the new rules the DEMS were assuring that no investigations would ever be conducted. Failed to mention that the repukes had already made sure that no one would be investigated DUE TO the rule changes the repukes forced through.

I tried over and over again to get through to ask this guy just how much was the going rate for a WP reporter to shill for DeLay and the GOP. The government may not be paying him but I'm betting that he is getting money from somebody. I am constantly amazed at the audacity of this bunch. They don't even try to pretend to be unbiased or even handed.