The Foreign Junket: Who Paid for the Malaysia Trip? (Time on DeLay)

[struggle4progress]

On Aug. 30, 2001, then majority whip Tom DeLay, his wife, his staff and two Florida Republican House members arrived in Malaysia on what was billed as an educational trip. After a day of informal meetings and a fancy dinner given by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur, they decamped to the Datai Hotel, whose promotional material describes it as located on "a mystical island of wild scenic beauty."

Says Heritage Foundation president Edwin Feulner, whose organization was the official sponsor of the trip: "I sat by the pool while they played golf."

But who really paid for the Malaysia trip? A Heritage senior fellow who was on the trip tells TIME that it wasn't Heritage. He says that Belle Haven Consultants, a for-profit, Hong Kong-based firm linked to the Malaysian government, played a key role. "Heritage had nothing to do with it," says the senior fellow, former Wyoming Senator Malcolm Wallop. "Belle Haven did." It would be a violation of House ethics rules if a group other than the official sponsor paid for a trip for a member of Congress. DeLay's spokesman Dan Allen insists, "Heritage sponsored, organized and paid for the trip," and Heritage spokeswoman Khristine Bershers said documentary proof exists in storage but was not immediately available. <snip>

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1050222,00.html

Standard mush from Time ...