What $225 Can Buy...

Tom Delay is known as "the hammer". He has also been called "the most corrupt man in the house". A litnany of his ethical violations are at www.thinkprogress.org, dubbed his "dirty dozen".

You may remember Tom Delay as the Majority Leader who bribed Nick Smith (R-Mi7) .

Of course this is the same, Tom Delay, that when he admonished several times by the Ethics Committee, just changed it's members to his friends.

$245 dollars bought Tom Delay a proposal for a rule change by Rep. Dave Camp and Rep. Lamar Smith (TX).

If an ethics complaint is deadlocked in the committee, it used to be automatically investigated after 45 days. Now, it goes away. Pretty convienent with a committee that is evenly split, 5 D's, 5 R's. Here's the New York Times:

An aide to Representative David Dreier, the California Republican who is chairman of the Rules Committee, said that the proposals were submitted by Republican lawmakers and that Mr. Dreier deemed them worthy of study by House Republicans. The aide referred questions to Representatives Lamar Smith of Texas and Dave Camp of Michigan, the authors, but neither could be reached for comment.
...

Another proposal would prevent action by the committee on a complaint unless the chairman and senior member of the minority party, or the committee itself, agreed that an investigation was warranted. Under the current system, if the panel does not act within 45 days, an investigation is automatically begun.

Critics of the plan said the proposal could thwart many ethics inquiries because the panel, which is evenly divided between the parties, can deadlock. In their summary of the rule change, the authors said it would preserve a lawmaker's "presumption of innocence."

What I want to know is why Rep. Dave Camp is so cheap? Rep. Camp recieved $225 from Tom Delay's PAC. (Lamar Smith only $20) This is a naked attempt by Republicans to shield and protect their Majority Leader Delay.

Dave Camp needs to be reminded that no one is above the law. We need to remind him and voters that Dave Camp felt that ethic rules needed to be laxed in the House. We need to remind him that he stood on the side of a man that breaks laws to fund Texas campaigns , that tried to bribe a Michigan Congressman, that used Federal Homeland Security resources to keep Texas Dem's from thwarting his gerry mandering plan, that used money earmarked for a children's charity to pay for a golf tournament.

Dave Camp stood on the side of corruption.

And we need to keep saying that.

originally posts by Bob Busch