Noose Tightens Around DeLay

You can tell he's in trouble because the Fox talking heads are loudly claiming that this is all a-- you'll never guess-- liberal conspiracy. As though those three ethics violations weren't slapped on DeLay by a Republican-dominated committee. Shockingly, Bill O'Reilly is on the record saying that DeLay's actions "don't look good." That's probably the closest Fox will get to the truth all week.

From Salon:

First, the Post: "A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements." It is against the law for a member of Congress to accept travel reimbursements from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.

At the time, DeLay reported that the $57,000 Moscow trip was paid for by a Beltway nonprofit outfit. "But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign," the Post reports.

This is now the third overseas trip taken by DeLay that appears to have been paid for by foreign agents. Making matters worse, the lobbyist at the center of DeLay's Moscow trip was the notorious Jack Abramoff, who is now at the center of a federal influence-peddling and corruption probe investigation.

Then there's the Times: "The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees." The paper notes the women's duties "were described in the disclosure forms as 'fund-raising fees,' 'campaign management' or 'payroll,' with no additional details about how they earned the money."

Over the last three years DeLay's wife and daughter have received, on average, monthly paychecks worth $4,000.