"Workin' It!" with Tom Delay
Journalist Laura Rozen deftly explains today's Tom Delay indictment in today's Village Voice article, What's the Deal With the Tom DeLay Indictment?
Meaty Excerpt:
A press release from the Travis County District Attorney's office summarized the charge against DeLay as follows:
The indictment charges DeLay with conspiring with [James] Ellis and [John] Colyandro to violate the Texas Election Code by contributing corporate money to certain candidates for the Texas Legislature. It describes a scheme whereby corporate, or "soft" money, was sent to the Republican National Committee where it was exchanged for "hard" money, or money raised from individuals, and sent to those candidates. Criminal conspiracy is a State Jail Felony punishable by six months to two years in a State Jail and a fine of up to $10,000.
Specifically, D.A. Ronnie Earle has accused TRMPAC of receiving $190,000 in corporate donations, sending the money to an arm of the Republican National Committee for the express purpose of having it sent back in the form of campaign contributions to seven Texas GOP candidates running in the 2002 state elections. “The corporate fundraising," CBS reported earlier this year, based on an interview with Earle, "was done to elect Republicans to the Texas legislature so they could redistrict the state and ensure that more Republicans would be elected to the house in Washington."
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