|
Edited on Mon Oct-03-05 02:33 PM by txaslftist
My "Pay it Back" Letter:
Dear Editor: Although the ultimate question of whether Tom Delay committed a crime will be decided by a jury, certain things are true, and even Tom Delay would not deny them. First of all, it is against the law for corporations to directly pay candidates for elected office in Texas. Second, several large corporations, including Sears, paid about $190,000.00 into Tom Delay's outfit, who then forwarded the money to the Republican National Committee. The RNC then turned around and gave individual candidates exactly $190,000.00 for use in their campaigns.
Tom Delay's defense is not that this did not happen. His defense is either that he did not know it was happening (which is a little hard to believe) or that by sending the money through party Headquarters, this extra "Texas Two Step" made it a legal transaction. While that issue is for a jury and judge to decide, the facts remain. The money was paid by the big corporations and the exact same amount of money wound up in the coffers of people running for office.
If the spirit of the law is to be followed, not just the letter, then these contributions amount to corporations paying for representation. While some may say that this is okay, the secrecy that went with the transactions meant that people didn't know who was paying for the ads we all saw on TV for this candidate and that. Not surprisingly, Delay voted for big business interests every time he had a chance. West Texans deserve better than that. We have a right to know who is footing the bills for our representatives so we can have an idea where they are going to stand on the issues.
Representative Jeb Bradley (R-New Hampshire) apparently agrees. He has volunteered to pay back the $15,000.00 he got from ARMPAC, one of Delay's political action committees. Randy Neugebauer also recieved $15,000.00 from one of Delay's PACs, without a whisper to the public of where the money was really coming from. Shouldn't Randy take this opportunity to show his constituents that he's not on any one's payroll? Shouldn't he take this chance to show that he's not for sale?
Pay the money back, Randy. Prove to us that you aren't for sale to anyone.
|