The WSJ Sends a Signal: THE HAMMER IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE!

[kpete]

Dec 07, 2005
When the Wall Street Journal editorial page gives prime real estate to a piece (subscription only) about Tom DeLay's serious legal problems, you know The Hammer's problems are, well, serious.

Today's column by Jonathan Gurwitz of the San Antonio Express-News, headlined "Tom DeLay's Woes Won't End in Texas," says the money-laundering case underway in Austin is the least of DeLay's worries.
http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2005/12/death_knell_for.html

"The far graver threat to Mr. DeLay's political future is inside the Beltway, with the escalating scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"Mr. DeLay's ties to Mr. Abramoff are numerous. Some expenses associated with a political junket and golfing trip to the United Kingdom in 2000 showed up on Mr. Abramoff's credit card. Mr. DeLay made frequent use of Mr. Abramoff's skybox at the MCI Center. Christine DeLay, the congressman's wife, worked for a lobbying firm that received referrals from Mr. Abramoff. These only scratch the surface of a relationship between Mr. Abramoff, Mr. DeLay, and Mr. DeLay's office that stretches back a decade and involves some of the lobbyist's most noxious efforts.

"It is the Michael Scanlon connection, however, that may prove to be the most damaging to Mr. DeLay and others on Capitol Hill. Mr. Scanlon was Mr. DeLay's press secretary who went on to become a partner of Mr. Abramoff. Last month he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe public officials and is now cooperating in the broadening bribery and corruption probe.

"The gravity of events in Washington is a world away from the ethics antics in Austin. A former aide has turned star government witness. Congressional Republicans (those not implicated in the Abramoff scandal) are becoming increasingly inhospitable to Mr. DeLay's leadership. For all his grandiose faults, Ronnie Earle may be the best political friend Tom DeLay has right now."
(subscription only)
http://users2.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?a=t&d=wsj&sd=users2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB113392575893615947.html%3Fmod%3Dopinion%26ojcontent%3Dotep
caught on:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/

[stop the bleeding]

1. someone drop this by FR so that they can give each other high

fives like the other day when they found out that their boy was still indicted, "Morans"

[EVDebs]

21. Words for new song, begins "Send the Hammer to the Slammer..."

[burythehatchet]

2. Its just not happening fast enough for my taste nt

[unblock]

4. au contraire mon frere

the sooner they can get the scandals out and over with, the better for the banana republicans.

we want a good window into all the ugliness around october 2006 and full pandemonium to break out around october 2008.

[burythehatchet]

6. I know you're right, but the thought of the cockaroach

sharing a cell with Tiny McLongdick, next to Abramoff's cell is just too appealing a vision to wait.

[Drifter]

19. But that doesn't mean that ...

Delay doesn't belong in Jail.

Cheers
Drifter

[unblock]

20. they can all retire to alcatraz as far as i'm concerned!

[lonestarnot]

12. The wheels of justice turn ever so slowly... ain't it a bitch!

[marmar]

3. Too bad, so sad...

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

:nopity:

[Deep13]

5. "We're just waiting for the hammer to fall."

Yeah
Here we stand or here we fall
History won't care at all
Make the bed, light the light
Lady mercy won't be home tonight

Yeah, you don't waste no time at all
Don't hear the bell but you answer the call
It comes to you as to us all
Hey, we're just waiting
For the hammer to fall - yeah

Oh every night, and every day
A little piece of you is falling away
But lift your face, the western way, baby
Build your muscles as your body decays

Yeah, toe your line and play their game
Yeah, let the anaesthetic cover it all
Till one day they call your name
You know it's time for the hammer to fall - yeah

Rich or poor or famous for
Your truth it's all the same - oh no - oh no
Oh lock your door but rain is pouring
Through your window pane - oh no - yeah
Baby now your struggle's all vain

Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh

For we who grew up tall and proud
In the shadow of the mushroom cloud
Convinced our voices can't be heard
We just wanna scream it louder and louder and louder

What the hell we fighting for ?
Ah, just surrender and it won't hurt at all
You just got time to say your prayers
Eh, while you're waiting for the hammer to hammer to fall
Hey, yes, it's starting to fall eh, hammer, you know
Yeah, hammer to fall, wooh, ah, hey, eh woowoo, ha eh hammer
Waiting for the hammer to fall baby
Yeah yeah while you're waiting for the hammer to fall
Give it to me one more time

[acmejack]

7. Now Ronnie Earle is "grandiose"?

A real newsflash to those of us who know him.

[catmandu57]

8. Let's hope the net is very wide

picking up anyone who even breathed air in the same room as this scumbag.

[starroute]

9. Don't forget the Brent Wilkes connection

Wilkes is the guy who was bribing "Duke" Cunningham. A list of the top recipients of his largesse in 2000-05, posted at http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/12/6/182318/871, begins:

NRCCC $68,000
Duke Cunningham $55,750
John Doolittle $35,000
Duncan Hunter $27,500
Tom Delay $26,000

There are also Wilkes connections to the Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying firm founded by a couple of former DeLay aides with Abramoff connections.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051204/news_1n4adcs.html

Amazingly, it looks like all these scandals are going to flow toghether into one monster scandal -- with DeLay right at the middle of it.

[snippy]

10. The republican party has become a criminal enterprise.

The Bush-Abramoff-DeLay crime family is just one part of the enterprise.

[ohio_liberal]

13. Money laundering

That's what it all comes down to. The RNC is laundering money.

[Bandit]

17. No it is even far worse than that

When they set up fake companies to receive huge government defense contracts and those companies do nothing but funnel money to the GOP then it is close to treason. They are stealing Defense funding to advance their criminal empire and that is not supporting our troops.This is fraud on a grand scale and I am sure it involves most of the Republican Party.

[PurityOfEssence]

18. Sorta like the faith-based organizations, huh?

Boy, you really hit the nut of the issue here: it's embezzlement from the taxpayers, massive fraud, extortion based on the fear of our external enemies, abuse of office, campaign finance larceny and some good old-fashioned graft. Hell, money laundering is just a vehicle for the other uglinesses.

Once again, by using the people's fear, monies can be allocated to secret budgets and also spent from more public ones to lavish funding on those who are supposedly to make us more safe. When some of those entities are mere shells designed to funnel government money into the coffers of a political party or certain candidates, it's just plain wrong. It's like the money sent to faith-based organizations that finds its way back into campaign accounts.

The way you state it, it's actually clear and understandable enough to stick; too bad there's no sex...

Funny thing about this country: you can rob everyone blind, cheat, kill and go on imperial rampages, but if you have out-of-wedlock sex, THAT'S a story.

Then again, that brothel rumor's got legs, and it looks like they may be spread.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

14. "Become"?? Check back to the underpinnings of the Eisenhower Admin....

...especially his VP, Richard Nixon.

[Peace Patriot]

11. The WSJ is a barrel of laughs. Take this one:

"The gravity of events in Washington is a world away from the ethics antics in Austin."--WSJ

Don't they wish.

-----------

"Ethics antics in Austin." I don't know about you, but I get a picture of an anthill of ethical ants getting kicked over and all those vicious little beasts running all around like mad, with their little red stingers all anxious to bite somebody, and running all the way to Washington DC, and up the pantlegs of the editors of the Wall Street Journal, and half of the suits in Washington, as they contemplate the "gravity of events" over a power breakfast, and all these powermongers starting to scratch their legs and cry out "Ouch!" and "Damn!", and the ants running all over their breakfast, and into their briefcases, and looking into their bank accounts, and storming the White House, stingers aflame, and chewing on the furniture and undermining the pillars, and biting Karl Rove right on his big fat ass, and hunting them all down, and torturing them with ant bites until they scream for mercy, and turning Washington DC into a great big pile of dirt riddled with tiny tunnels for the ants to store food in and raise their young--in an ant paradise of ethical behavior.

And then there are the "tics."

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. What do you make of that comment referring to Ronnie Earle?

Why would he be the best political friend? Are they suggesting that Ronnie Earle may not be up to the task?

[No Exit]

16. Well, DUH, Mister Wall Street Journal!

That Scanlon guy, he's double trouble. Worked for BOTH DeLay and Abramoff, in succession.

I hope Scanlon has good protection. One thing's for sure: if he commits suicide by overdosing on DDT, we'll know who to look for...