CA 11

Hammer Time

Let's all take a moment and walk down memory lane on Richard Pombo's relationship with the disgraced Tom DeLay. When we're done reminiscing we'll play a little game.

Let's begin with the words of Richard Pombo:

Pombo says [he] believes DeLay will be exonerated. "Tom is my friend and I'm going to stick by him."

Only 3 short years ago, DeLay appointed Pombo to the Chair of the House Resources committee leapfrogging Pombo over 7 more senior members and making Pombo the youngest Committee Chair in history.

Seems like only yesterday when DeLay ordered Pombo and Doolittle to block a federal investigation into a crooked Houston businessman.

Reps. John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire Charles Hurwitz, documents recently obtained by The Times show. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his role in the collapse of a Texas savings and loan that cost taxpayers $1.6 billion. [...] The FDIC's chief spokesman characterized what Doolittle and Pombo did as "a seamy abuse of the legislative process."

Can it be only 6 months ago when Matt over at SNTP informed us of Pombo's DeLay ranking where we learned Pombo donated $5,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund and voted in lock-step with DeLay 3,999 times out of 4,307. Also, it was 6 months ago that Josh Marshall reported that Pombo's staffers were treated like Kings 12 times in 1 year to Abramoff's infamous $1,000 a pop skybox tickets.

Ah, the memories. The reality that Pombo wants desperately to avoid is that he's neck deep in the corruption that was institutionalized by Tom DeLay.

I promised a game - so here it is: Jeopardy. I'll take Congressional Family Values for $200, Alex.

Answers:

$200: This person was paid $115,000 to "determine the favorite charity of every member of Congress".

$400: This person directly received $43,000 in "commissions" with $1,022,729 going to their immediate family from an Abramoff slush fund dressed-up as a non-profit group working for a "pro-family" political agenda in Congress.

$600: This person received $50,000 in illicit payments to their "consulting firm" from Jack Abramoff.

$800: This person gets paid 15% of all the contributions brought into a campaign fund and was paid $180,000 so far.

$1000: This person was paid $120,225 directly from a campaign fund as a "fundraising consultant".

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Questions:

$200: Who is Christine Delay? - wife of disgraced Texas Congressman, Tom DeLay.

$400: Who is Wendy Buckham? - wife of Edwin Buckham, Tom DeLay's former Chief of Staff, whose indictment is probably in the mail.

$600: Who is Lisa Rudy? - wife of Tony Rudy, Tom DeLay's former Deputy Chief of Staff, who plead guilty to federal conspiracy charges.

$800: Who is Julie Doolittle? - wife of John Doolittle (R-CA). John was kind enough to introduce Jack Abramoff to Richard Pombo.

$1000: Who is Annette Pombo? - wife of Richard Pombo (R-CA). Rich is "sticking" by his buddy Tom all the way - or until he's in jail.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Who's ready for Final Jeopardy? Category: Tainted Congressional Donations

Answer: This charity received $1,250 of tainted money given to Richard Pombo by a former DeLay Deputy Chief of Staff who recently plead guilty to federal conspiracy charges.

Question: Who is the Boys and Girls Clubs of Stockton, Calif?

Thanks for playing!

posted by brian @ 2:51 AM