Category Archives: Scandalized!

As I’d expect, ArchPundit is your one-stop shop for all things on the Jack ‘n’ Jeri Ryan divorce saga. If you need a little extra helping of snark, I recommend Pete and Julia (be sure to read all of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Rep. Chris Bell gives his reasons for filing the ethics complaint against Tom DeLay in today’s Chron. I can’t wait to see the letters-to-the-editor this will draw in response. I’ve reproduced the whole piece at the Texas Tuesdays site for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I suppose we should have seen this one coming: In response to Rep. Chris Bell’s ethics complaint against Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a GOP flack has moved to forbid the filing of such complaints by lame-duck members. U.S. Rep. Ray … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Travis County DA Ronnie Earle is looking into a complaint by State Sen. Bob Deuell that Rep. Martin Frost misused corporate funds in 2000. Travis County prosecutors said Wednesday they are investigating an allegation that U.S. Rep. Martin Frost illegally … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Greg has some useful things to say about the two main players in the Chris Bell/Tom DeLay ethics complaint saga. Check it out. On a separate note, see The Stakeholder for some more DeLay-related shenanigans. I can’t believe he’s still … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Rep. Chris Bell has officially filed his ethics complaint against Tom DeLay. Hold on to your hats, it could get bumpy from here. Talk of retaliation is already in the air. A DeLay ally, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), said … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Roll Call answers some of the questions I had asked about the ethics complaint Rep. Chris Bell will be filing today against Tom DeLay. Bell’s action is a blow to the unofficial ethics truce that has existed between the two … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Outgoing Rep. Chris Bell, a casualty of the DeLay-engineered redistricting, is fighting back by filing an ethics complaint against The Hammer. This is sure to send shock waves around DC, as it is the first real ethic complaint since the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The poor Texas GOP can’t even get its own Attorney General to cut them some slack in the TAB/TRM grand jury investigations. Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, has ruled that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle does not have … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I must have missed the op-ed in the April 21 Chron in which Tom DeLay boasted of the construction of the Oaks at Rio Bend, which is a residential campus for foster children and their families. According to this Press … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember when it was revealed that the state government threw a quarter million bucks at a Las Vegas consulting firm so it could draw up some custom slot machine legislation? Turns out that the point man for that firm is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The weekly San Antonio Current gives a brief overview of the Bacardi/DeLay story, which in their case now has the local angle of involvement from Reps. Lamar Smith and Henry Bonilla, both of whom are just shocked that anyone would … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Tom DeLay’s sham “charity” Celebrations for Children will not be used to shake down GOP Convention attendees in New York this summer. “It has become clear New York around the time of the Republican Convention is too expensive a venue, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Another day, another complaint about campaign law violations involving Tom DeLay and Bacardi. Anyone know what that makes the total so far? I’ve lost count. Thanks to AJ Garcia for the tip. UPDATE: URL fixed. Thanks to Charles M in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The state GOP has filed an ethics complaint against Democratic State Rep and former House Speaker Pete Laney, alleging that he used campaign contributions improperly as reimbursement for his personal plane. Republicans have repeatedly attacked Laney on the issue since … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A criminal complaint has been filed against the state GOP related to corporate donations from 2002. The criminal complaint was filed by two government watchdog groups, Public Citizen and Common Cause of Texas, in response to a Houston Chronicle article, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As promised yesterday, Rep. Lamar Smith filed legislation to once again try to give Bacardi rum a sweetheart trademark deal that isn’t available to other American companies. Smith, R-San Antonio, filed a bill Wednesday to alter U.S. trademark rules to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Whatever else one may say about Tom DeLay, once he’s been bought he has the decency to stay bought. Just ask Bacardi, on whose behalf DeLay has been trying to sneak or force through a bill that would give them … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Chron kinda teased me with the headline of this front page story: “Possible violations of law found in state GOP money trail”. The story, which says that a review of “more than 10,000 pages of state and federal campaign … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Texas Ethic Commission is investigating Governor Perry’s trip to the Bahamas to discuss school finance reform with various well-heeled contributors and anti-tax ideologues. At issue is the money Perry used to pay for himself, wife Anita and several top … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I know, that’s not exactly the kind of headline to make you swoon with anticipation, but in this case we are talking about a couple of DeLay cronies and the millions of dollars they’ve apparently bilked from various Indian tribes. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

House Speaker Tom Craddick’s lawyer says he wasn’t a bagman for TRMPAC, though someone in his office may have been. A lawyer for Speaker Tom Craddick said Monday that his client never personally delivered campaign checks to GOP House candidates … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The National Republican Congressional Committee has agreed to pay a $280,000 fine for soft-money violations in 1999. The FEC has entered into a conciliation agreement with the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) resulting from its 1999 transfer of $500,000 in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A few updates on the various DeLay-related scandals, brouhahas, and lawsuits: The original lawsuit filed by four losing Democratic candidates after the 2002 election in which they charged that ads run against them by the Texas for a Republican Majority … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Just a quick update from the weekend on the TAB/TRM investigations: Travis County DA Ronnie Earle has released a ton of documents pursuant to Andy Taylor’s nuisancy Open Records Requests. I’ll say this for Taylor: He sure does put the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Just a few links to keep you on top of what’s happening. First, Texans for Public Justice connects some dots between the Bush Pioneers and the various corporate sponsors of the 2003 Lege. Melanie Sloan has sent a letter to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Tom DeLay is denying earlier reports that he has taken steps to deal with the possibility of being indicted by a Travis County grand jury in its investigation of TRM/TAB (see here). “If the law is the standard in the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Looks like Governor Perry’s Bahamian getaway was not appreciated by some Texans who weren’t afraid to tell him about it. “With all due respect, have you LOST YOUR MIND?” asked a Lockhart woman in an e-mail to Perry. “This little … Continue reading → Continue reading →

News of the potential indictment and step-aside of Tom DeLay has hit the Chron, and it seems that DeLay has reacted to his situation the way he reacts to pretty much everything else: Cry “partisanship” and raise funds. U.S. House … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Byron points to this WaPo article in which watchdog groups call for a House ethics investigation of another Tom DeLay moneymaking machine, in this case one masquerading as a charitable organization. Democracy 21 contends that the charity, Celebrations for Children … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Want to know where our globetrotting Governor is? Don’t bother checking his official schedule ’cause it won’t tell you. Defending a trip he took to the Bahamas with a group that included campaign donors, Gov. Rick Perry suggested Texans can … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The state Republican Part continues its efforts to smear Travis County DA Ronnie Earle by claiming that he has a double standard because he didn’t go after former Attorney General Dan Morales. Earle said he did not investigate Morales because … Continue reading → Continue reading →

In response to some Republican whinging, Travis County DA Ronnie Earle released a bunch of documents on Friday related to his grand jury investigation of TAB and TRM. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle on Friday denied accusations that he … Continue reading → Continue reading →

All sorts of stuff for your perusal regarding the many interesting activities of Tom DeLay and his band of acolytes. First up is this Salon piece which look at the TRMPAC grand jury investigation and predicts that indictments will be … Continue reading → Continue reading →