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Joined: Aug 2005
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New CEG\'er
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OP
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Republican leader Tom DeLay resigns. LA Times on DeLay's resignation. DeLay was the primary architect of the "K Street project," (so named because K Street in Washington is where the major lobbying firms have their offices) in which Republican congressmen demanded money and gifts from lobbyists in exchange for access and influence. The initiative was a huge success; corporate lobbyists gave huge amounts of money to Republican candidates, and Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time in decades. The K Street Project is what Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D- CA) was referring to when she described the Republican leadership's "culture of corruption." The K Street Project was not DeLay's only sleazy entanglement. He was also deeply involved with indicted Republican uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The Abramoff scandal continues to grow: DeLay's staffers have been indicted and will soon testify on behalf of the prosecution regarding all the congressmen who accepted gifts from Abramoff in exchange for access. Many pundits are predicting that the stink of the K Street Project, and the Abramoff scandal (not to mention the apparent failure of the Iraq war to create either security or democracy in Iraq) will result in a landslide for Democrats in the 2006 congressional elections. So here's the question: Will the Republicans lose their majority in Congress in the upcoming midterm elections?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Hard-core CEG\'er
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Originally posted by caltour2:
So here's the question: Will the Republicans lose their majority in Congress in the upcoming midterm elections?
He was pressured to step aside by the Republicans(and God) for this reason. Texas will still elect a Republican.  The upcoming election and lack of voter trust IMO is one of the reasons so many Reps were against the port deal. Personally I think the Iraq war and peoples opinions on that will have a bigger influence then the Delay/Abramoff scandal.
Fortunately Delay is not gone for long. He's going to become a lobbyist now. Lots of people want to hire him, he's going to write the employee training manual! 
99 Contour Sport SE MTX
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Green car silver hood (because silver is faster)
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 443
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Originally posted by caltour2:
The initiative was a huge success; corporate lobbyists gave huge amounts of money to Republican candidates, and Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time in decades.
It sounds good, but it's BS in reality. At best it's backward logic. Last time I checked each member of Congress was an elected official voted into their elected office by the people within each congressional district. So how exactly do the evil corporations control the masses since that's the underlying theory here? Last I checked I haven't gotten any bribes by corporate America asking me to vote for a certain representative.   If anything, Republicans may have botched some things up via their relationships with lobbyists after the people voted them into office. However, I would submit that, as a general rule, power corrupts, and this problem is no more unique or common with Republicans than Democrats. Personally, I have little respect for any of our elected officials, as they all favor big gov't in one way or another, which I am very much against no matter what the differing priorities are when it comes to spending my money.
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Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 3,115
Hard-core CEG\'er
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The hammer knows the Dems were going to focus on him and he can read the numbers. His district in Sugarland is mostly Republican, so with him out they should easily win. He will be the next big lobbyist inside the beltway, just watch. ...and I would not want to be the DA in Travis county now that Delay is going to focus exclusively on him. 
"Eagles may soar high, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 31
New CEG\'er
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OP
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Originally posted by cjbaldw:
Last time I checked each member of Congress was an elected official voted into their elected office by the people within each congressional district. So how exactly do the evil corporations control the masses since that's the underlying theory here?
Big contributors control elections because campaign money is the "mother's milk of politics." Just about the only way to win an election nowadays is to spend more on advertising, outreach, organization and payola than your opponent.
Come on, Cjbaldw. This has been all over the media for years now. Here's just one example:
Washington Post on big Republican money buying influence in Washington.
Money wins elections.
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 2,978
Hard-core CEG\'er
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Silly question, but were you not banned? I notice you have a new name, whys that?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 2,118
Hard-core CEG\'er
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I saw that other post titled "This guy is a moron" and I thought of caltour2, aka caltour banned.
Go away ignorant troll. No one cares about your stupid California liberal political B.S.
"Moore has also accused the American people of being the stupidest, most naive people on the face of the Earth. And after last weekend, he's got the box office numbers to prove it!"
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 753
Veteran CEG\'er
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Veteran CEG\'er
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 753 |
10 Mind-Numbingly Stupid Quotes by Tom DeLay
1) "I AM the federal government." ââ?¬â??Tom DeLay, to the owner of Ruth's Chris Steak House, after being told to put out his cigar because of federal government regulations banning smoking in the building, May 14, 2003
2) "So many minority youths had volunteered�that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like myself." --Tom DeLay, explaining at the 1988 GOP convention why he and vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle did not fight in the Vietnam War
3) "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?" ââ?¬â??Tom Delay, to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept.9, 2005
4) "We're no longer a superpower. We're a super-duper power." ââ?¬â??Tom DeLay, explaining why America must topple Saddam Hussein in 2002 interview with Fox News
5) "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes."
6) "Guns have little or nothing to do with juvenile violence. The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills." ââ?¬â??Tom DeLay, on causes of the Columbine High School massacre, 1999
7) "A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure. To provide stability. Not that a woman can't provide stability, I'm not saying that... It does take a father, though." -Tom DeLay, in a radio interview, Feb. 10, 2004
8) "I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. The only separation is that there will not be a government church." ââ?¬â??Tom DeLay
9) "Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour [the minimum wage in 1996] are hard to resist. Fortunately, such families do not exist." ââ?¬â??Tom DeLay, during a debate in Congress on increasing the minimum wage, April 23, 1996
10) "I am not a federal employee. I am a constitutional officer. My job is the Constitution of the United States, I am not a government employee. I am in the Constitution." ââ?¬â??Tom DeLay, in a CNN interview, Dec. 19, 1995
This list doesn't even include the time DeLay said several years ago that there was no fat to be cut in the federal budget.
Dueling Duratecs
'95 SE V6 MTX 0 Mods
'04 Mazda6 S Wagon
'03 Kawasaki Z1000
But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 753
Veteran CEG\'er
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They make a good point here, you never hear the liberal media report on the laws Delay doesn't break! poor Tom
Dueling Duratecs
'95 SE V6 MTX 0 Mods
'04 Mazda6 S Wagon
'03 Kawasaki Z1000
But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,889
Hard-core CEG\'er
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Originally posted by 99blacksesport:
I saw that other post titled "This guy is a moron" and I thought of caltour2, aka caltour banned.
Go away ignorant troll. No one cares about your stupid California liberal political B.S.
Really? Nobody?  Here I thought this was a national thing.
99 Contour Sport SE MTX
KKM filter, B&M shifter
No res, BAT kit
Green car silver hood (because silver is faster)
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