All DeLay, all the time
It's yet another day of Tom DeLay bashing, as the Chronicle picks up a Washington Post story:
A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with knowledge of the trip arrangements.
Chris Elam has a reality check: "I'll admit. It was all my idea. I'm the evil genius who invented the idea of junkets with strings attached! Up until 1997, it had never been done!!" Ha!
The story also includes the latest New York Times "revelation":
In another development, the New York Times reported DeLay's wife and daughter have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by his political action and campaign committees. The report was based on a review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Texas. Most of the payments to his wife, Christine DeLay, and his only child, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund raising fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about how they earned the money.
Ed Morrissey, of the Captain's Quarters blog, has a reality check: "But once one reads past the first couple of paragraphs -- and uses their elementary-school math -- one realizes that not only does the Gray Lady have nothing unusual to report, but that she's playing games with the numbers." NO! Not our "professional" media! I'm shocked -- SHOCKED!
And here's one more reality check: A search of the Chronicle archives shows that the paper didn't run the story of Rep. Maxine Waters' (D-CA) family members earning money through her connections -- nearly $500,000 for Waters' husband and nearly $450,000 for Waters' daughter.
Here's Morrissey's conclusion:
Don't get me wrong. I think the practice itself is a problem, one that we should pressure our representatives to end. It can lead to back-door corruption far too easily. However, for the Times and the Left to jump all over DeLay as unethical and singular in this practice is dishonest, ignorant, and transparently partisan.
Yes, it is lazy reporting for the "professional" media to scream DeLay, DeLay, DeLay when many in Congress are doing the same things. Look, if "some" don't like it, then "some" should try to get the rules changed.
And if the "professional" media wants to report on this in a "professional" way, it should do a "professional" investigation and analysis of all Members of Congress and provide the "professional" results in a "professional" story that presents the whole picture.
But that's not what we have today (or almost any day!), and it's yet another reason why this town is begging for an alternative paper.
RELATED: Eric Pfeiffer of the Beltway Buzz has some extras to add, and here's NRO's David Frum:
The Times story is sourced to - and is packed full of quotations from - a series of groups whistled up by George Soros for almost the exclusive purpose of attacking DeLay. [...] Maybe the Times should be alerting its readers to the true identity of those sources of these shocked-and-appalled quotations? Or even balancing this bought-and-paid-for expertise with comments from some genuinely disinterested and impartial observers?
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/06/05 08:41 AM | Print | Comments (2)
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