Republicans Appoint Congresswoman on DeLay’s Payroll to Investigate Him

Republican House ethics panel chairman Doc Hastings put forward the name of Republican Congresswoman Melissa Hart to lead the investigation into the ethics charges against Republican House Leader Tom DeLay. The problem is that DeLay’s political action committee contributed $15,000.00 to Hart’s campaigns between 1999 and 2001. Hart has said the donations are irrelevant to her potential role on the ethics panel. In addition Hart held a fundraiser at Signatures, a restaurant that Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff co-owns. Abramoff is connected with DeLay and is being investigated by federal officials and congressional committees for collecting, along with his associates, more than $66 million in potentially improper lobbying fees from Indian tribes and funneling them to a private school his children attend and supplying West Bank settlers with military equipment for fighting with their Palestinian neighbors. Read more about Abramoff here. Read more about congresswoman Hart here. GOP House Leader Tom DeLay, took a number of overseas trips arranged and financed by Abramoff, and once famously described the lobbyist as "one of my closest and dearest friends."

Joe