She needs to start running now. Taking April off, and maybe longer, is not the way to win the district. I konw David Axelrod likes the last minute air blitz but it will not work here. Tammy needs to get out into the community and start pounding the streets or the DuPage Republican organisation will stomp her in November.

Hell, I’ll even throw in the second one, no matter who wins.

Also, Fred Barnes of Weekly Standard has commented that the word has gone out that Abramoff had nothing on Delay.

Archpundit’s free advice is right. DeRoskam should donate all the money to charity. Not just the direct $1000, but also the money from the DeLay fundaraiser and any other directed contributions courtesy of DeLay. It’s the politically smart thing to do, but my guess is DeRoskam won’t do it, because DeLay really is his pal and he knows he needs his help to win.

DeLay’s backyard abuts a golf course just for good measure.

I’ll bet a pitcher of good beer that DeLay is indicted by September 1st.

I would add that $1,000 contribution and some phone calls to donors hardly rises to the level of a “relationship” in Washington, DC. Sometimes you can make the case that making phone calls on someone’s behalf is passing the buck instead offering real help. It might sound good back in the district, “Washington is helping me,” but I see in most cases it’s the minimum level.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with you bringing this stuff up, but I wouldn’t make too big a deal of it. Because there is less there than meets they eye.

…I mean unless someone can produce recent pictures with wads of cash coming out of their pockets, guilt by association isn’t going to fly.

I think Buck largely hits it–the other thing is that while something may well come of the Blagojevich investigations, DeLay is going to be heading the national news for months. You can’t escape that…

I will disagree with Leo–it took a 6 year investigation to nab Ryan and the DeLay investigations are largely 4 years old. The Plame investigation is going on year 3–complex corruption cases take time. The Governor gets a benefit of the doubt on the investigations to some degree, but there’s also evidence from the audits that if it isn’t corruption it’s incompetence.

Barring clear evidence I’m leaning towards supporting him, if for nothing else, All Kids and movement on preschool which are very dear to me, but I’m also open to changing that if the evidence becomes greater that it wasn’t just incompetence.

If those are the stakes, deal me in.

The chasm between being the indirect beneficiary of a patronage scandal, and being the lynchpin of a major sceme to use the machinations of government to both enrich your allies (and yourself) and keep a stranglehold on power is vast, and to attempt to put the two on equal footing is cynical at very best, and a ham-fisted attempt at spin at worst.

Until then, remember that a smiling mug shot remains a mug shot.

Yeah Dan. At least he earned his money after leaving the White House unlike several conservatives — not the least of whom is arch-conservative lobbyist Jack Abramoff (Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist’s good buddy and super-donor to Bush) — who suddenly started raking in much more money around the beginning of 2001… Let’s see, who started in the White House in January 2001? That’d be your conservative leader, president Bush.

That’s the whole thing about investigations — they always look reasonable. But if you don’t finally indict someone, they’re nothing but fodder for the oppostion.

Why should Blaggy give in to any of this? It’d just make him appear hugely weak and vacillating.

Again, if he’s done something wrong, indict his ass. If not, no story.