The thing about the DeLay scandals isn’t just DeLay, but how the entire K Street project has corrupted much of campaign finance. DeLay isn’t just one person, but the hub the spokes emenate from and if one follows them, most movement conservatives are caught.
With Roskam, the first obvious connection is to Grover Norquist who along with Abramoff started the scheme to defraud American Indian Triibes. Americans for Tax Reform is a front for lobbying hid as a non-profit
He’s taken $10,000 from the Rely on Your Belief Fund (ROYB)–Roy Blunt’s PAC that not only looks like it was used to funnel money between funds with DeLay’s TRMPAC and ARMPAC, but also had Jim Ellis running both ROYB and ARMPAC. Ellis is under indictment in Texas.
He’s taken $10,000 from Boehner’s PAC. Boehner is fighting to preserve privately paid travel for Members of Congress.
Norm Ornstein of AEI keeps pointing out that this scandal will probably rival that of the Tea Pot Dome Scandal. That the press is letting candidates get by with taking money from the nexus of this scandal is pretty much par for the course, but also avoids dealing with really tough issues and some actual investigative reporting. I just did the above on the internets–imagine what someone could do who has a job that pays for them to do the research.
How extreme is this case? Tom DeLay is threatening the prosecutor’s independence in Texas.
The entire K-Street project was designed to tie lobbyists and the Republican leadership into a situation where their interests were the same and then to promulgate their power and influence. The wheels are now coming off and Peter Roskam appears to have lots of friends right in the middle of it, yet claims he’s all for ethics reform.
I don’t doubt that Roskam is a true blue movement conservative, it’s just odd that he doesn’t seem to want to be connected to the movement that he’s been involved in.
Some voters may also take a dim view of Roskam’s taking $5,000 (so far) from Exxon/Mobil’s PAC.
Not an outright ethics problem perhaps, but a connection that people who feel gouged by oil companies in general and Exxon in particular may not care for.
Read the Wikipedia article on Roskam, there are numerous ethical lapses, especially when it comes to fundraising. See the sample below:
FEC filings show that Roskam received large donations from Exelon Corporation’s PAC. Donations were also rececived from the CEO, John W. Rowe, and numerous officers directly. Exelon is the parent company of Commonwealth Edison, the electric utility serving Roskam’s district. Currently ComEd is seeking a controversial rate hike, which is opposed by local governments and groups including the Citizens Utility Board. Further adding to the controversy, Exelon is being sued by Will County residents and the State’s Attorney for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars due to leaks of radioactive material, tritium, at the Braidwood Nuclear Generating Station.