DeLay's Treachery

When a member of Congress sells his services to Russian energy interests in exchange for a huge contribution to his PAC it's treason, plain and simple.

The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.

During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.

Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).

The former president of the U.S. Family Network said Buckham told him that Russians contributed $1 million to the group in 1998 specifically to influence DeLay's vote on legislation the International Monetary Fund needed to finance a bailout of the collapsing Russian economy.

About politics in Washington, I'm as cynical as they come. But this is absolutely incredible. It's one thing for members of Congress to sell themselves to American corporations, or the American wealthy. But it's quite another for Tom DeLay to sell himself via his PAC to the Russians. It's no crime for an American citizen to represent foreign interests in Washington. It happens all of the time. But for a member of Congress, a man beholden not only to his constituents but to all Americans, to in secret take political contributions from foreign interests in exchange for his labor on Capitol Hill is a heinous and despicable act, and a betrayal of our country. DeLay may somehow beat the rap in Texas, but his spider web of connections to Abramoff are such that his career in politics is over. And if there's any justice in the world, DeLay will spend time in prison for this and other countless lies and betrayals.