Courtesy of the U.S. House of Representatives

PAC money gladly accepted: MCOKER@OCWEEKLY.COM

Posted Oct. 5, 5:41 p.m.

DIRTY MONEY
Ever wonder how much of Tom DeLay's PAC money has made it to Orange County's congressional delegation? Or vice versa? According to the nonprofit campaign finance reform group Public Campaign Action Fund, which provides a state-by-state tracking of the embattled Texas congressman's campaign gifts given and received, OC's furious five GOP representatives received $20,660 from The Hammer's ARMPAC since 1993. A total of 226 Republican House members received $2,140,625 from ARMPAC.

"Everyone is grateful to Tom," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) in regards to DeLay's help for his Republican colleagues' campaigns.

In fine you-scratch-my-back-I'll-lick-your-ass form, Rohrabacher, Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar), Ken Calvert (R-Riverside) and Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) have given $5,000 apiece, $20,000 total, to DeLay's legal defense fund, as of May 28 of this year. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), who along with Cox only received $20 from ARMPAC, gave nothing to DeLay's defense. Eighty House members contributed a total of $336,500 to the defense kitty.

An April 28, 2005, New York Times story reported that Rohrabacher was among a handful of GOP House members who received $5,000 from ARMPAC and within weeks turned around and gave $5,000 to DeLay's defense -- raising the specter of money laundering.

ARMPAC stands for Americans for a Republican Majority, a national political action committee run by DeLay, who was the House Majority Leader until he had to step down to face two indictments handed down by a Texas grand jury in the past 10 days, first on conspiracy charges, then on money laundering charges. Those charges, filed in Texas, are related to the Austin-based Texans for a Republican Majority, another PAC that DeLay founded in 2001.

The biggest beneficiary of ARMPAC's gifts among the OC delegation was Miller, whose district includes Anaheim, Brea, La Habra, Mission Viejo, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita and Yorba Linda. He received $11,017 -- the most DeLay's PAC gave to any California congressman. (Golden State GOP reps received a total of $69,333 from ARMPAC, but gave $93,000 to the DeLay defense fund.) Miller voted the same as DeLay 97.28 percent of the time on the Hill.

Rohrabacher was fourth on ARMPAC's California gift list, with $8,583. He voted the same as DeLay 90.95 percent of the time.

Calvert, whose district includes Coto De Caza, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente, was third among OC congressmen with $1,020 from ARMPAC, and he and DeLay agreed on House votes 94.72 percent of the time.

Cox and Royce voted along DeLay lines 93.97 percent and 91.64 percent of the time, respectively.

In case you're wondering, for shits and giggles, OC's lone Democrat member of the House, Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), got nothing from ARMPAC, gave nothing to DeLay's defense and only voted with him 17 percent of the time.

But, all tolled, 182 House members voted with DeLay at least 90 percent of Hammer Time!

Three Republican members of Congress announced this week they will return campaign donations they received from ARMPAC.

None of them are members of the OC delegation.

The three returning ARMPAC contributions are Reps. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.), Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) and Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.).

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), whose district used to include parts of South County, until redistricting essentially have that real estate to Calvert, has been urged by a Democratic committee to return $2,500 his campaign received from DeLay's PAC. They are a bit more sensitive to this kind of shit in the San Diego area, where the City Council has withstood bruising corrupting charges that have brought down a Republican mayor and Democratic council members.

But Issa has essentially told his critics to pound sand: he's keeping the money.

So far.


QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The U.N. has $12 million that they have not spent on doing research on micro-herbicides, which have the potential of totally eliminating the opium crop without affecting other plants. Why is the State Department so hesitant to step forward on this?"
--Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), reacting to the losing war against opium production in Afghanistan, in that Moonie paper, The Washington Times.


Posted Oct. 4, 5:18 p.m.

Surprise, surprise!

'TARD OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
Army Secretary Noel Harvey and General Richard Cody, the vice chief of staff, say that the Army is using looser Defense Department rules that permits it to sign up more high school dropouts and people who score lower on mental-qualification tests.

This DOES NOT mean the Army is lowering its standards, the brass alleged.

Sounds like they've already been letting in dummies.


DELAY TACTICS
The new charges against Congressman Tom Delay (R-Corruptionville) have become such a disaster -- hell, prosecutors are even hauling in Lady Thatcher! -- that President Dubnuts felt he'd better go down to Ground Zero and calm conservatives' fears (that would be the conservatives who have not already cut their losses with Delay and/or are benefitting from his legal woes). "Out of the rubbles of this debacle -- he's lost his entire reputation -- there's going to be a fantastic renaissance," Bush told Delay supporters, a cadre that actually dwindled before his lying eyes, according to a transcript Clockwork just made up. "And I'm looking forward to sitting on Tom's porch -- in 3 to 5 years, or sooner with good behavior."


JUST WONDERING...
Is it at all possible that this supposed conservative hand-wringing over Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court -- as evidenced here and here and even on Drudge, whose screaming headling over the site logo this morning was -- HARRIET MIERS SUPPORTED FULL CIVIL RIGHTS FOR GAYS AND LESBIANS; BACKED AIDS EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR CITY OF DALLAS -- is it possible that this is all the greatest of tricks, that Democrats will support Miers (or, at least, not oppose her too fervently, which is about the same thing) because the right's hardliners supposedly don't, but in reality they really do -- with Col. Mustard with a wrench in the Library!?