DeLay in the Dock

Roughly 100 years ago we Texans woke up to the fact that corporate cash (particularly from the railroads) was corrupting the political process. So we outlawed it. No corporate donations may be spent on a political campaign in Texas, not one red cent (OK, nitpickers, there are some exceptions for purely administrative expenditures).

That's why my local district attorney, Ronnie Earle, is after Tom DeLay. And the investigation of Enron and Ken Lay is feeding right into Earle's case:

In May 2001, Enron's top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year.

DeLay requested that the new donation come from "a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron's executives," with the understanding that it would be partly spent on "the redistricting effort in Texas," said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson.

Link, see also Daily Kos.