Part-Time Pundit: MoveOn Watch: Corruption Only Matters When its a Republican

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June 8, 2005

MoveOn Watch: Corruption Only Matters When its a Republican

You'd think by reading this e-mail that only Republicans are engaging in corruption in Congress. But with over 200 lawmakers filing late reports like Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif, reporting 21 trips and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., reporting 20 past trips, it comes as a surprise to learn there are just as many Democrats engaging in the time dishonored practice of junkets. The biggest traveler with privately funded trips is a Democrat also.

Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., a Tennessee Democrat who is running for the Senate, holds first place as Congress' most prolific traveler since 2000. While his travel reports have been trouble-free in recent years, that has not always been the case.
From 1998 to 2003, he took 61 privately funded trips. During that period, he failed to file a single travel-disclosure form with the House clerk, as required by the chamber's ethics rules.

The tips DeLay took that were paid for on Abramoff's credit card also include two other DemocratCongressmen, who are not under investigation for the exact same offense DeLay is accused of.

The point is, MoveOn isn't concerned about corruption, they are concerned about getting people out of office who disagree with them despite the fact that they were elected by a majority of this country who want them there and support their agenda. That agenda may keep Hillary awake at night and she may think that is isn't good for America, but the facts remain, that a majority of this country has rejected the Democrats because all they can do is spew racist hatred.

The latest MoveOn production shows that they aren't even going to try to convince voters anymore, they'll just try to get every Republican thrown out of office under any pretext they can. No agenda, no issues, no discussion and the US keeps on getting redder.

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Dear MoveOn member,

Last week, MoveOn members made the news when we took on Republican members of Congress who continue to back Republican leader Tom DeLay despite his numerous ethical and legal misdeeds. The Rocky Mountain News headline was, "MoveOn Targets Beauprez, Musgrave." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote, "PAC Targeting Hart with Anti-DeLay Radio Ads" and the Ventura County (CA) Star noted that "Gallegly Gets Anti-DeLay Petitions."

In an impressive week:

* The "Fire Tom DeLay" petition topped out at more than 484,146 signers urging Republicans to fire DeLay as their leader.

* MoveOn volunteers organized 195 events to deliver these signatures to Republican members of Congress and others.

* Thousands of MoveOn volunteers attended or organized the petition deliveries and worked hard to alert the media. It paid off. We've seen news stories for about a third of the local events and heard about many more--meaning millions of people heard about their representative's support for Tom DeLay through our efforts.

* We've been running ads against seven members of Congress who both come from vulnerable congressional districts and fundraise with DeLay's help. Contribute to support the radio ads.

The goal of all of these actions was to drive home the public outrage over corruption and abuse of power among the Republican leadership and make it clear to Republicans that they should dump DeLay as their leader.

How well did it work? On the front page of today's edition of The Washington Post, there's a story with the headline, "GOP Worries Ethics Issue May Hurt Party in '06."

The article opens:

After enlarging their majority in the past two elections, House Republicans have begun to fear that public attention to members' travel and relations with lobbyists will make ethics a potent issue that could cost the party seats in next year's midterm races.

That's what MoveOn members have been working to make a reality. The
reporter adds:

In what Republican strategists call "the DeLay effect," questions plaguing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) are starting to hurt his fellow party members, who are facing news coverage of their own trips and use of relatives on their campaign payrolls. Liberal interest groups have begun running advertising in districts where Republicans may be in trouble, trying to tie the incumbents to their leaders' troubles.

This is one sure sign that we've made an impact over the last week. You helped create "the DeLay effect" that is making Republicans nervous by turning up the heat on the members of Congress who shield DeLay from accountability. The media has caught on to the fact that members of Congress who shield DeLay will face troubles of their own. That is helpful and why we have to keep the heat turned up.

We're still running radio ads and we need your help to raise our budget.

Please make a contribution today.

[SNIPPED LINK]

We've also heard from some MoveOn members who wrote us about their
experiences.

Tom from Gresham, Oregon wrote:

It was a huge success! What an empowering and rewarding experience to have this group of people, most of whom have never met, come together because they want to do something good. And what a great group of people--young and old, singles, kids and parents--people who really care about our country and are stepping up when it needs them. A common theme was, "I've never done anything like this before", and an hour later we were all ready for another action. There's no question we will be active again, and we are grateful to MoveOn for bringing us together--that's what it's all about, and that's what it will take to win back our great country.

When we asked volunteers what the best moment of the petition delivery was, Susan from Coarsegold, California responded, "The stunned look on the staff member's face when over 600 petitions were delivered to the office."

These actions only happened because we all did our part. Some of us signed the "Fire Tom DeLay" petition. Others organized or helped out at petition delivery events. Still others contributed money to pay for the radio ads.

Some of us did all three. Still others did their part just by spreading the word about Tom DeLay.

Republican leaders in Congress seem to think they can get away with anything--that nobody could stop them. But you and 3 million other MoveOn members are helping to prove them wrong. Thanks so much for everything you do.

Every little bit makes a difference.

--Tom, Matt, Joan, James, Rosalyn and the MoveOn PAC Team
Monday, June 6th, 2005

P.S. Here are some links.

"GOP Worries Ethics Issue May Hurt Party in '06" The Washington Post, June 6, 2005.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=736

Good research on the connections between Tom DeLay and other members of Congress.
http://www.indelayspocket.com/

PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Posted by John Bambenek at June 8, 2005 9:38 PM