(Texas)State funds for lobbyist face an audit

[maddezmom]

AUSTIN - Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, responding to a report in the Houston Chronicle, said Thursday that she will audit payments made by the state's Washington office to a private lobbyist to see if the money was misused for political purposes.

The Chronicle had reported that one of the state's contract lobbyists, Cassidy & Associates, spent $7,600 to host a fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority on March 2, less than two weeks after receiving its first monthly state payment of $15,000. The firm's lead lobbyist, Todd Boulanger, has close ties to DeLay and his aides.

Texas House Democratic Chairman Jim Dunnam said Thursday that Cassidy's vice chairman, Gregg Hartley, formally signed the firm's contract with the Texas Office of State-Federal Relations on the same day the firm paid for the ARMPAC fundraiser. Hartley made a personal donation of $5,000 to ARMPAC later in the month.

"The same guy, on the same day, nearly simultaneously signs a state lobby contract worth $15,000 a month and hosts a fundraiser for Mr. DeLay," Dunnam said. "And they want Texas taxpayers to believe these two events have nothing to do with one another? Even my third-grader can connect the dots on this thing."

more;http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3616407.html

[ClintonTyree]

1. Why doesn't DeLay just resign?

They've got enough evidence against this piece of shit to put him away for two lifetimes by now, yet he still professes his "innocence". :eyes: This is the face of the Republican party, and an ugly one it is!

[salin]

2. ego, ego, ego

he believes he is so powerful, and that so many people owe him that he will be able to ride the storm out. In short, he believes in exceptionalism - that other folks have to live by the law... except him.

[acmejack]

3. I believe they truly think we're all stupid

And have so much contempt for us that things like this are how they display it.

[OKNancy]

4. Carole Keeton Strayhorn - don't forget she is Scotty McClellan's MOM

Like she is going to do anything honest.
( and she tried to say Unitarians were not a religion...grrrrrr )