San Antonio Express
GOP on defensive over lobby deals
Metro | State
Lisa Sandberg
01/30/2006
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA013006.1A.lobbyfallout.87fa4b3.htmlAUSTIN — Perhaps it didn't grab headlines quite like congressmen taking foreign junkets, but Democrats here weren't quibbling.
With a lobby scandal in Washington still radioactive, leaders of Texas' minority party spent last week publicizing lucrative lobby contracts funded by Texas taxpayers that were awarded to Republican loyalists in 2003.
Not just any loyalists, but loyalists with close ties to beleaguered U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the former majority leader from Sugar Land who's facing felony money laundering charges, and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is cooperating with a federal corruption probe targeting congressmen and their staffs.