Craddick's lame excuse

[NoPasaran]

Can it be that Tom Craddick will join so many of his illustrious predecessors by being indicted?

A lawyer for Speaker Tom Craddick said Monday that his client never personally delivered campaign checks to GOP House candidates on behalf of railroad lobbyists or the Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee.

Instead, criminal defense lawyer Roy Minton said, Craddick's campaign workers mailed the checks or sent them by overnight delivery to the Republican campaigns after Union Pacific and the GOP committee sent money to Craddick's Midland office.

"Tom never delivered anything to anybody other than (through) his office," Minton said.

Craddick's explanation comes two months after a Travis County grand jury began investigating whether the handling of the checks violated a law barring outside influence on a speaker's campaign. Craddick was running for speaker when Texans for a Republican Majority sent $152,000 for 15 candidates to Craddick's Midland office and Union Pacific mailed at least some of its $25,000 for 11 candidates.

-more- http://www.statesman.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_0448bc57b15cc0ba00f3.html

You know, Tom, Hitler never killed anyone personally either.

[ronatchig]

1. Can you say

wire fruad?

[GOPisEvil]

2. Oh, puhleeeeeze...

...I'm applying for a mortgage Tom. I don't expect the bank to hand me a check for $100,000. But, I'm guessing they'll still want me to pay the money back. "Hey bank, I never actually TOUCHED the money, so get bent!" Yeah, that'll play nicely as they foreclose on my house.

[sonias]

3. Depends on what the definition of "touch is"

OK so the creep didn't personally deliver the checks he now claims. But he knew about them, he helped insure that the money was collected, they came through his office, he used his staff to deliver them, and I think the checks actually had little personal notes addressed to him. He had nothing to do with them, yeah right. You are still so busted creep craddick.

(snip)
Craig McDonald with Texans for Public Justice, a group that tracks campaign finances, said Craddick's explanation might not matter.

"In my mind, if the campaign operatives were turning around the checks, they must have been doing what they thought they were supposed to be doing," he said. "Concerns whether the speaker or his campaign went afoul of the speaker's law remain the same whether Craddick physically touched the checks."
(snip)

Sonia