David Van Os on the DeLay Indictment

[texastoast]

I posted this in GD-Politics, and Crispini wanted me to start some kind of subcategory in Texas for Attorney General, but I just don't have time to learn how to do that today, so anyone else feel free. Van Os rocks. So far, what I've seen of him is walking, talking integrity. Keep it up dude.

___________________________________________

This is a very slightly edited (for removal of photograph) version of David Van Os's recent press release. I like his stumping style: "Self-promoting politicians and their corporate allies who subvert democratic institutions into tools of self-serving power must be exterminated like pests wherever they infect the houses of self-government."


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: David Van Os
Office [phone]; Cell [phone]

San Antonio lawyer David Van Os, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Texas Attorney General in the 2006 elections, issued this statement today on the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas:

"It is a sad day for our great country when a public prosecutor of impeccable reputation finds cause to indict the Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives for criminal conspiracy to corrupt the political processes by which the people govern themselves in our great democracy. It is an even sadder day for the great state of Texas when the accused is a Congressman from Texas and the indictment charges that felonies were committed in the capital city of Texas for the purpose of corrupting Texas elections.

"For much too long a time, unholy connections between the financial power of corporate money and the political power of self-serving politicians have produced bucketfuls of slime whose putrid stink fouls our noble experiment in self-government. In this first and greatest of Constitutional democracies, every branch and level of government belongs exclusively to the people. The people are the government. When power-hungry politicians and money-hungry corporations join together to hijack the public instruments of government so as to promote private gain for themselves and their cronies, they betray the very essence of free government and breach every trust reposed in government by its owners, the people.

"The stink of special-interest government is not a partisan problem; it is a problem for all and a crisis for democracy. Self-promoting politicians and their corporate allies who subvert democratic institutions into tools of self-serving power must be exterminated like pests wherever they infect the houses of self-government. Government at all levels and in all branches must be restored to the people. This is a moral imperative of our time.

"Those who cry, 'Politics!' over today's indictment do not know Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. Those of us who know him know that he is a public prosecutor of peerless integrity. With Ronnie Earle, justice is scrupulously nonpartisan, unless you want to call him a partisan for the public interest. The historical record will show that the public figures he has prosecuted include many more Democrats than Republicans, such as a popular Democratic Attorney General of Texas and a powerful Democratic Speaker of the Texas House. All Texans and Americans who love democracy should applaud the unfailing courage of Ronnie Earle in pursuing the interests of the people against the self-interests of the powerful.

"The relationships between Congressman DeLay and his corporate cronies did not grow in a vacuum. For too long we the people have been far too permissive and forgiving about the evils of political and corporate cronyism. We must all join together to cleanse the stench of self-dealing from every nook and cranny of the body politic."

[PDittie]

1. He has also created diaries at Dkos for these

so be sure and bump in there and give him a 'recommend'.

http://www.dailykos.com/user/dvanos

[sonias]

2. Looks like the time to recommend these has expired on Dkos

But you can always go to the source.
http://www.vanosfortexasag.com/

I'll give it a bump here.

Sonia

[Lithos]

3. Good read

And an excellent summary of the situation. Ronnie Earle is a good man. If anything Dems have a better case of claiming bias as Ronnie has investigated more Dems than Pukes.

L-

[sonias]

4. And let's put up a nice time line in the DeLay saga

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/delay_chronology
Key Events in DeLay-Blunt Donation Swaps
Key events in the exchange of donations in 2000 between
Tom DeLay's political groups and a group belonging to Roy Blunt, the new House majority leader.

• March 31: DeLay's unregulated ARMPAC convention fund donates $50,000 to the Missouri arm of Blunt's ROYB Fund.

• April 7: Blunt's ROYB Fund donates $10,000 to the DeLay Foundation.

• April 7 - May 1: Blunt's ROYBPAC pays $40,000 to Alexander Strategy Group Inc., run by DeLay's former chief of staff Ed Buckham and employing DeLay's wife, Christine.

• April 14: Northern Mariana Islands-based Concorde Garment Manufacturing, part of the island coalition that hired Jack Abramoff as a lobbyist, contributes $3,000 to Blunt's ROYB Fund. Concorde was sued and fined in the 1990s for alleged sweatshop practices.

Much more at link above. It's a keeper.

Sonia

[Czolgosz]

5. Van Os as AG would be a major step for the better.

[Vincardog]

6. Are you helping him get there?

[Czolgosz]

7. Damn right I am!

[Vincardog]

8. Good for you. Can you get two friends to help?

[Czolgosz]

9. I have gotten a dozen friends to help.

[Vincardog]

12. Good on ya

[PDittie]

10. Comment on this from John Kelley:

"We should all be inspired by the fact that our long dead populist forebearers, the People's Party and Governor Jim Hogg rose out of their graves and bit Tom Delay and the Republican Corporate Conspiracy in the ass with a law they passed to prevent corporations from contributing to campaigns."

[mhr]

11. Van Os Is A Progressive Backstabber

Don't be binded by his rhetoric.

Van Os stabbed many progressives in the DFW area in the back back in 2002.

PM me for details.