Goose-Cooking Sugarland-Style

I'm thinkin' Tom DeLay's goose might just be cooked.

I think we all already had our suspicions that corrupt lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, paid for DeLay's airfare to England and Scotland, and it looks like another lobbyist paid for his hotel and golf expenses while he was there, and the Washington Post has the proof.

Tommy's been a bad, bad boy.

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff’s credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.

DeLay’s expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists…. The documents obtained by The Washington Post, including receipts for his hotel stays in Scotland and London and billings for his golfing during the trip at the famed St. Andrews course in Scotland, substantiate for the first time that some of DeLay’s expenses on the trip were billed to charge cards used by the two lobbyists.

And then, the only defense his attorney could come up with is this:

DeLay’s lawyer, Bobby R. Burchfield, said that DeLay’s staff was aware that Preston Gates was trying to arrange meetings and hotels for the trip but that DeLay was unaware of the “logistics” of bill payments, and that DeLay “continues to understand his expenses” were properly paid by the nonprofit organization, the National Center for Public Policy Research.

So, as The Carpetbagger points out:

To hear DeLay’s side of things, the Majority Leader enjoyed an all-expense-paid trip with a corrupt lobbyist, the lobbyist put the whole thing on his credit card, but DeLay’s in the clear because he assumed Abramoff was being reimbursed by the lobbyist’s non-profit organization.

But let’s be clear: that’s not a defense; it’s an admission of guilt. House rules prohibit lawmakers from taking lobbyist-sponsored trips, which DeLay obviously did, but the same rules also prohibit lawmakers from the same arrangement when the lobbyist is later reimbursed.

In other words, DeLay’s argument is, “I didn’t violate that House rule; I violated a different House rule.” This is his defense.

Fire up that grill and tell all your kin, cuz Mr. DeLay will be throwing a goose cookin', coffin nailing, camel's back breakin' shindig. Yeeeee-Haaaaw!!!