In April, 2002, Tom DeLay told a church crowd, “He [God] has been walking me through an incredible journey…He is using me, all the time, everywhere, to stand up for biblical worldview in everything that I do and everywhere I am. He is training me, He is working with me.”
No word on whether God was with DeLay during his luxurious vacation at the Four Seasons Hotel in London in mid-2000, paid for by corrupt GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff. This weekend, the National Journal provided new detail on the close, personal and grotesquely unethical relationship between DeLay and Abramoff. According to expense accounts obtained by the Journal, Abramoff financed DeLay and DeLay’s staff’s stay at the Four Seasons hotel in mid-2000, to the tune of $4,285.35. The total reimbursement for expenses in London was $13,318.50.
Abramoff is best known for his unethical work with right-wing religious fundamentalist Ralph Reed — the two of them teamed up to help Texas shut a casino operated by the Tigua Indians in 2002, then persuaded the tribe to pay them $4.2 million to lobby Washington lawmakers, including DeLay, to reopen it.
“To the casual observer, it was a pretty simple deal,” a former House leadership aide told the Journal, after being shown details of the London transaction. “Jack raised money for the pet projects of DeLay and took care of his top staff. In turn, they granted him tremendous access and allowed him to freely trade on DeLay’s name.”
DeLay’s “incredible journey” continues today in a Travis County courthouse, where God’s instrument will find himself the “focus of attention” of a civil trial involving allegations of illegal campaign contributions to Republican members of the Texas House. Two of DeLay’s major political operatives in Washington and another political ally in Texas were indicted last year in a grand jury investigation, accused of participating in a scheme to make illegal corporate donations to Republican candidates for the Legislature.