Young: Just an honest bag man
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Tuesday, July 12, 2005
'Good government' can be had for a price – an awful price
The headline in the Dallas paper was, “Firm gave to access DeLay.”
I read it once, then twice.
Diagramming: That's “access” as verb, “DeLay” as object.
I don't know what it does for you. For some reason it reminded me of a scene in The Last Picture Show: On a slow night – aren't they all in Anarene, Texas – the boys pool gas money to buy slow-witted Billy some backseat time with Jimmie Sue, the part-time prostitute.
OK, that's the movies. In the case that made the newspapers, it was Kansas energy firm Westar paying $25,000 to “access” Tom DeLay.
Westar wanted favorable treatment in an energy bill. To share a golf cart with the House majority leader, it was told to write the check to Texans for a Republican Majority, DeLay's political action committee.
The story reported by The Dallas Morning News: For the first time a corporation was admitting it donated to DeLay's PAC, and why? To “access” DeLay. (I am now reminded of the caution advised to me years ago, as a newcomer to Texas, in using “service” as a verb. I was unaware that, in some parts, it described how racehorses reproduce.)
Defenders will say, what's wrong with that? That's not payola to good ol' Tom. That's just good ol' soft money, the stuff that makes the political world go 'round.
What's wrong? Well, for one, DeLay's PAC donated $1.6 million to Texas legislative candidates in 2002. Corporate and union donations to state officials are one of the few things Texas campaign finance law forbids.
What's wrong might also be that DeLay helped massage legislation just so for Westar. Indeed, the company had the bill language it wanted -– until investigators started looking into allegations of illegal corporate contributions. Then the language was dropped.
Several lawmakers, including House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, have denied that campaign contributions from Westar resulted in language to exempt it from key energy regulations.
If it had, the transaction would be a crime.
The corporate contributions in Texas aided DeLay and the Republicans in their quest to claim the Texas House and to redraw congressional districts for a second time in a decade that was still young. Two of DeLay's fundraisers have been indicted by a Travis County grand jury. Another was held liable in a civil suit brought by Democrats who say he funneled corporate dollars into campaigns to beat them.
This is why, when they say, “Why pick on ol' Tom? Everybody solicits cash in the political world,” it's not exactly the same.
King Perry – no, not that one
Campaign contributions have always been a coin of the realm for both parties. But some have more coin than others. The most powerful man in Texas may not be anyone in the House or Senate but a man who builds houses, Houston builder Bob Perry.
Perry is the unquestioned king of campaign finance in our state, giving $6.9 million to Republican candidates over a four-year period. (He also bankrolled the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against John Kerry.)
In return? Well, in 2003, Perry got something he wanted: a new commission to avert civil suits against builders. It was posed as pro-consumer. The extent to which it is pro-industry was made clear when Perry Homes' in-house attorney was made a commissioner.
All of this is in the name of good government. Believe it when they say it. To allegations that a contributing corporation might have been done a favor, a DeLay spokesman said “anyone who works with Tom DeLay knows that his legislative efforts are based on sound public policy alone.” What Westar did for DeLay, and what Perry did for a host of Texas lawmakers, may sound like good government in Austin and Washington. But it would have raised whispers in Anarene.
John Young's column appears Thursday, Sunday and occasionally Tuesday. E-mail: jyoung@wacotrib.com. |
