Damn, but this has been a while coming, hasn't it? The DeLay delay has been going on for 3 years now, or just about, and the walls around Texans For A Republican Majority are finally coming down.A grand jury has indicted a political action committee formed by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and a Texas business group in connection with 2002 legislative campaign contributions.
The five felony indictments against the two groups were made public Thursday. Neither DeLay nor any individuals with the business group has been charged with any wrongdoing.
The charge against Texans for a Republican Majority alleged the committee illegally accepted a political contribution of $100,000 from the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care.
Four indictments against the Texas Association of Business include charges of unlawful political advertising, unlawful contributions to a political committee and unlawful expenditures such as those to a graphics company and political candidates.
And for those that are wondering: yes, corporations can be idicted. As a commenter at Balloon Juice said:
There are legal options which can be taken against a corporate individual when it is found to have violated a criminal statute. In the extreme, the corporate entity can be dissolved and its assets repossessed [sp?]. In addition, the directors can be forbidden from holding a position of responsibility with a public corporation for a period of time. (That latter is a serious punishment. It means that the directors need to be individual proprietors, which exposes their personal assets to risk in the case of bankruptcy. Ouch!)Sounds to me like the GOP should've kicked the whole 527's concept out the window instead of trying to out-527 the Democrats. Because now, it's going to kick them in the wallet. And with political campaigns, that hurts just as much as a boot to the fork.
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