BY LYNN SWEET SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
"The longer this goes on,'' former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) told a Houston KTRN radio host on Wednesday, "the tougher it is for me to step back in as majority leader.''
The indictment against DeLay, forced to vacate his leadership spot after being accused of conspiring with two others to channel banned corporate donations into Texas state races, started a chain reaction of interrelated political events with a ripple effect reaching into Illinois.
Last week I wrote how Democrats were ready to exploit the criminal charges DeLay faces in Texas, and the only question was how effective they would be. DeLay's second indictment -- on money laundering, all part of the same scheme alleged in the first indictment -- only gives Democrats more grist.
But if Democrats make too much of DeLay's alleged ethical lapses, especially when it comes to fund-raising, they are inviting scrutiny of their own. Take, for example, a report titled "PAC-Men Lobbyists,'' released this week by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan investigative organization keeping tabs on lobbyists. The center's researchers found the top fund-raisers for almost 80 members of Congress -- Democrats and Republicans -- were corporate lobbyists for lawmakers they are trying to influence.
The Center highlighted Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), probably because he is chief of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The treasurer of his congressional campaign fund is a Chicago-based lawyer who lobbies Congress.
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