Travels & Travails of the Anointed

of Pelosia and Delay -- According to MSNBC and the Washington Post there has been a rush to refile travel records by lawmakers in Congress. Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat's leader actually apologized for her illegalities, claiming she was unaware of the rules. The Republican whip, Tom Delay, has said the same thing, but in his case it does not matter. There are two sets of ethics rules, depending on which party you belong to.

"I apologize" -- In another case, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had not reported a 2004 trip to South Korea until a Washington Post reporter asked her office about it. Eddie Charmaine Manansala, Pelosi's special assistant on East Asian affairs, filed a disclosure form for the $9,087 trip a few hours after the newspaper's inquiry and sent a note to the ethics committee saying, "I did not know I was supposed to file these forms and I apologize for its lateness."

Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) even asked the ethics committee to investigate him after a reporter for the newspaper Roll Call pointed out that a travel disclosure form from 2001 listed the lobbying firm Rooney Group International as paying for a $1,782 trip to Boston, which would be a violation of House rules.

Abercrombie's aides said they have since determined that the lobbying firm's expenses were reimbursed by the nonprofit group that Abercrombie addressed on the trip, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. House rules state that the prohibition against lobbyists paying for members' travel applies "even where the lobbyist . . . will later be reimbursed for those expenses by a non-lobbyist client."

This is cool! Fellow Texans riding on Air Force One at taxpayer expense. What will they say now? Blogs for Bush is reporting , "Bush To Give DeLay Ride on Air Force One: The AP reports that President Bush, in a show of support for Tom DeLay, will give him a ride from Texas to Washington tomorrow."

GOP Bloggers has a delightful "must see" image of this wonderful kerfuffle, "which gives you just a small snapshot of the Democrats' hypocrisy when it comes to their attacks on Tom DeLay".
delay, pelosi