Talking Points Memo - Tom Delay Statement "Inoperative"

Joshua Marshall uses the Houston Chronicle to note that DeLay is digging himself a bigger hole.

When DeLay spoke to reporters on Thursday he said that the information he'd gotten from the FAA about one of the Texas Democrats' private airplanes was information that was available to any member of the public.

Well, it turns out that's not true.

Though some of this information is, according to the FAA spokesman, available through commercial services, DeLay clearly used his status as House Majority Leader to get the information directly from the FAA and presumably to do so more expeditiously than members of the public woudl be able to do. That's called abusing your office.

Why is the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives using the powers of his office to help his political allies in Texas arrest members of the state legislature so they can be forced to make a quorum call and allow the passage of the DeLay-authored redistricting plan?

The fact that Craddick "doesn't remember any details at all about" the day which was probably the most consequential of his career in public life doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence.