DeLay rewriting history much?

backing up my previous post about Dukestir-related donations to DeLay's ARMPAC in mar/april 2002, it turns out that DeLay was getting some bad press at that same time because of campaign contributions from Enron.

in a since disappeared March 02 article from DFW.com:

"DeLay's financial reports also show that his wife, Christine DeLay, receives a salary from the Alexander Strategy Group. Roy (DeLay's communications director), however, explained that her net annual pay of about $40,000 a year is for her job as chief executive officer of Americans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee whose chairman is her husband.

DeLay's wife is paid through the Alexander Strategy Group primarily as a bookkeeping arrangement, Roy said. She does not keep an office at the firm and often works out of the couple's home, he said. The lobbying firm works for Americans for a Republican Majority as a consultant and received more than $200,000 since July 2000, according to the committee's financial reports.

Christine DeLay's salary was paid by money from the political action committee, Roy said."

that's a pretty dodgy explanation - and it sounds illegal on its face. it's interesting that they've since altered the story and now we are told that Christine got paid by ASG to compile a list of 'favorite charities' - i wonder if she experienced a change in salary commensurate with the change in her duties (and effective employer).

(update - also note that Christine was being paid by ASG 2 years before ARMPAC began paying ASG)

as far as i know, DeLay's daughter got paid directly by armpac - i wonder why there wasn't a similar 'book-keeping' need to put Ms DeLay on the ASG payroll.

actually, this Nov 05 WaPo article says:

"Investigators are also gathering information about Abramoff's hiring of several congressional wives, sources said, as well as his referral of clients to Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying and consulting firm run by former senior aides to DeLay. Financial disclosure forms show that the firm employed DeLay's wife, Christine, from 1998 to 2002.

Former Abramoff lobbying associates have said that Abramoff shared some of his high-paying clients with the group, including Malaysian interests, the Mississippi Choctaw Indian tribe and online gambling firms. Federal investigators have questioned some former Abramoff associates about whether those referrals were related to Christine DeLay's employment there, sources said.

Alexander Strategy Group is run by former DeLay senior staffers Edwin A. Buckham and Tony C. Rudy. Rudy served as DeLay's deputy chief of staff until 2001, when he took a job with Abramoff, and later moved on to join Buckham.

Investigators are looking into whether Rudy aided Abramoff's lobbying clients while he was working on the Hill, the sources said, and are reviewing payments from Abramoff clients and associates to Liberty Consulting, a political firm founded by Rudy's wife, Lisa. The Washington Post reported last month that Rudy, while on DeLay's staff, helped scuttle a bill opposed by eLottery Inc., an Abramoff client, and that Abramoff had eLottery pay a foundation to hire Liberty Consulting.

Richard Cullen, an attorney for the DeLays, said Christine DeLay was hired by Buckham, an old family friend, to determine the favorite charity of every member of Congress. She was paid $3,200 to $3,400 a month for three years, or about $115,000 total, he said.

"It wasn't like she did this 9 to 5, but it was an ongoing project," Cullen said. He said Christine DeLay's work was commensurate with the project and had nothing to do with her husband or any official congressional business. "This was something that she found to be very interesting, very challenging and very worthwhile," Cullen said."

if i read that correctly, Christine stopped working at ASG around the time she was busted by the revelations from DeLay's financial disclosures included in this article. At the time, DeLay's spokesman said nothing about the 'favorite charities' nonsense - but rather she was getting paid for her role as "chief executive officer of Americans for a Republican Majority"

rewriting history much?

(update here )