Topic: Newsmax
In an April 3 NewsMax interview with Tom DeLay, Paul Crespo failed to challenge DeLay's claim that "Every charge that has been brought against me has been dismissed as frivolous." In fact, the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct did, in fact, admonish DeLay regarding incidents of a golf fundraiser that "created an appearance that donors were being provided special access to you regarding the then-pending energy legislation," as well as "intervention in a partisan conflict in the Texas House of Representatives using the resources of a Federal agency" that raised "serious concerns under House standards of conduct that preclude use of governmental resources for a political undertaking."
Crespo did eventually note that "DeLay was indicted in 2005 on charges of conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws" and that they are still pending -- but didn't point out that this also contradicts DeLay's claim that "every charge" against him has been "dismissed as frivolous."
Crespo also let DeLay spin about the origin of his nickname, "the Hammer":
It was the Washington Post that gave me the nickname "The Hammer." They couldn't believe that we were so effective without breaking member's legs and arms to make things happen because that's the way [the Democrats] operated. That is the way that they acted when they were in the majority… The nickname "Hammer" doesn't fit the way that I ran the whip operation nor my leadership office. They just don't get it.
In fact, DeLay has celebrated the nickname. The New York Times reported that a $2,000-a-table tribute dinner held by DeLay supporters in Washington, D.C., in May 2005 included numerous references to DeLay's nickname: "Mr. DeLay was served a red-white-and-blue cake festooned with sparklers and plastic hammers -- a reference to his nickname, the Hammer -- while the band played 'If I Had a Hammer.' " And contradicting DeLay's claim that "The nickname 'Hammer' doesn't fit the way that I ran the whip operation nor my leadership office," Congressional Quarterly has reported that that if Republican House members defied DeLay's leadership, "punishment" or "threats" would follow, or committee memberships could be put in jeopardy.
