Abramoff instructed tribe to reroute checks to DeLay

The Associated Press reports:

A casino-rich tribe wrote checks for at least $55,000 to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political groups, but the donations were never publicly disclosed and the tribe was directed to divert the money to other groups that helped Republicans, tribal documents show.

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now under criminal investigation, told the Coushatta Indian tribe, a client, to cancel its checks to the DeLay groups in 2001 and 2002 and route the money to more obscure groups that helped Republicans on Medicare prescription drug legislation and Christian voter outreach.

DeLay's Texans for a Republican Majority and Americans for a Republican Majority never reported receiving any checks from the Louisiana tribe to federal or state regulators, their reports show. The donations, however, are recorded in memos and ledgers kept by the tribe.

"Enclosed please find a check for $10,000 to the Texans for a Republican Majority. This check needs to be reissued to America 21," Abramoff wrote the Coushattas in a May 2002 letter obtained by The Associated Press.

America 21 is a Nashville, Tenn.-based Christian group focused on voter turnout that helped Republican candidates in the pivotal 2002 elections that kept DeLay's party in control of the House.

The back clouds surrounding Tom Delay, Inc. continue to grow darker and murkier as one scandal after another unfolds.

There's no doubt about it: Delay's unethical, arrogant, and despicable behavior is alienating the American public. His recent step into the limelight to push congressional interference into the Schiavo family's private lives was unfavorably received by a huge percentage of the American people.

Americans should demand a full congressional investigation and probe into the activities of Delay, Inc. and its shady, unethical dealings.