Congressional unseemliness

I've been following the Demo attack on DeLay with a jaundiced eye, and have not bothered to blog about it. I know that he's being scapegoated by the Demos because he's powerful, not because he's actually done anything that anyone else in Congress isn't doing. However, this Jack Kelly article is such a good summation of the hypocrisy driving the attack against DeLay that I have to link to it. Kelly shows that, when it comes to trips, etc., DeLay is an amateur compared to his Democratic colleagues. It's just that DeLay doesn't have the NY Times on his side to ignore his conduct and rave about Pelosi's. For example:

Three overseas trips taken by Delay are under scrutiny. One, to South Korea on 2001, was sponsored by the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, which later registered as a foreign agent. But other members and staff were on that trip, including a senior aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal), who was the only congressional traveler to fail to file the required paperwork. The other trips, to Russia and Britain in 2000, were sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a legitimate non-profit. Abramoff was on its board. He put Delay's expenses for the London trip on his credit card, and was reimbursed by the foundation. It isn't clear whether this is a technical violation of House rules, or if Delay was aware of it at the time. It is clear Delay is a piker when it comes to congressional travel. PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan watchdog group, released a study April 27th that showed members of Congress have taken 5,400 official trips at a cost of $16 million over the last five years. The top ten travelers all were Democrats. Delay was tied for 114th place, with 15 trips.