This is just awesome. I watched this on hardball but now it just seems so appropriate to post.
Transcripts from hardball with chris mathews.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9530048/
MATTHEWS: The charge from the prosecutor down there, which the grand jury acted on, was that a bunch of people got together, including you, and sent, had a bunch of corporate checks up to the RNC in Washington. That‘s corporate contributions, illegal to use in Texas legislative races.
In exchange, you said, OK, you said, now send that same money down.
You earmarked it for these legislative races, thereby circumventing the
spirit of the law, which is no corporate contributions,
Is that a fair estimate of the charge?
DELAY: I don‘t know. It is not in the indictment. I don‘t know what he‘s charging me with.
MATTHEWS: Well, I‘m reading it from it.
DELAY: And—you did not read that from it.
MATTHEWS: Well...
DELAY: And what you just gave us...
MATTHEWS: “Texans for a Republican Majority did tender cause to be delivered and delivered to the Republican National Committee a check in the amount of $190,000, the check being for the same bank...”
DELAY: Wait. Wait. Chris, Chris, that‘s TRMPAC. That‘s not me.
MATTHEWS: OK. So, that‘s it.
DELAY: TRMPAC—TRMPAC is a separate entity. I had no fiduciary responsibilities. I had no managerial responsibilities.
I had nothing to do with the day-to-day operation.
I was simply, along with four other elected officials,
on an advisory board. They used my name as headliners for fund-raisers.
MATTHEWS: Right.
DELAY:
And I had no idea what they were doing.
MATTHEWS: So, if corporate money was laundered through the Republican National Committee, you had nothing to do with it?
DELAY: That‘s exactly right.
But that—but that‘s not what they did. And they did it all within the law. They did—they—what they did—and I know what they did now.
MATTHEWS: Right.
DELAY: They did it completely within the law.
The Democrat parties and the Republican parties do the same thing over and over again. You take soft money. Those were the days of soft and hard money.
MATTHEWS: Sure.
DELAY:
You take soft money and use it for legal stuff. And if you have more than you need, you send it to one of your friends. It‘s like your brother-in-law sending you money to pay your rent. And then you send back hard money that can be used in the races. It is not a quid pro quo. In fact, the amount of money you‘re talking about is different.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
Well, let me ask you this. Let me ask—because Tom Davis is going
to be on this show. And the argument we‘re getting from other people is
that there‘s nothing wrong with you urging some corp or anybody that your -
your former PAC—putting the—the PAC you‘re on the board of—to give, say, give a bunch of money to the RNC. They need money. And it‘s a good Republican cause, and then calling up the Republican National Committee and say, why don‘t you give some money to these legislative candidates? We‘d like them to win down there.
That‘s legal.
DELAY: Yes. It‘s totally legal.
MATTHEWS: So, what is illegal here?
DELAY:
And everything TRMPAC did—and I insisted on—to even be on their board of advisers.
Now, TRMPAC was my idea. I wanted—I wanted the Texas House to be a Republican majority. And I went down there and worked with them to do that. And we were successful. And from that, we redistricted Texas. And the Republican Party better represented the values of the people of Texas, because we gained five seats.
MATTHEWS: You‘re a Texan.
Texas law says corporations can‘t give to legislative candidates.
DELAY: That‘s true.
MATTHEWS: If anybody, not you or anybody—just, if anybody sends money, says, give the corporate maybe to the RNC or the DNC and, by the way, send some of that money back and pay for these races down there, that would maybe be legal. Would it avoid—would that break the spirit of the law, which is no corporate contributions?
DELAY: No, it wouldn‘t, because—because, in Texas, you can raise corporate and union money for administrative purposes, to pay your rent, to pay your salaries...
MATTHEWS: Right.
DELAY: ... and that kind of stuff.
You just can‘t take that money and put it in somebody else‘s campaign. That—everything TRMPAC did, they did it with lawyers‘ blessings and accountants‘ blessing. This is not anything to do with money laundering.
MATTHEWS: OK.
