Spin Dry

Thanks to the Swing State Project, this interesting tidbit from Raw Story:

As Rules chairman, Dreier [D-CA] sits in a powerful position relative to ethics charges that have swirled around House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). Dreier gave $5,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund, one of the larger donors that includes much of the Republican House caucus.

Which, in my mind, leads to the obvious question: what is a California Democrat doing donating to the defense fund of a Texas Republican? Even more disturbing, the article makes it pretty clear that Dreier is sitting on his hands when it comes to investigating DeLay's (lack of) ethics.

Dreier's district in California is in northeast Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County. Translation for non-Californians: he presides over a whole lot o' nuthin'. A big chunk of that district is the Angeles National Forest (aka "dead body dumping capital of the west"). The places that do have people tend to have conservative people. But, really, that's beside the point. Is Dreier suffering from Liebermanitis? You know -- that strange disease that compels you to identify yourself as a Democrat, but then act like a conservative Republican.

So what is Dreier doing giving $5,000 to DeLay's defense fund? Almost makes me think that DeLay must have some dirt on Dreier. An ethical man would investigate DeLay in a heartbeat -- hey, no crime, no problem, right? But Dreier's behavior smacks of a man with absolutely no ethics whatsoever.

Hm. Maybe they've secretly discovered oil under the Angeles National Forest (not impossible; large parts of LA do sit on top of oil fields) and Dreier is kissing up to the oil boys in hopes of getting a piece of the action when drilling starts.

Okay -- that example may be specious. But there is something very fishy going on here, and I think America deserves to find out what that is...