by Peter Flaherty
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee unveiled a new tactic on May 3 in its efforts to take back control of the House this year. It filed a RICO lawsuit against Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and two groups with which he is affiliated. A RICO suit is one filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), DCCC Chairman, alleged that DeLay has engaged in "extortion" and "money laundering." During questioning by an openly skeptical Capitol Hill press corps, Kennedy admitted that the DCCC had no corroboration of its allegations, that were based only on newspaper articles. RICO experts were even more dubious. University of Michigan professor G. Robert Blakey, who helped write the RICO law, said, "This is the kind of case that gives RICO a bad name."
Chip Off the Old Block
What the 32-year old son of Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D-Mass.) lacks in evidence, he more than makes up for in chutzpah. Just days before filing the anti-Delay suit, Kennedy was involved in an incident at the Los Angeles International Airport in which he allegedly cursed and roughed up a female security guard. Della Patton filed a battery charge after she was grabbed and shoved by Kennedy after she told him his bag was too big to fit in a metal detector.
Kennedy at first denied there had been any contact, but after learning that police possessed surveillance videotape, he apologized to the guard. Kennedy has avoided criminal charges by agreeing to enter a program for those with no previous criminal records.
Win By Losing
Even if Kennedy's suit is eventually bounced out of court, it is obvious
what he hopes to accomplish. It is to harass DeLay by making him spend
time and money to defend himself. And if Judge Penfield Jackson, of Microsoft
anti-trust fame, allows any discovery, the DCCC can gain useful intelligence
about its competition.
I've seen this kind of operation before. During the eighties,
a pro-Sandinista outfit called the Christic Institute filed a RICO suit
against just about everyone who was publicly identified with supporting
the Nicaraguan contras or President Reagan's policies in Central America.
After several years of legal wrangling, the judge threw out the suit and
ordered Christic to pay legal bills of some defendants, but not before
Christic was allowed a wide-ranging fishing expedition. You can bet the
first stop for deposition transcripts was Managua.
Liberal Hypocrisy
As the basis for the "money laundering" charge, the DCCC cites news reports that DeLay helped establish a so-called 527 committee called Republican Issues Majority Committee. The 527 refers to the section of the tax code under which such committees are allowed to conduct advertising on issues without publicly disclosing their donors. These committees were not invented by DeLay, but came about last year as a result of an IRS private letter ruling sought by a liberal San Francisco attorney on behalf of a liberal group. Right now, the Sierra Club is running negative television ads against Republicans in sixteen districts through a 527 committee.
The DCCC also cited the overlapping organizations as evidence of "racketeering." Of course, organized labor has had an overlapping relationship with the Democratic party for decades. And some of the union bosses have actually been convicted of racketeering.
DeLay is No Coelho
Patrick Kennedy must be too young to remember when Tony Coelho (D-Cal.) was Majority Whip. DeLay has a well-deserved reputation as an effective fundraiser, but he is really a different animal than Coelho, which in Portuguese means "rabbit."
Coelho would do anything, and I do mean anything, for a donor. In 1981, a contributor's son was convicted of a murder and faced life without parole. The victim of the crime had been kidnapped, bludgeoned, stabbed, choked, and then buried alive. Coelho went to the judge and sought a lesser sentence, arguing that every year taken off the murderer's sentence save taxpayers $15,000.
Kennedy must also be too young to remember Fernand St. Germain (D-R.I.), former Chairman of the House Banking Committee, who held Kennedy's House seat for three decades. Coelho's response when well-founded allegations were made that St. Germain had accepted actual cash bribes? Media training!!! The DCCC paid a professional to coach St. Germain on such points as "not looking guilty while answering hostile questions." I am not kidding.
These episodes are legend in Washington. The level of cynicism is such that they make Coelho a highly sought-after political operative. When Al Gore's presidential campaign was lagging last year, he turned to Coelho, who now runs his campaign.
EW