The Man Who Knows Too MuchOn Friday, Paul noted how the guilty plea by ex-DeLay aide Tony Rudy is bad news for a man named Ed Buckham. Buckham’s fall — and what he could tell prosecutors — would be even worse news for a lot of other people, including many elected officials, Paul pointed out.
Well, recent news reports tell us more about the man who’s increasingly looking like the Grand Central Station of recent Congressional scandals, and what prosecutors might know.
Recall that shady house deal Paul reported on between Rep. Jim Ryun (R-KS) and Abramoff’s multimillion-dollar sham charity, the U.S. Family Network? ABC News says Buckham facilitated it. And the Houston Chronicle this morning gives new details on how Buckham, who was both a private lobbyist and head of DeLay’s ARMPAC, converted the majority leader’s political donors into lobbying clients — or was it the other way around?
I can never remember. Good thing prosecutors have a thousand emails from Rep. Tom DeLay’s (R-TX) office to help them keep track, Newsweek tells us.
What other balls did Buckham have in the air? In addition to running the U.S. Family Network, DeLay’s ARMPAC and Alexander Strategy Group, he lobbied for Brent Wilkes, a major figure in the Cunningham bribery scandal; he “employed” DeLay’s wife Christine and Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-CA) wife, Julie, in arrangements widely recognized to be channels to pump money to the husbands; and he had a funny habit of being around when DeLay was helping out Abramoff’s Choctaw’s clients, or DeLay met with Abramoff’s shady Russian oil pals. Will he sing like a canary when the heat comes down?