This week in corruption: Tom DeLay can't get a fair trial in Austin, Jack Abramoff goes to Africa, and one of Ernie Fletcher's pardonees comes back to haunt him...

After successfully having a Democratic judge removed from overseeing Tom DeLay's case, DeLay's defense team is now lobbying to have his trial removed from "liberal" Travis County.  As irony would have it, Travis County was split into three congressional districts in 2002 with much help from DeLay, who now faces charges related to that year's elections.  The former majority leader's attorneys continued to go on the offensive against District Attorney Ronnie Earle, when on Thursday they requested documents from the prosecutor in the hope of proving Earle attempted to "browbeat and coerce" a second grand jury into indicting DeLay on criminal charges.  

As some readers may remember, there was quite a bit of speculation over what person (or persons) might have given Earle the information needed to indict DeLay.  Well, according to the Washington Post, that person may very well have been DeLay himself.  Citing "four sources familiar to the events," the Post claims DeLay considered pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges in late September so that DeLay could maintain his leadership position in the House.  Apparently at an August 17th meeting with Earle, "DeLay acknowledged that in 2002 he was informed about and expressed his support for transfers of $190,000 in mostly corporate funds from his Texas political action committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington and then back to Texas..."  While DeLay may not have been able to reach a bargain with prosecutors to avoid a trial, he shouldn't have much trouble raising money for his defense fund: last Thursday, prominent GOP lobbyists hosted a fundraiser for DeLay, which was "expected to be the largest fundraiser for a single member of Congress this year.  Host committee members are expected to give the maximum $2,100 personal contribution or to raise $5,000 for DeLay's re-election."  

Jack Abramoff's business ventures have sometimes gone outside America's borders--taking him to Israel, Russia, and the UK--and this week Abramoff added another nation to his CV: Gabon.  According to recently released emails, Abramoff offered his services to the President of Gabon, and drew up a contract for $9 million to secure a visit for the President with George Bush.  The $9 million was to be paid by three $3 million wire transfers sent to Grassroots Interactive, the small Maryland lobbying firm that Abramoff controlled and is being investigated for the role it played in helping Abramoff to skirt lobbying and tax regulations.  

Finally, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher, who is at the center of an investigation into improper hiring procedures, is offering a new argument against these charges: the Democrat before him did it too, and much worse so. During hearings on whether to extend the Grand Jury investigating Fletcher, the presiding judge indicated that the pardons given by the governor in late August (before any indictments were officially handed out) will "probably" stand in the face of opposing indictments.  One of those originally pardoned by Fletcher, former aide Basil Turbyfill, thinks the governor should resign.  In an email to another former aide, he wrote "The GOP will be set back decades and all of us who have worked so hard for 20 years have worked for naught...  if we could get out of this by the Gov. resigning he should do it."  The governor's spokesman called the suggestion "ridiculous," and tantamount to "taking a sledge hammer to get rid of a gnat."