Final Blow for Tom DeLay?

House Rules are quite simple. They bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists. A congressman should not have his expense paid with someone else's cash. It doesn't get any clearer than that.
DeLay Airfare Was Charged To Lobbyist's Credit Card

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number. DeLay's expenses during the same trip for food, phone calls and other items at a golf course hotel in Scotland were billed to a different credit card also used on the trip by a second registered Washington lobbyist, Edwin A. Buckham, according to receipts documenting that portion of the trip.

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Staff
Sunday, April 24, 2005