Subject: Help Us Keep the Heat on Tom DeLay

From: "Chellie Pingree, CEO Common Cause" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:10:44 -0800

Dear Common Cause Activist,

For over eight months we have been trying to hold accountable House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) for his serious ethics problems stemming from allegations of extortion, money laundering, and other abuses of power.  Last week DeLay's ethical problems reached a new high when multiple stories surfaced concerning his alleged violations of House rules that bar acceptance of travel expenses from registered lobbyists and foreign agents.  We are writing today to appeal for your support so that we can escalate our campaign to restore the rules that gutted the House ethics process and hold Tom DeLay and other Members accountable.

Specifically, we need to raise $60,000 in next three weeks to fund a national communications strategy that will include placing a full-page ad in Roll Call (an influential Capitol Hill newspaper), buying ads and billboards in the districts of influential lawmakers, conducting editorial board meetings with journalists in key districts and organizing up to 30 town hall meetings nationwide to generate awareness that the House ethics process has essentially shut down to protect DeLay and others.  The situation in Washington is at a tipping point and your support at this critical moment can make a big difference. 

www.commoncause.org/KeeptheHeatonDeLay 

Make no mistake about it, as the scandals and allegations have piled up over the last few months, our efforts to prevent powerful leaders like Tom DeLay from acting with impunity have made a difference.  DeLay's unethical behavior has become increasingly vulnerable to criticism, even by Members of his own party (http://www.commonblog.com/story/2005/3/14/1007/02067).  And you have played a huge part in keeping House ethics problems front and center:

-  More than 60,000 of you have signed on to our petition asking DeLay to step down as majority leader (http://www.commoncause.org/stepdownDeLay) because he is ethically unfit to lead the "people's House."

-  In January when the Republican leadership tried to force changes to House ethics rules that would personally benefit Tom DeLay, your activism forced them to retreat (http://www.commonblog.com/story/2005/1/4/05045/68740) from passing a rule that would have allowed DeLay to keep his job even if he is indicted in Texas for fundraising irregularities.

-  Last week when new allegations surfaced, you flooded Capitol Hill with thousands of phone calls (http://www.commonblog.com/story/2005/3/10/11638/8364#readmore), lobbying members of the Ethics Committee and the GOP leadership to push for a full-scale investigation of the latest ethics scandals.

-  Since last night you have blitzed the House leadership with more than 50,000 (http://www.commonblog.com/story/2005/3/14/155932/040) emails and faxes urging the Republican leadership and each of your Representatives to support Rep. Mollohan's (D-WV) resolution to overturn the most egregious of the ethics rules passed in January.

Your dogged activism has enabled us to generate enormous pressure on the Republican leadership to hold their embattled colleagues accountable for their alleged transgressions and gross abuses of power.

But continuing this kind of pressure is not easy.  Tom DeLay still insists he did nothing wrong and has refused to resign as the majority leader.  This is why we need your help so that we can  sustain our all-out campaign for accountability against one of the most powerful leaders, whose Republican Party controls all three branches of our government.  Please help us raise $60,000 so that we can fund our national grassroots/media campaign to restore ethics and accountability in DeLay's Congress.  Your support is crucial to the success of our campaign:

www.commoncause.org/KeeptheHeatonDeLay 

Thank you again for all of your activism and staying with us in this fight.  Your actions and support do make a difference.

Sincerely,

Chellie Pingree
President & CEO, Common Cause

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