Doesn’t say a word about his political principles, though.

As for the “money laundering”, swapping corporate dollars for personal dollars for contribution to campaigns, I fear it is widespread. The multigazillionaire for whom I worked for 23 years in San Francisco had routinely expected employees to hand over personal checks in exchange for cash or a check from one of his companies (disguised as expense reimbursement) in order to circumvent limits on corporate giving to campaigns. When the practice came to my attention (he asked me to call employees to make the arrangements), I declined to participate. He said, “Okay, I’ll make the calls myself.” I picked up my phone. He said, “Who are you calling?” I said, “The State Attorney General.” No money swaps were made that year to my knowledge, and so far as I know, none was made during my tenure — though the practice may easily have been resumed once I had retired.

Perhaps if the job market had not been so good at the time, and if my combined business/computer skills had not at that time been such a rare commodity and very much sought in the market, I’d have buckled to the request. I’m frequently, alas, not nearly so brave as my ethics are high.

It was illegal. It was also kind of trivial as these things go, and it was something that so many people had done that no one initially thought that much about it.

We’ve heard from both sides on this issue; that Tome DeLay has committed a crime, that he didn’t, that this is on the up-and-up, that this is politically motivated. I have to wonder whether we’re going to find out at the end of the day that DeLay has done something that a lot of people did, but happened to get caught, or happened to piss someone off enough that they went after him anyway they could. Kind of like Martha Stewart.

Or maybe he did something really reprehensible. Or maybe this is baseless and politically motivated (or it’s not baseless, but it’s still politically motivated). Anyway, while it’ll keep Tom DeLay busy, I’m sure the GOP will just bump everyone up one notch, fill the lowest rung of the leadership ladder with an up-and-comer, and keep on moving. Who knows? The next guy might be more effective than Tom DeLay. It’ll be interesting to see what this is all about, and if it actually has any political fallout (outside of DeLay’s district in Texas) at all.