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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

WV-02: Shelley Moore Capito: Swimmin' in It

Posted by DavidNYC

Ah, dear old Shelley Moore Capito. Smart enough to avoid being conned into a sucker's race against Sen. Robert Byrd, but more than dumb enough to accept piles and piles of DeLay Crooked Cash (TM) all these years. Check it:

A new study of campaign donations from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, shows that Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is at the very top of the list.

Americans for a Republican Majority [ARMPAC], DeLay’s national political action committee, has given $2,523,414 to Republican candidates and members of the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate since 1994, according to the study released on Tuesday.

Capito has received $48,500, more than any other candidate, according to the study. She began receiving ARMPAC donations when she first ran for Congress in 2000.

Mike Callaghan, you may wanna highlight this fact about your opponent. Maybe just a teensy bit?

The Campaign for America's Future has done the Lord's work in putting together this comprehensive list tracking all of DeLay's Crooked Cash. Some of our favorite Republicants are way high on the list, such as our buddy Mike Ferugson of NJ, Heather "Nipplewonder" Wilson of NM, Chris "Count" Chocola of IN, and our new favorite whipping boy, Mark Green of WI.

Oh, but go check out the whole list! Your favorite reactionary nutjob is almost certain to be on it!

Posted at 12:04 PM in 2006 Elections - House, Culture of Corruption, West Virginia | Technorati

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Comments

Excellent point, David, and sound advice.

Another point Mike Callaghan or anyone who cares about seeing the people of WV's Second District adequately represented should bring up regarding Shelley Capito (which ties nicely into the whole DeLay mess) is her decision earlier in this session of Congress to abandon her slot on the Transportaion Committee in favor of a post on House Rules.

In doing so, Capito placed a higher priority on her personal ambitions than serving the best interests of her constituents. On Transportation she could have delivered badly needed infrastructural funding for her district.

The timing of her move was particularly harmful as she bailed just as the roads bill was being cobbled together. She left her district unrepresented at a critical time and deserves a portion of blame for the failure to secure more funding for expanded rail links to the rapidly growing Eastern Panhandle counties.

This is a particularly bad move politically as these counties are her base and have supplied her with her diminishing margin of victory.

Instead, Capito chose to move to House Rules, always a spot for those being groomed for leadership posts. There her job has and will continue to be to help design the rules to rig the game however the GOP Hill leadership desires. Capito has demonstrated in this decison that she places a higher priority on carrying water for Tom DeLay than representing the interests of her district, including her core supporters.

I believe Capito herself senses her vulnerability on this issue. On her House website, she has not bothered to update the text citing her service on the Small Business Committees. The text remains in present tense as though she were still on these committees. And her status as a member of House Rules is minimized in comparison.

Capito appeared on Lamb's Q&A program on Sunday, 30 October. Lamb queried her a bit on the move. She touched on the move lightly then began speaking of her role in securing a pitifully inadequate amount of seed funding for the long-delayed work on the eternally problematic Route 35. She reflexively began acting as though she were still on Transportation.

Methinks Capito is beginning to run scared.

Posted by: pinhickdrew at October 31, 2005 03:16 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment