The Nattering Nabob

Remember when they used to call it "bribery" and "graft"? Now they call it "political contributions."

But if DeLay goes down - Lord, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

In only a few e-mails, Enron employees laid bare the reality of politics: the money trail from companies seeking favors from lawmakers with the power to grant them.

The e-mails circulated among Enron officials in 2000 and 2001, before the collapse of the Houston energy company, are under review by the House ethics committee, which is considering whether to investigate the fund-raising activities of the No. 2 leader in the House, Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas....

Attention has refocused on the e-mails since a Texas Democrat filed an ethics complaint last month against DeLay. Rep. Chris Bell accused the majority leader of soliciting and accepting political contributions from a Kansas energy company, Westar Energy Inc., in return for legislative favors...

The e-mails show ``pretty clearly corporations were being asked for contributions by members of Congress who held the fate of legislation important to corporations in their hands,'' said Trevor Potter, president and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, a campaign finance monitoring group.

We need laws that call this crap exactly what it is: bribery. It should be plainly and clearly illegal.

There's only one problem: the ones whose job it is to PASS those laws - are the ones DOING it.

Maybe Dante was right and they'll wind up boiling in pitch for all eternity.

One can always hope.