If you've missed news on former Rep. Tom DeLay and his assorted misdeeds (and who hasn't?) cheer yourself up with this bit of satire on his complaints about the judge assigned to his Texas trial on money laundering and corruption charges: "It just wouldn't be right if we had an actual trial in Texas, this is about power and money not honesty and integrity."

The Progressive States Network has an interview up with Robert Greenwald, the man behind Brave New Films which put out The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress, about the DeLay scandals and the centerpiece of a big day to promote public financing of elections last year. Read about Greenwald's interest in pursuing the Tom DeLay story, his grassroots approach to film distribution, and his support for full public financing of elections.

Help, I'm pinned under about a ton of irony: indicted former Rep. Tom DeLay is participating in a panel discussion on campaign tactics and ethics. All of you aspiring to a political career marked by corrupting greed and resignation in disgrace, mark your calendars.

After a decade of buying power and influence on the Hill, former Rep. Tom DeLay's ARMPAC (Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committe) is going out of business says Paul Kane at Capitol Briefing. The subject of intense legal scrutiny, the activities of ARMPAC, and its local offshoot TRMPAC, placed purveyor Tom DeLay in hot water from which he has yet to escape.

On Sunday The Washington Post ran the first in what is to be a 25-part profile on the growth the lobbying industry in Washington through the eyes of top Washington lobbyist Gerald Cassidy. Intended to be an analysis of how Cassidy rose through the ranks to become a player in DC, all the while helping to transform lobbying into the access-buying influence game it is today, it ought to be an illuminating peak at an industry under fire in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari is a generous guy. Since 2002, he's given $15,250 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. And yesterday he was charged with funding a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. In response, the NRCC has cautioned people not to rush to judgement on Alishtari, and moreover has not disclosed what it intends to do with the money it received from Alishtari. Good to be a big donor, huh?