Mark Green dissembles on DeLay money

Mark Green needs to quit dissembling and get his story straight.

He's bobbing and weaving on the question of returning or disposing of the $30,000 his campaign received from Tom DeLay, the ex-majority leader of the House who's been indicted on money laundering charges.

Not in dispute is whether Green got the $30,000 from DeLay. That's documented, so Green hasn't been able to fudge that one.

When first asked to return the money, Green said : (1) he had already spent it and (2) it would be illegal to return it.

When the State Elections Board said he could legally return a contribution to DeLay, Green changed his story. Now he says that when he transferred $1.3-million from his Congressional campaign to his governor's campaign account, only $2,000 of that was DeLay money.

So apparently it wasn't spent at the time. He clearly has more than $2,000 in the bank now. So it hasn't really been spent at all. He could give that $2,000 back, for starters.

The other $28,000, the Elections Board says, could be given to a non-partisan drive to register and turn out voters.

There is some confusion at the board because it is in uncharted waters, in part because Green converted his Congressional cash to a state account -- allowing him to use hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal political action committee money that otherwise would be illegal in the governor's race.

But there is no doubt that Green could find a way to divest himself of the dirty DeLay money if he wanted to. He could dispose of that $30,000 -- but he doesn't want to.

His campaign doesn't need the money. It's a drop in the bucket.

So why is he willing to take all of this political heat over it? Loyalty to the Hammer, Tom DeLay.

Green doesn't say that; he keeps throwing up smokescreens and offering confusing and contradictory reasons he can't get rid of that $30,000. But the bottom line is not that he can't. He just won't.

The Democratic Party got this one right when it said:

The bottom line is that Mark Green has profited to the tune of more than $30,000 from the indicted Tom DeLay, he has $1.3 million in the bank, and yet he flat-out refuses to refund the money. There’s no reason why Green can’t wash his hands of this tainted money.

Mark Green continues to come up with excuse after excuse, instead of doing the right thing and disassociating himself from Tom DeLay. It appears Mark Green is too far in Tom DeLay’s pocket to get out. Green is trying to weasel around the issue by saying he spent the controversial DeLay money, but didn’t spend the non-controversial money. The people of Wisconsin know that’s just an excuse from a Washington-entrenched politician who isn’t representing their values.

This may be how business is done in Washington, but it’s not how things are done in Wisconsin. Mark Green should show the people of Wisconsin he doesn’t condone the corruption that has plagued Republicans in Washington, and refund the DeLay money.