Congressmen give DeLay $$$ to Katrina aid

Memo to Mark Green and Paul Ryan:

I know you guys have been wanting to somehow rid yourself of the $55,000 in tainted money you received from Tom DeLay's political action committee, but have been hampered by your beliefs that (a) the law wouldn't allow you to return it, or (b )it was already spent.

Good news.

Other Congressmen wanting to shed the DeLay scandal have found a creative way to rid themselves of the money without even having to give it back to DeLay.

USA Today reports:

Lawmakers use campaign cash for hurricane relief

WASHINGTON — More than two dozen members of Congress have found a creative way to raise some quick hurricane relief money — by raiding their own campaign chests...

Though most political donors expect their contributions to help an election, the law allows candidates to use campaign funds for charitable causes and even for other political campaigns, says Sheila Krumholz, research director at the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks money in politics...

Two Republican congressmen who donated from their campaign funds — Reps. Kenny Hulshof of Missouri and Steven LaTourette of Ohio — used their offerings to the Katrina fund headed by former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton as a way to rid themselves of money they had received from Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas.
DeLay stepped down as majority leader after he was indicted for alleged campaign-finance abuses. The former No. 2 House leader has contributed to the campaigns of 256 Republicans since 1989. At least two other House Republicans, Jeb Bradley of New Hampshire and Heather Wilson of New Mexico, have said they would return some or all of their DeLay donations, in their case by giving the money back to DeLay's political action committee.

Angry constituents were calling LaTourette's office about accepting money from DeLay. "People say there's too much money in politics," LaTourette says. "Just giving it back didn't excite me very much, but sending it someplace where it's going to do some good did."

LaTourette says he donated "$16,000 and change," equal to what he received from DeLay since he was first elected in 1994. LaTourette also donated $120 of his own money to hurricane relief.

Hulshof donated $14,500 in DeLay contributions to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, according to the Associated Press.

It's what the Democrats have been saying all along about getting rid of the DeLay money. When you cut through all of the excuses and rationalizations for keeping it, the bottom line is this: Where there's a will, there's a way.