"The 58-year-old is accused of laundering corporate contributions for use in Republican campaigns in Texas.

He has strongly denied the charges in a case which has yet to go to trial. (...) Mr DeLay has been destroyed by corruption allegations against him and admitted corruption by his senior staff.

Just days ago his former deputy chief of staff pleaded guilty to corruption, saying he ran a criminal enterprise out of Mr DeLay's office."

More at the BBC

"But DeLay's crudest assault on American democracy will be little mentioned now, as it has been since he waged it.

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 2000, when the eyes of the nation were fixed on the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami, where a Dade County canvassing board was reviewing 10,750 uncounted ballots in Florida's disputed presidential contest between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, a riot orchestrated by DeLay's top aides and allies and carried out by Republicans flown in from Washington stopped the count. In so doing, DeLay's minions assured that the Bush campaign's Florida co-chair, Katharine Harris, would, in her capacity as secretary of state, be able to certify a 537-vote "win" for the Republican when the recount deadline arrived. It was that certification that allowed Florida Governor Jeb Bush to sign a Certificate of Ascertainment designating 25 Florida electors pledged to his brother. The paperwork was immediately transferred to the National Archives, where it would eventually be cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision to award the Florida electoral votes, and with them the presidency, to George W. Bush."

From "The Nation": The Hammer Goes Down