Edwin Buckham paid Christine DeLay

When I mentioned Edwin Buckham in my last post, I realized that I haven't been spending enough time talking about him. Buckham is the guy who will put DeLay in prison.

Buckham paid nearly half a million dollars to the DeLay family, primarily to Christine DeLay and Dani DeLay Ferro. What makes this particularly interesting to me is that when DeLay aide Tony Rudy entered a guilty plea, he said he would provide evidence that "things of value [were] corruptly given to . . . others includ[ing] . . . employment for the relatives of officials."

Anyway, while I was in my funk after realizing that the Republican Party had totally bungled the ballot case, Tom DeLay's PAC, ARMPAC, admitted violating the law and shut down operations.

What does that have to do with Buckham? Well, the outlaw organization ARMPAC shared a lot with Buckham:

Besides financing the retirement account, Buckham played a role in two other streams of income that indirectly benefited DeLay.

One involved payments to DeLay's family by his principal political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), which drew its largest donations from corporations. Three former DeLay staffers with firsthand knowledge of Buckham's activities have described him as a decision maker for the group, even though it was formally run by its executive director.

An arm of the group paid Buckham a monthly consulting fee, and Buckham in turn employed its executive director as a consultant to his lobbying firm. The two of them shared a single office on the top floor of a townhouse owned by a nonprofit organization that Buckham created and directed. Buckham's role is relevant because from 2001 to Jan. 31, 2006, ARMPAC paid Christine DeLay; DeLay's daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro; and Ferro's Texas firm a total of $350,304 in political consulting fees and expenses, according to public records.

A couple of things about that quote. Yes, that mysterious townhouse is the same one that got Rep. Jim Ryun (R-KS) in a bit of trouble a few months ago. Also, those three former DeLay staffers providing testimony against Buckham? Bet the farm that one of them is Tony Rudy. (I'm guessing the others are Michael Scanlon and Emily Whats-her-face who exposed the entire Abramoff scandal.)

Half a million dollars. An incestuous relationship with a lobbyist. Guilty pleas. Rudy turning state's evidence about corrupt employment relationships. Get ready for Buckham's guilty plea. Then we'll know a whole lot more.