On January 10, 2011, Tom "The Hammer" DeLay was sent to jail for money laundering and the one big question on everyone's mind is..."What took so long?" Adding to a list of crooked politicians from conservative leaders involved in fraud to anti-gay legislators who've turned out to be gay themselves to a dictator who've murdered countless civilians, DeLay is one of several top political jail baits. Here are the top 7 political arrests that everyone's been waiting to happen for years.
The Top 7 Political Arrests Everyone Was Waiting For,
Tom DeLay
Tom DeLay long had a strong hand on the Texas House of Representatives, had being the key word. Known to be powerful and feared, DeLay was elected House Majority Whip in 1995 after helping to lead the Republican Revolution in 1994 which gave the Republicans the majority in both houses of Congress for the first time in forty years.
During the loathsome period, DeLay was known for delivering retribution against those who did not support President George W. Bush's legislative agenda. He wreaked political vengeance on opponents who did not align with his Christian values and personally ensured that the House successfully impeached President Bill Clinton. He was also caught in a 2004 controversy when he was discovered offering to endorse Representative Nick Smith's son in return for Smith's vote in favor of the Medicare bill. Not to mention, he was famous for his promotion of the Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories during Obama's run for President, which we all know by now is not only outrageous but embarrassing.
The point is, he had it coming.
In October 2005, DeLay was indicted on a felony conspiracy charge for bolstering his Republican candidates in the Texas State Legislature in 2002 with $190,000 in corporate donations. He turned himself in a day after his arrest warrant was issued and was released after posting a $10,000 bond.
But this puppy deserves more time.
In November 2010, DeLay was once again facing charges for his 2002 incident as well as a separate fraud and conspiracy incident with Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, this time of money laundering and consipiracy to commit money laundering.
Finally, on January 10, 2011, DeLay got the thing we've all been waiting for: three years of prison in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and 10 years probation.
Bob Ney
The best thing Bob Ney did as representation of Ohio in the U.S. House of Representative was use his power to replace the word "french" in "french fries" and "french toast" with the word "freedom." I mean, it's obvious that menu items are a real crutch to our nation. It's also obvious that everyone needs a good laugh. So thanks Bob, you really are a joke.
Ney felt that the word change was so significant that he held a press conference where he stated that it was a "small, but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capital Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France," referring to France's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.
Well, his time in office was so influential that the committee overlooking House cafeterias changed the names back in 2006, right after Ney left office.
Which brings us to why he had to leave (thank God) in the first place.
Ney caught himself in a scandal with Jack Abramoff and his Indian lobbying group who he granted favors to in exchange for lavish gifts. Ney enjoyed everything from a free trip to the Super Bowl, Northern Marianas Islands, Scotland and other exotic, luxurious places. Along with being implicated in another separate case with the Abramoff SunCruz Casinos where he entered statements into the Congressional Record at former DeLay press secretary Michael Scanlon's request for a $10,000 contribution, Ney also did bad with the Tiguas Indians who he arranged to have them reopen their casinos after receiving $32,000 from the tribe.
Thus, it was only right that Ney got was sentenced to prison for his wrongdoings. It was wrong though that he was only behind bars for 30 months. So much for his "freedom" in prison.
Don Siegalman
Don Siegalman struggled with the state budget problem during his term as governor of Alabama. He went in capitalizing on a singular but not-so-important issue, the state lottery, while tax revenues spiraled down. That was the least of his problems though in 2004 when Siegalman was served an indictment for attempting to rig Medicaid bids back in 1999. However, after being assigned to various different judges, the case was abruptly dropped, with no charges against Siegalman. That's a 10 on the suspicious radar.
Fast forward to 2005 when Siegalman was indicted on new charges, this time on counts of bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction of justice in his involvement with Richard M. Scrushy, founder and former CEO of HealthSouth, with whom he allegedly traded favors for campaign donations. This time, Siegalman did not get off the hook. He was found guilty on 7 of the 33 counts and was given more than 7 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.
Larry Craig
Larry Craig has a thing for being very critical towards everybody but himself when in fact he deserves the biggest criticism of them all.
As the representative of Idaho in the U.S. House and then the U.S. Senate, Craig served in Congress for 28 years, the second-longest ever in Idaho history. They were 28 mostly hypocritical years might we add. Two years after being elected in the U.S. House of Representatives, allegations surfaced revolving around his supposed cocaine use and sexual activities with male teenage congressional pages. Craig not only denied the accusations but countered them with particularly unyielding actions.
This proved him to be very annoying.
He purposefully pushed for harsher punishment regarding Representative Barney Frank's involvement in a gay prostitution scandal. He was extremely critical of President Bill Clinton's sexual fiasco, calling him a "nasty, bad, naughty boy." Then the most douchiest thing of all, he dismissed certain flooded sections of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, saying "Fraud is in the culture of Iraqis. I believe that is true in the state of Louisiana as well."
Oh boy, is the flood gonna crash on him soon.
On June 11, 2007, Craig was in the men's restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and solicited an undercover cop who was in the next stall over for sexual activity. He did the 'ole foot signal but later claimed he just had a wide stance. A wide stance that tapped. Interesting.
He was promptly arrested and later plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. After the court accepted his petition to plead guilty, Craig tried to retract it once again but was too late. There was no more hiding that he, and his previous anti-gay legislation, was guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty.
Roy Ashburn
During Roy Ashburn's 14 years in statewide office, eight of which was served as the California State Senator, he consistently voted against any gay-rights bills. He quashed all efforts to expand anti-discrimination laws, recognize out-of-state gay marriages and honor Harvey Milk, slain gay rights activist, with a day of remembrance.
He also quashed something else when he walked out drunk from a Sacramento gay nightclub with an unidentified male and got behind the wheel where he was soon stopped and arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. His name.
Shortly after the incident, Ashburn admitted he was gay in an interview with Inga Barks on KERN radio. He claimed that his anti-gay voting record was a responsibility to his constituents. Now that he's on the other side though, he's responsible with answering to a whole new demographic.
No more fun times at the club for Ashburn.
Augusto Pinochet
Plain and simple, General Augusto Pinochet is just a big bundle of bad.
As army general and then president of Chile, he committed numerous human rights violations in Operation Condor, his political oppression campaign, which amounted to at least 60,000 deaths. Alongside torturing Spanish citizens and ordering assassinations, he was also accused of embezzling government funds, money from the illegal drug trade and money from the illegal arms trade.
Pinochet had more than enough crimes to his name and after a gruesomely long 25 years of power over Chile, he was arrested in 1998 for human rights violations by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon on the principle of universal jurisdiction. Pinochet tried to play his former head-of-state immunity card but the House of Lords, the highest court in London where Pinochet was put on trial, declared it useless against severe crimes like torture. However, there were complications in the courtroom as well as for Pinochet's health. Both led to Pinochet being released back to Chile without facing trial.
Pinochet would go in and out of house arrest several times before he died as his alleged "vascular dementia" was debated many a times by the Supreme Court. Ultimately, the dictator died without being convicted for any of his committed crimes. At least he was arrested, though, as many times as Lindsay Lohan's been to rehab. And that's not counting the times she'll be going back in the years to come.
Rod Blagojevich
Governor Rod Blagojevich has as long of a crimes list as Jennifer Lopez has shoes. His entire political career was what you'd practically call a crime spree though the bulk of this corruption would not be revealed till later. Too late if you ask me.
From the very start of his appointment, the governor of Illinois worked closely with political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko and accepted millions of dollars worth of contributions from him. He had a sour relationship with his lieutenant governor since taking office and feuded with many Democrats in his party. People from both parties described him as "disengaged," "dictatorial" and "insane." He planned to close 11 state parks and 13 state historic sites in his budget reduction program and wanted to impose a gross receipt tax.
And that's only the small stuff.
In 2008, Blagojevich was arrested on charges of wide-ranging criminal conspiracy. He was accused of trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama to whoever could provide the most financial benefits for him and his wife, and the prosecutors had the recorded conversations to prove it. On top of even more gifts and favors, Blagojevich also tried to set up a deal where the Chicago Tribune editorial board would be fired for writing critical articles about him in exchange for state help in selling the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field, which the Tribune Company owned.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called corruption in the cases "staggering." After Blagojevich was arrested and taken into custody, he was swiftly removed from office and prohibited to serve the state of Illinois again.
Alas, justice is served. Now if we could just get rid of his awful hairstyle...