Mum’s the Word on Maloney & Co.’s Million
January 24th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
We raised the question on Monday of what, exactly, the people of Texas received for the roughly $1 million in public funds paid to lobbyists (and Tom DeLay-Jack Abramoff cronies) Drew Maloney and Todd Boulanger? Gov. Perry announced last week that he had canceled the controversial lobby contracts. For the past two days, we’ve endeavored to find out for you, dear reader, if Texas benefited from these lobbyists or if the governor was funneling taxpayer money to DeLay’s associates.
We finally reached Tom Alexander, spokesman for Cassidy & Associates, Boulanger’s firm. Alexander happily provided a written statement (”We are confident we provided an unmatched level of service that delivered positive results for the people of Texas”). If that comment looks familiar, it should. Alexander fed it to every reporter in town. When we asked what “positive results” Alexander had in mind — contracts won, bills passed, federal money snared — we got shut down. Alexander refused further comment out of “fairness.” We tried asking the question several different ways. “I’m not taking any follow-ups,” he finally said and hung up. Bang-up job, Tom.
Maloney hasn’t returned calls for comment. Neither has the governor’s office. So we dove into Maloney and Boulanger’s lobby contracts with the state, which gives new meaning to the word vague. For instance, on February 9, 2004, the state paid Maloney’s firm, the Federalist Group, $75,000 for “consultant services app. by gov.” to work on a budget item titled “regular reports,” according to the records. Maloney and Co. received another $60,000 on April 22, 2004, for yet more work on those “regular reports.” They do seem awfully regular: in fact, the state paid the Federalist Group on five separate occasions for “regular reports,” totaling $315,000. That was when Maloney and friends weren’t working on those always-tedious “ad-hoc reports/briefings,” the “action plans,” or the “indirect administration,” which, to us, sounds vaguely sexual. No doubt, since reviewing this egregious waste of taxpayer money, it’s clear someone was getting f#%*ed.
January 24th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
RICKY’S FULL OF SHIfT
RICKY IS SOOO FULL OF SHIfT!
IDEOLOGICAL SHIfT DRIFT.
CAN’T GET HIS SHIfT TOGETHER.
KALEIDOSCOPICALLY CRAZY SHIfT LIKE THE WEATHER.
YABBERIN’ LIKE HE’S A SHIfT BRAIN!
PLAINLY SLINGIN’ SHIfT INSANE!
EGOTISTICAL AS HIS FULL SHIfT FLOWS.
REEKIN’ OF TRUTH DEEP SHIfT AS EVERYONE KNOWS.
RECKON HE’LL GO INTO THE SHIfT CAN.
YIPPIE, HIS LOBBYIST SHIfT WILL HIT THE FAN!
EVERY DAY IS LIKE CHRISTMAS FOR MANY INCUMBENT TEXAS POLITICIANS SINCE THEY TEND TO BE AS FULL OF SHIfT AS A NERVOUS CHRISTMAS TURKEY!
HUBERT WILSON