Money for nothing, golf trips for free

Report: Prosecutors are investigating whether DeLay's wife had a no-show job for a lobbying firm run by his former aides.

Published September 6, 2006 1:52PM (EDT)

The Wall Street Journal reports that Justice Department investigators are looking into Tom DeLay's wife's employment at a lobbying firm to see if she, you know, actually worked there.

For three years, Christine DeLay received $3,200 a month -- that's about $115,000 to you and me -- from Alexander Strategy, a lobbying shop run by two of her husband's former aides, one of whom is under investigation and the other of whom has already pleaded guilty to bribery charges. As the Journal reports, investigators have been asking people who used to work at or near Alexander Strategy whether they saw Mrs. DeLay around much. "They wanted to know how often she came to the office? What did she do there? How long was she there?" one person who was interviewed by the FBI tells the Journal.

What does it all mean? That the Justice Department hasn't forgotten about DeLay even though he's sort of not running for reelection -- and, as the Journal says, that prosecutors might be thinking about targeting Mrs. DeLay as a way to squeeze a guilty plea out of her husband?

As for him? The former exterminator and House majority leader is busy working on his memoir, "No Retreat, No Surrender: The American Passion of Tom DeLay." DeLay tells the Associated Press: "This is a book that's going to be the history of my career, how it furthered the conservative cause, with my spiritual walk and what I think the conservative cause ought to do next."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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