NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - 5A
* Details divulged
about Delay s
illegal fun maiig
Majority whip Roy
Blunt accepted illegal
funds from DeLay
WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom DeLay
deliberately raised more money than he
needed to throw parties at the 2000
presidential convention, then diverted
some of the excess to longtime ally Roy
Blunt through a series of donations that
benefited both men's causes.
When the financial carousel stopped,
DeLay's private charity, the consulting
firm that employed DeLay's wife and
the Missouri campaign of Blunt's son
all ended up with money, according to
campaign documents reviewed by The
Associated Press.
Jack Abramoff, a Washington lob-
byist recently charged in an ongoing
federal corruption and fraud investiga-
tion, and Jim Ellis, the DeLay fundrais-
er indicted with his boss last week in
Texas, also came into the picture.
The complicated transactions are
DRUGS
Continued from page 1A
ineligible for aid if they were convict-
ed of a drug related offense at any time
in the past, even in high school.
The House committee on education
and the workforce said the original
drawing scrutiny in legal and politi-
cal circles after a grand jury indicted
DeLay on charges of violating Texas
law with a scheme to launder illegal
corporate donations to state candi-
dates.
The government's former chief elec-
tion enforcement lawyer said the Blunt
and DeLay transactions are similar to
the Texas case and raise questions that
should be investigated regarding wheth-
er donors were deceived or the true des-
tination of their money was concealed.
"These people clearly like using
middlemen for their transactions," said
Lawrence Noble. "It seems to be a pat-
tern with DeLay funneling money to
different groups, at least to obscure,
if not cover, the original source," said
Noble, who was the Federal Elec-
tion Commission's chief lawyer for
13 years, including in 2000 when the
transactions occurred.
None of the hundreds of thousands
of dollars in donations DeLay collected
for the 2000 convention were ever dis-
closed to federal regulators because the
MILITARY
Continued from page 1A
point on homosexuals' colleagues
because the military is not allowed
to discriminate outright," she said.
"You have men and women who are
enlisting who really want to serve
the country but are being told they
can't for a silly reason."
Students at schools like the Uni-
versity of California-Berkeley, the
University of
Wisconsin-Madi- «
son, Harvard Uni- You have
versity and Yalea
University have and wom
recently voiced a-
concerns to their are enlisti
administrations or really wan
have held protests
about military serve the
recruiters being
on campus. but are be
A t Stanford, a ,
group of law stu- they can t
dents, called the silly reaso
OUTlaws, held a
successful pro-
test Monday when
military recruiters Univ
arrived on cam- Un
pus, co-president De
and Stanford Law
student Michael
Angelo said.
The group passed out pins pro-
moting equality, wore camouflage
shirts and covered themselves in
duct tape with the words "Don't ask,
don't tell" written on it.
They also had their own table in
satirical protest of the military's,
calling it a non-hospitality table
with cookies on it.
They posted signs on it that said
only heterosexual students could eat
the cookies.
going to stand
men
en who
ng who
it to
country
ing told
fora
n.
-Jaya Kalra
versity Stonewall
mocrats co-chair
Only two people signed up for
interviews with the recruiters and
both signed up to protest the mili-
tary's policy. After the first sign up,
the recruiters left, Angelo said.
"They had come to the conclusion
that no one was legitimately inter-
ested in talking to them," he added.
Angelo said the protest was effec-
tive.
"It was really important to let
the military know we are not just
idle," he said. "It
also let the uni-
versity know that
LGBT students are
against allowing
recruiters to come
to campus."
Last November,
the legality of the
Solomon Amend-
ment was success-
fully challenged in
a Philadelphia fed-
eral appeals court
by 24 universities
collectively called
the Forum for Aca-
demic and Insti-
tutional Rights or
FAIR.
But by a vote of
327-84, the U.S.
House of Repre-
sentatives support-
Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) appears during the taping of "FOX News Sunday"
in an effort to maintain an active role in Republican leadership.
type of group DeLay used wasn't gov-
erned by federal law at the time.
DeLay has temporarily stepped aside
as majority leader after being indicted
by a Texas prosecutor. Blunt - who had
been majority whip, the No. 3 Republi-
can in the House - has taken over much
of that role in DeLay's absence.
Spokesmen for the two Republican
leaders say they disclosed what was
required by law at the time and believe
all their transactions were legal, though
donors might not always have know
where their money was headed.
Margaret Rodriguez, Vice President
of the University's financial aid office,
said that the bill has had a fairly small
impact on University students. .
But Scarlett Swardlow executive
director of Students For Sensible Drug
Policy said that it is often difficult for
individual universities to monitor how
many students are denied aid as a result
of the anti-drug provision because
if an application
talked for aid is denied,
no explanation is
were arrested by the AAPD.
Even if a student is convicted of a
drug offense on the state level they
have the option of not telling anyone
about it when they apply for aid.
"We have talked to parents who
encourage students to lie on their
application so that they could receive
financial aid," Swardlow said.
"One of the really unfortunate con-
sequences of this provision is that it's
promoting dishonesty."
Rodriguez said she felt smaller
schools and community colleges would
be more affected by the provision than
the University of Michigan.
Many share her concern that the
law primarily affects lower income
students, who can't get by without
the aid, and students from minority
populations who are often dispropor-
tionately convicted of drug related
crime.
"The war on drugs was the national
cry at the time, and they were trying to
fight it on all fronts, but this probably
wasn't the best front to be fighting it
on," Rodriguez said.
ed the law in February, leading the
Bush administration to appeal the
federal appeals court's ruling to the
Supreme Court.
The University is not a member of
FAIR.
"It's clear at this point that the
Solomon Amendment is binding
law, and until something changes,
that there isn't any room for con-
versation," Law School Dean Evan
Caminker told The Michigan Daily
in December 2004.
provision was never
roactively penalize
students who were
convicted in the
past.
"(The new amend-
ment) would ensure
that the provision
serves as a deter-
rent rather than an
additional reach-
back; it will correct
the misapplication,"
said Alexa Marrero,
spokesperson for the
committee.
Students for Sen-
sible Drug Policy, a
intended to ret-
"We have
to parents who
encourage sutdents
to lie on their
application..."
- Scarlett Swardlow
executive director of Students
for Sensible Drug Policy
given. State-by-
state figures of
students denied
aid are not pub-
licly available.
Another reason
that the Univer-
sity may not be
largely impacted
is that much of the
University's drug
prosecution is han-
vocal opponent
of Souder's provision, have argued
that the partial repeal would not be
enough.
"It's like slapping a bandana on a
gaping wound," said Tom Angell, cam-
paign director of the organization's
national chapter. "It would still leave
tens of thousands of students behind."
dIed internally.
Drug offenses handled by the
Department of Public Safety instead
of the Ann Arbor Police Department
would not make a student ineligible to
receive aid.
According to the 2005 campus safe-
ty handbook, 71 people were arrested
on campus for drug related offenses
by the DPS last year; only four people
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