Tom Delay sentence may come later this afternoon.

[werepossum]

What exactly did he do that deserves prison time?

Guy says that he wants to give money to some politicians, but the law says he can't do it.

So Delays comes up with the idea of the guy giving money legally to the national party and then the national party will turn around and legally give money to the candidate the guy wanted to support in the first place.

Both parties do this, but typically it is done by donating money to one organization which then makes donations to another. Delay did what is explicitly banned, he personally ran both. There is no law against the first (unless one can prove a quid pro quo) but there is a law against the second. Delay knowingly and willingly crossed the legal boundary that separates mutual support from money laundering; therefore he needs to go to jail. We must fight corruption in government, else we'll have more.

Rangel also knowingly and willingly broke the law for his own benefit. My only difference with Rangel is that, as an authentic American war hero, I'm willing to give him a bit more of a pass. I'd like to see him thrown out of office for his corruption, but not put in jail, both because of his war record and because his crimes seem to me to be less of a threat to the nation and more simple greed and our entitlement mentality. Ditto Harry Reid's EPA fraud land scheme, certainly an abuse of power but probably not a direct threat to the nation.