James Lee Burke
Has written fifteen- some novels about Louisiana lawman Dave Robicheaux, a righteous but flawed character that shows us a lot of the bayou country and it’s many peoples. My favorite character is Clete Purcell, a big loveable train wreck that I see played by Nick Nolte or maybe Gerard Depardieu.
I’ve been enjoying his recent “Pegasus Descending,” and reading headlines today about regulation of the insurance industry in Texas, remembered reading Burke mentioning former Governor Edwards being in prison, along with his son, and the last three State Insurance Commissioners.
This makes me wonder why if they can send somebody up for taking the money, why can’t they send up the folks that give it to them? This is not a new problem; the insurance industry was paying out millions to politicians in the Teddy Roosevelt era. Well, at least Louisiana’s convicted somebody, which is more than Texas has done.
But here’s a funny I just found. This is Detective Robicheaux confronting a rich televangelist:
“We can settle some things here or we can do it in front of a grand jury. The word is Bello Lujan and Whitey Bruxal and a few other casino operators launder money through a Washington lobbyist, who in turn gives it to your ministry. Then you exercise your influence on your religious constituency to shut down your competitors. Frankly, I don’t have any interest in your ties to the gambling industry. But I’ve got three open homicide cases on my hands, and I believe you’ve got the key to at least one of them.”
I’ve been enjoying his recent “Pegasus Descending,” and reading headlines today about regulation of the insurance industry in Texas, remembered reading Burke mentioning former Governor Edwards being in prison, along with his son, and the last three State Insurance Commissioners.
This makes me wonder why if they can send somebody up for taking the money, why can’t they send up the folks that give it to them? This is not a new problem; the insurance industry was paying out millions to politicians in the Teddy Roosevelt era. Well, at least Louisiana’s convicted somebody, which is more than Texas has done.
But here’s a funny I just found. This is Detective Robicheaux confronting a rich televangelist:
“We can settle some things here or we can do it in front of a grand jury. The word is Bello Lujan and Whitey Bruxal and a few other casino operators launder money through a Washington lobbyist, who in turn gives it to your ministry. Then you exercise your influence on your religious constituency to shut down your competitors. Frankly, I don’t have any interest in your ties to the gambling industry. But I’ve got three open homicide cases on my hands, and I believe you’ve got the key to at least one of them.”
So Burke wrote this right out of the news stories. He based this fictional racket on the real-life adventures of Jack Abramoff, Mike Scanlon, Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, Ed Young, Ed Buckham, and other Tom DeLay associates.
I bet some of them wish that they’d had somebody like Dave Robicheaux to wise them up before they became persons of interest to the Justice Department.
posted by Julia B. @ 2:19 PM
1 Comments:
Yer honor,
or how about, "listen dirt bags, (to Grover Norquist and his gimp Tommy Delay) word on the street has it that money paid to Haliburton for no bid contracts on trucking, food, water and maintenance that never appeared was found in Gen. Yang Foo's chinese laundry busineses which were nothing more than fronts for funding his herion and white slavery operations. They used junkie's and teen prostitutes to write 1000 dollar checks to John McCain! You two are up to your toups in dirty money. You have so many Asian boys and girls in here they left a wring in your hot tub. I know the Bushman is in on this. If I wasn't gonna spend the next two hours beating you two bloody, I'd drop a dime on your John.
LD
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