Will Bishopgate Finally End Congressman Delahunt’s Career?

by Charles C. Johnson

Yes, the Chavez-supporting Bill Delahunt I wrote about several weeks ago is the same Bill Delahunt who when he was district attorney let Amy Bishop, the neurobiologist who gunned down her colleagues, get away with murdering her brother in 1986. Delahunt and the ex-chief of police are pointing fingers about who screwed up what, while the State’s U.S. Attorney looks into Bishop’s possible involvement with an attempted bombing. Brought into the mix most recently, is Amy Bishop’s mother, the political big wig, Judith, who may have had a role to play in the younger Bishop’s release.

It remains to be seen who dropped the ball on Bishop, but what’s without question is that Delahunt has been a horrible public servant — and that’s not even counting his failure to prosecute career criminal-murderer, Myles J. Connor Jr., who Delahunt not only failed to prosecute, but even went so far as to testify on his behalf!

No, unfortunately, Delahunt has a long, long record of shaddy ties and incompetence, as he tries to keep the country safe.

According to the book, Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice, Delahunt was working on a bill with Rep Lungren to “require the FBI to report to state law enforcement serious violent felonies” committed by its informants and would impose criminal penalties on agents who failed to do so. In a radio interview, Delahunt said,

“What is totally unacceptable is having violent criminals out on the street, preying on American citizens everywhere, while there is information that isn’t being disclosed to local and state law enforcement authorities that have the primary responsibility in this country to protect us from violent crime.” (p. 145)

Well said, Congressman, so why did you fail to protect the people from Amy Bishop? (The truth of the legislation is that it would have imposed insurmountable costs to FBI agents trying to protect the nation. While far from perfect, the informant system saves lives as FBI agents go after the big fish.)

Bill Delahunt is a far leftist on issues of crime. In 2007, a bill he co-sponsored was aimed at reducing recidivism by giving offenders a Second Chance through a failed rehab program. Unfortunately, it became law.

He has also called for a moratorium on the death penalty at the federal level. Delahunt helped a Marine in his district avoid the death penalty after he murdered an Iraqi civilian in cold blood. The Marine, Lawrence G. Hutchins III of Plymouth, tried to cover up the killing.

Had Ms. Bishop received the death penalty for murdering her brother, it is likely that this sad day in Alabama would never have happened. Unfortunately, an activist Massachusetts Supreme Court invalidated Massachusetts death penalty law in 1984 and recent efforts to re-establish it have not been successful. Fortunately, the people of Alabama know how to treat murderers.

It remains up to the people of Massachusetts 10th congressional district as to how they are going to treat Bill Delahunt, assuming he doesn’t step down, as rumors suggest he might. (A possible Democratic replacement announced that she wasn’t running for his seat earlier last month and another Kennedy turned down running for the seat, meaning that the Democrats don’t really have any plausible candidate other than Delahunt in Massachusetts. Yes, gentle reader, the end days are upon us.)

Delahunt wouldn’t be hurting much if he lost that $165,000 federal paycheck. The Boston Herald reported that he receives a $57,623 annual pension from the Massachusetts treasury. (Dave Wedge, Boston Herald, July 20, 2008). He could always go back to Massachusetts and hang out with his pal, former Congressman Amory “Amo” Houghton (R-NY), for whom Delahunt snuck in a $1.1 million earmark to stop flooding on a pricey Cohasset street.

Or maybe he could advise other Massachusetts Democrats on how to fudge vote counts after he lost a 1996 primary bid to Phil Johnston by175 votes in the initial count, went on to win it by 108 votes after Judge Elizabeth Donovan of the Superior Court had mysteriously found that some 900 votes had not been properly read by an electronic scanner.

Or maybe Bill Delahunt could get a cushy job with the Local 25, after he interceded on behalf of George Cashman, a convicted union embezzler that shook down movie studios wanting to shoot films in the Bay State. Delahunt asked federal Judge Douglas Woodstock for leniency for him.

Most disturbing of all, though, was the glee that Delahunt expressed at a House Judiciary Subcomittee when David Addington, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, explained that he could not discuss certain interrogation techniques because Al-Qaeda may be watching C-Span, to which Delahunt responded:

Delahunt responded: “Right, well, I’m sure they are watching, and I’m glad they finally have a chance to see you Mr. Addington.”

In the 2008 election, Bill Delahunt explained that Obama was carrying on in the Kennedys footsteps after Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama. “The America of Jack and Bobby Kennedy touched all of us. Through all of these decades, the one who kept that flame alive was Ted Kennedy. So having him pass on the torch [to Obama] is of incredible significance…” (Leadership the Obama Way, p. 114)

Let’s hope that torch is finally going out and that Delahunt is yet another casualty of the nation’s souring on Obama. It’s time for Delahunt to go.


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Posted Mar 3rd 2010 at 11:01 am in Big Labor, Congress, Earmarks, Justice/Legal, State Politics | 51 Comments