Death of a thousand cuts

As a result of reading this article and learning that my local energy provider had contributed to La Cucaracha Grande's legal defense fund, I wrote the following e-mail to the directors of investor relations at Reliant Energy, Inc., this morning and thought I'd share it with all of you:

Dear Ms. Slavin and Mr. Barber:

I cancelled my Reliant Energy consumer electric service this morning, and on its quarterly anniversary at the end of this month, I will be trading out of my mutual fund that holds Reliant stock, and I thought it would be important to let you know why I made those decisions.

I learned yesterday that Reliant had made a contribution to Tom DeLay’s legal defense fund. As a customer and stockholder (albeit one of the smallest), and despite your spokesperson Pat Hammond’s comments that new Reliant executive management will be “conducting its business with integrity and putting some of the matters from the past behind”, I find that decision to be untenable as regards continuing my business with your company.

It’s not important that you respond, as my choices have and will be finalised, but you might consider giving my concerns a wider audience with those who will be responsible for making political contributions on behalf of Reliant Energy, Inc. in the future.

Regards,

(me)

And just now I found this:

"If death comes from a thousand cuts, Tom DeLay is into a couple hundred, and it's getting up there," said a Republican political consultant close to key lawmakers. "The situation is negatively fluid right now for the guy. You start hitting arteries, it only takes a couple." The consultant, who at times has been a DeLay ally, spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he could not be candid otherwise.

That drip, drip, drip you're hearing?

It's blood.