Culberson thinks al-Qaeda caught, in W. Texas jail

Hilarious. Tom DeLay's towel boy, John Culberson, was on Hannity and Colmes in November and announced that a member of al-Qaeda had been captured by the Brewster County sheriff's department. Too bad for him it wasn't true:

Local Republican congressman John Culberson took to the Fox News airwaves last month to raise the alarm about illegal immigration.

Two West Texas sheriffs, he said on Hannity & Colmes, "confirmed for me that they had an Al Qaeda terrorist…in the Brewster County jail."

To which the two sheriffs in question have answered, in essence, WTF?

One of the sheriffs, Brewster County's Ronny Dodson, told The Big Bend Sentinel that he had jailed one person "who had drawn a picture on his pants of Osama Bin Laden, and we don't know if that was a joke or not." He said Culberson must have been confused somehow by hearing various stories from border agents.

Tony Essalih, Culberson's press secretary, says there's no confusion. Two other aides of the congressman were present when the sheriffs told them of the terrorist prisoner, he says.

"We really haven't figured out where the communication breakdown was. What he said on the show was what he was told by the sheriffs," Essalih says.

Both sheriffs have been avoiding the non-local media since the story broke, but one staffer at the Brewster County Sheriff's Department said Culberson's people "were lying through their teeth…I told them if they'd bring me an Al Qaeda I'd slap him four times, make him pick up cigarette butts; you know, something really mean. But no, no Al Qaeda [here]."

David Murff, one of Culberson's challengers in CD-07 and who has joined the blogranks, has more.

DeLay: Marianas dealings may be his worst crimes

Jesse Lee at the Stakeholder, via Josh Marshall, links to the Marianas Variety, which reports that the recently-elected head of state has turned state's witness:

Governor-Elect Benigno R. Fitial says he will cooperate with federal authorities in the ongoing investigation of Rep. Tom Delay and former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whom he once described as his “close friends.”

You should go here and read the entire, tangled, complicated thing, but here's the moneyshot:

As Jesse points out, interference by Congress in the internal elections of territories such as the Marianas Islands is illegal. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) took an interest in DeLay's involvement in the Marianas some years ago, and as ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee repeatedly asked Republican Chairman (and Abramoff implicatee) Richard Pombo to investigate. Pombo stonewalled but eventually co-signed a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to expand the Abramoff probe to include the Marianas Islands. The following excerpt -- one of the letters Miller wrote to Pombo -- summarizes:

I wrote that in 1999, two men associated with then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay - Ed Buckham, a one-time chief of staff who later became the head of ARMPAC, and Mike Scanlon, a DeLay spokesman - were reportedly involved in an effort to influence the election of the Speaker to the CNMI House of Representatives. I have since learned of additional evidence to suggest these two men may have traded political favors to sway the election in favor of a candidate most likely to renew a contract with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

There's more, naturally.

Popcorn?