Desperate to dig up dirt, the New York Times complains that "DeLay Charity for Children Financed by [Evil] Corporations".

The 19-year-old charity, the DeLay Foundation for Kids, has consistently declined to identify its donors, citing their desire for privacy. But a review of corporate and charitable records shows that recent donors have included AT&T, the Corrections Corporation of America, Exxon Mobil, Limited Brands and the Southern Company, as well as Bill and Melinda Gates, the Microsoft founder and his wife, and Michael Dell of Dell computers.

The Gates and Dell family foundations have donated at least $350,000 to Mr. DeLay's charity since 2001. Among the largest corporate gifts was a $100,000 check given to Mr. DeLay last year by the Corrections Corporation of Nashville, which manages federal prisons. AT&T and Exxon Mobil say they have each donated $50,000.

Charities never identify donors. If they did, every two-bit charity in the world would be calling up donors and heckling them for money. So far it sounds like much ado about nothing, but the Times is determined to make something out of it.

...whatever its charitable purpose, the DeLay Foundation is also an important fund-raising operation for Mr. DeLay and allows corporate lobbyists and executives to curry favor with him in a way that skirts campaign finance laws.

Remember Campaign Finance Reform? That's the unConstitutional law that says you can't say anything bad about a politician 60-days before he runs for re-election. It raised the hard money limit on donations (money given directly to candidates), and eliminated the unlimited soft money contributions (money given to the major political parties). Designed to remove money from politics, it is the reason that hundreds of millions of dollars have been diverted to so-called 527 groups who run attack ads.

How giving money to a charitable organization skirts these rules, the Times doesn't explain. But it should be common knowledge that Bill and Melinda Gates have given billions (with a B) to charity.

As reported previously in WinInfo, Gates plans on doling out the majority of his wealth during his lifetime, focusing on gifts that will solve global health and education problems. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation receives the majority of these gifts.

"Bill and Melinda have made a gift of about $5 billion every quarter," says Foundation chairperson Patty Stonesifer.

That's $5,000,000,000 every three months (at least in 1999 before the crash). Still, their $350,000 gift (combined with Michael Dell) to DeLay's foundation seems paltry by comparison.

(Hat tip to Coop)