Whatever else one may say about Tom DeLay, once he's been bought he has the decency to stay bought. Just ask Bacardi, on whose behalf DeLay has been trying to sneak or force through a bill that would give them exclusive rights to the "Havana Club" rum label in Cuba, even though doing so might damage the intellectual property rights of hundreds of other American companies. (See here, here, here, here, and here for more background.)

Today's update is that yet another bill, HR 4225, has been filed to fulfill Bacardi's wishes at DeLay's behest. What with all of those other pesky scandals surrounding him, though, DeLay got someone else to sponsor the bill for him, in this case Texas' Lamar Smith. No wire reports that I can find as yet, but I have found a couple of press released reactions to the bill, one from the National Foreign Trade Council, and one from Citizens Against Government Waste, both of which were critical of it. I'll keep looking for news accounts to see what the official word is, but for now I take heart in knowing that DeLay's efforts have all been for naught.

By the way, CGAW has an amusingly named WasteBlog, which I just might have to subscribe to. Check it out.

Anyway, thanks to AJ Garcia for the heads up.