Sexual Dealing

Helluva Mom

Defense lawyers have been known to lay it on thick when it comes to touting the character of their clients, but Mike DeGeurin may have set a new standard with his April 6 memo pleading for a light sentence for Enron's Lea Fastow.

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More About

• Sheila Jackson Lee
• Lea Fastow
• Stanton Welch
• Dominic Walsh
• James Beistle

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Fastow, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud, is described as "devoted to family, thoughtful, kind, unselfish and, since a small child, she has demonstrated an unusual empathy for others…Lea is just a person, a mom, a modest daughter of Jack Weingarten who cares more for others than herself." (Apparently space precluded writing "a modest daughter of millionaire River Oaks businessman Jack Weingarten.")

Heartwarming pictures of Fastow on the beach with her kids, and reading to one on a couch, were included in the court document. "She is a mother first," the memo said.

But DeGeurin's effort to nominate Fastow for Mother of the Year was oddly muted. It omitted this description of Fastow's parenting skills, from the January 14 plea agreement she signed, which the judge later threw out: "To maintain the false premise that the funds [from a sleazy off-the-books partnership] represented 'gifts' to the Defendant's family, several checks were made payable to the Defendant's children."

Now that is some fine mothering. Too bad they couldn't have included a shot of her doling out checks among the sand castles.

Lights! Camera! Sheila!

Houston politicos, who know a thing or two about getting on camera, are forever in awe at the skill and tenacity of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee whenever she spies a piece of photographic equipment. It could be a funeral, it could be at the speech of a competing pol…hell, it could be the grand opening of Houston’s 5,487th Subway franchise. If there’s a bright light, Lee’s attracted to it. Her addiction takes her to dark places where others fear to tread. Many of her colleagues stayed far, far away when Michael Jackson, human oddity and alleged child molester, visited the Capitol. Lee, on the other hand, waded right in, as the picture above shows. Many thought that might have been a nadir — or a high point, depending on your view — of Lee’s ability to horn her way into any publicity shot. Little did they know. She’s been doing this for a long, long time.