DELAY INDICTED

There's a good discussion about it going on in The Corner.

Let me throw my Lone Star bona fides at you. District Attorney Ronnie Earle, the man behind the indictment, is a long-time Democrat hack. He is to fair prosecutions what Dan Rather is to fair journalism. Furthermore, he keeps getting re-elected in Austin primarily because while Texas is a red state, Austin is a very blue redoubt within, and his peeps love his puckish abuse of the law as long as it's aimed at the same people that they hate--Republicans. The man would indict a ham sandwich if he thought it leaned to the right, and it would get him re-elected. Austin itself is basically Berkeley with better college football. Much better college football. Hook 'Em Horns!

Delay will fight this indictment, and he will beat it, but not before Earle has helped make it an issue in next year's mid-terms. That, not conviction, is the point. Earle in all likelihood knows that his case is weak, but DA's have a way of getting indictments when they really want them. And Earle wanted this indictment as much as Ahab wanted that white whale.

Delay did nothing wrong or illegal as far as I can tell, and this prosecution is really a political persecution. But those facts won't stop some weak-kneed Republicans and pundits from saying awful things about Delay and ignoring all of Earle's years of misconduct and political witch hunting. The Democrats will wave Delay's indictment as yet one more bloody shirt. This will damage Delay, no doubt about it. That's unfair, but it's also reality. It will damage the GOP nationally unless it finds its voice and slams Earle often and paints him as what he is--the nearest run thing to a political assassin in Texas.

MORE: You want a conspiracy, I'll show you a conspiracy. The mid-terms are a year out. We now have House Majority Leader Tom Delay indicted by one of the most partisan prosecutors in the US. We have the Senate Majority Leader under fire for a stock sale. We have the abuse of Maryland Lt Gov Michael Steele's SSN to get his credit report--no doubt a fishing expedition to find dirt to fling at him when he runs for the Senate. All of this is going on at the same time, and while in Florida Rush Limbaugh is fighting off a partisan invasion of privacy and prosecution meant to bring him down.

This is starting to look like a concerted effort to criminalize Republicans out of office while silencing our pundits.

MORE: A very knowledgeable contact in Texas tells me that the law Earle is basing the indictment upon, Title 15 of the state's election code, expressly exempts federal officeholders from the state's campaign finance laws. Delay is a federal officeholder. Therefore the law being applied to him is irrelevant. As prosecutor, Earle is well aware of this. Earle seems to have counted on the latte sipping liberals in Austin to hand up an indictment that otherwise would never have seen the light of day. Then they all probably hopped in their Dean-stickered Volvos and headed off to the neartest Whole Foods market for an organically grown, meat-free partay.

Having read the indictment myself, it points to a conspiracy without a crime. "Conspired to do what?" is a good answer to this nuttiness. If the Democrats want to pursue this political witch hunt, let them define just what it is that Delay is supposed to have done wrong. The indictment itself won't help them at all on that.

MORE: Here's the relevant language from the Texas law:

§ 251.002. OFFICEHOLDERS COVERED. (a) The provisions of this title applicable to an officeholder apply only to a person who holds an elective public office and to the secretary of state. (b) For purposes of this title, a state officer-elect or a member-elect of the legislature is considered an officeholder beginning on the day after the date of the general or special election at which the officer-elect or member-elect was elected. This subsection does not relieve a state officer-elect or member-elect of the legislature of any reporting requirements the person may have as a candidate under this title.

The phrase "state officer-elect" would seem to limit the law to those who hold state offices.

Does Earle even have jurisdiction in this case?

§ 251.004. VENUE. (a) Venue for a criminal offense prescribed by this title is in the county of residence of the defendant, unless the defendant is not a Texas resident, in which case venue is in Travis County. (b) Venue for the recovery of delinquent civil penalties imposed by the commission under this title is in Travis County.

Delay's district (22nd Congressional) covers parts of Houston, which is in Harris County. Unless Earle is arguing that Delay isn't a Texas resident, it's tough to see how a Travis County prosecutor even has jurisdiction over anything Delay has or has not done.

The argument has to be either that Delay isn't a Texas resident, which is absurd, or that his conspiracy occurred in Travis County. Supposing there even was a conspiracy (to do what, again? Even Earle can't answer that one.), it's unlikely that any of it took place in Travis County. So Earle's jurisdiction is weak to nonexistent.

BOTTOM LINE: This indictment is purely political. Delay should push for an early trial date. My suspicion is that Earle wants this thing stretched out as close to next year's mid-terms as he can get it (he only got the indictment today because the grand jury was set to expire today--he would have had to empanel a new one if the indictment had taken a day longer to concoct). He'll want to delay it for the political mileage it will give the Democrats--the longer it all lasts, the better for him and his party. By pushing for an early trial, Delay will force Earle to either change his game plan or argue to keep pushing the trial off. The spectacle of watching the accused going for early trial and the prosecutor engaging in delaying tactics will show the role that politics is playing.

Delay should also argue that Earle lacks jurisdiction and that the law in question doesn't even apply to him, arguments which at least on a quick reading of the law are valid and correct. Get this thing thrown out of court on the merits and make Earle and the Democrats defend the minutiae.

OOOKAY: We have our first Republican defector. Tacitus' logic seems to be that because Delay is a bully and interested in power (name a politician who isn't the latter, and last time I checked being a bully isn't an indictable offense), he should have stepped down the very moment that Earle decided to trump up charges against him. That makes absolutely no sense at all. Following Tacitus' thinking is political suicide. All Democrats will have to do to destroy the party completely is make up enough stuff to get an indictment against individual officials. The relevance of the law and jurisdiction won't matter if they get away with this one.

And if you think that they won't do that, you're not paying attention.

DON'T FORGET THIS: From Byron York, June 20, 2005:

Ronnie Earle, the Texas prosecutor who has indicted associates of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay in an ongoing campaign-finance investigation, dropped felony charges against several corporations indicted in the probe in return for the corporations' agreement to make five- and six-figure contributions to one of Earle's pet causes.

A grand jury in Travis County, Texas, last September indicted eight corporations in connection with the DeLay investigation. All were charged with making illegal contributions (Texas law forbids corporate giving to political campaigns). Since then, however, Earle has agreed to dismiss charges against four of the companies — retail giant Sears, the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, the Internet company Questerra, and the collection company Diversified Collection Services — after the companies pledged to contribute to a program designed to publicize Earle's belief that corporate involvement in politics is harmful to American democracy.

Rtwt.

AND DON'T FORGET THIS: From a few months ago:

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who denies partisan motives for his investigation of a political group founded by Republican leader Tom DeLay, was the featured speaker last week at a Democratic fund-raiser where he spoke directly about the congressman.

A newly formed Democratic political action committee, Texas Values in Action Coalition, hosted the May 12 event in Dallas to raise campaign money to take control of the state Legislature from the GOP, organizers said.

Earle, an elected Democrat, helped generate $102,000 for the organization.

In his remarks, Earle likened DeLay to a bully and spoke about political corruption and the investigation involving DeLay, the House majority leader from Sugar Land, according to a transcript supplied by Earle.

"This case is not just about Tom DeLay. If it isn't this Tom DeLay, it'll be another one, just like one bully replaces the one before," Earle said.

At the very least, promoting the coming prosecution of an elected official from the opposite party smacks of prosecutorial misconduct. Earle was clearly using the case to raise funds for the Democrats at this event. Tell me how that isn't mixing politics and the office.