"Partisan Democratic District Attorney"
That seems to be the justification the Republicans are using for their voting for the appearance of corruption — that Delay shouldn’t lose his position if he is indicted because the district attorney is partisan. The media, of course, is parroting the line.
Except it is not true. Earle, the prosecutor in question, has been in office since 1976. his beat is Austin, so he handles official corruption cases. He has prosecuted twelve Democrats and four Republicans. Perhaps Earle is a partisan hack, but Delay and his minions provide no evidence of such and the history of the man speaks eloquently to his dedication to root out corruption, regardless of the party of the person involved. It seems fairly clear that this is just a reward for Delay for providing members of Congress with money and the new seats in Texas – -seats without which the Hose GOP caucus would have shrunk.
The members themselves seem to know how sleazy the rule change is. Josh Marshall has been running a campaign to get all of the GOP reps on record. It is amazing how many of them refuse to answer questions about the vote, even to their constituents. So try and get your GOP Rep on the record, if you can. You can see who has responded and how they have responded here. And you can contact for your Representative here.
Let’s see how many GOP members are willing to admit they put fund raising and political power above clean government.
leanleft
Kevin
tgirsch
Kevin T. Keith
I’m happy to report that my moderate Republican congressman (whom I voted for despite the neocon/religious right party leadership) stood up with some integrity against this sham. He was already a hunted RINO, god knows what happens to him now.
The advantage the (R)epublican party thinks that it has may be likened to the Golden Calf of older days. That party is now in the process of carrying the “calf” to their cermonial grounds where they will then set fire to it and dance around the bonfire. Whatever advantage they believe that they held will go up in unholy, ceremonially self-righteous smoke. And please do not forget the ceremonial mirrors.
At this point I am almost willing to hold the torch as they set fire to their ambition. There is an old expression: “If you give someone enough rope, they might just hang themselves.” Are we witnessing a party suicide? I do not mean to be insensitive. I mean to make sense of political nonsense.
I don’t see anything particularly healing about the recent actions. The country cannot come together in any real sense unless there is a common agenda at least at a national level. Is the agenda of greed and self justification the new “national” banner?
As that other expression goes,, “stay tuned.” And watch your back. Because you know someone would be more than happy to watch it for you.
Until recent years, Democrats controlled the Texas Legislature, held most statewide offices and caused the big scandals. Now the situation is reversed, but some Republicans want their scandals to be exempt from investigation.
During his long tenure, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has prosecuted many more Democratic officials than Republicans. The record does not support allegations that Earle is prone to partisan witch hunts.
Sorry, the previous comment was mine – my keyboard flamed out somehow.
Anyway, my point was that Media Matters slid past the opening paragraph of the March 2003 Houston Chronicle editorial defending Earle. Let me repeat it:
Until recent years, Democrats controlled the Texas Legislature, held most statewide offices and caused the big scandals. Now the situation is reversed, but some Republicans want their scandals to be exempt from investigation.
Given that little reminder about Texas history, is it any wonder that Earle has prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans?
As a bonus, he staged a very controversial investigation into Kay Bailey Hutchison back in the mid-90′s. An excerpt from the Dallas Morning News:
On Earle’s methods, the Dallas Morning News wrote “the impression of partisan unfairness has certainly been reinforced by the leaks and public comment about Hutchison’s case from the District Attorney’s office throughout the summer. That the Grand Jury investigation has been conducted with so much fanfare – such as the tip-offs to the new media when key records were seized from the former treasurer’s office – has added a darker tone to the cloudy proceedings.”
Counter spin on Bailey here.
“Given that little reminder about Texas history, is it any wonder that Earle has prosecuted more Democrats than Republicans”
Which proves my point – when corruption is there, he went after it. Right now,the corrption happens to reside in DeLays office.