Tom DeLay
was indicted today on charges of breaking Texas campaign finance laws. This indictment, according to Republican-generated Senate Rules, mandates that DeLay step down from his majority leadership in the Senate until investigations are completed. A copy of the indictment can be found
here. The complaint
alleges:
Records from the Republican National Committee concerning an exchange of $190,000 between an arm of the party's national committee and Texans for a Republican Majority. The Texas committee gave the national party $190,000 in corporate money in the fall of 2002.
In a single day two weeks later, the national party cut seven checks to Texas House candidates totaling $190,000. Republican officials have called it a coincidence. Critics claim the Texas committee was laundering corporate money that it could not legally donate to candidates into legal donations.
It was suggested that DeLay did an end-around to funnel contributions to local Republican candidates. But according to
this story, in earlier indictments,
Ronnie Earle did his own end-around to meet his political ends:
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.
Some legal observers called the arrangement an unusual resolution to a criminal case, at least in Texas, where the matter is being prosecuted. "I don't think you're going to find anybody who will say it's a common practice," says Jack Strickland, a Fort Worth lawyer who serves as vice-chairman of the criminal-justice section of the Texas State Bar. Earle himself told National Review Online that he has never settled a case in a similar fashion during his years as Travis County district attorney. And allies of DeLay, who has accused Earle of conducting a politically motivated investigation, called Earle's actions "dollars for dismissals."
Willisms reports that in the past, Earle's motivations
have been far from pure, even going so far as to allege that the dimunitive
Kay Bailey Hutchinson had physically assaulted an employee during the time she was the Texas State Treasurer. Willisms also notes:
In the ongoing controversy over whether he is an objective voice for justice or merely an arm of the DeLay-hating mob, Earle has "hammered" the final nail in that coffin.
According to The Houston Chronicle, Earle has now crossed the line into raising money for far-left interest groups:
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....
"It may help Tom DeLay establish his case that Ronnie Earle's investigation is a partisan witch hunt," said Richard Murray, a political scientist with the University of Houston.
"It clearly fuels the perception that his investigation is politically motivated. It was probably not a wise move," said Larry Noble, a former Federal Election Commission lawyer who heads the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics.
I cannot say whether the charges against DeLay are founded or not. Time will bear that out. What I can say with some certainty is that the charges were brought about as a result of a huge political axe that was itching to be ground.
After all,
The indictment stems from a plan DeLay helped set in motion in 2001 to help Republicans win control of the Texas House in the 2002 elections for the first time since Reconstruction.
There's no partisan democrat worth his/her salt nowadays that's going to let that good deed go unpunished.
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