Breaking: DeLay Indicted By Travis County Grand Jury
The rumors are true; I don’t have a link yet, but Tom DeLay has, in fact, been indicted by my hometown grand jury. I know a little bit about Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, and believe me, he is as partisan as partisan gets, so I wouldn’t read too much into this…yet; although, let’s face it, being indicted by a grand jury is not a good thing.
A little background – Delay is accused of making illegal corporate campaign contributions in the elections of 2002 that put Republican lawmakers solidly in the majority of both Texas Houses:
DeLay, who represents a Houston-area district, has been under investigation by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle for possible illegal fund-raising and use of corporate funds by his Texans for a Republican Majority committee, or TRMPAC.Texas law generally prohibits corporate money from campaign activities.
Three men — John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren Robold –with links to DeLay and the committee were indicted last year in the case and are awaiting trial. They were charged with accepting a total of $600,000 in illegal corporate contributions.
On Sept. 8, TRMPAC and lobby group Texas Association of Business were indicted on charges of illegally funneling corporate donations into the 2002 elections for Texas Legislature.
TRMPAC’s money and expertise helped Republicans win control of the Texas legislature for the first time since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.
The local progressive rag the Austin Chronicle has been salivating over this possibility for months; if I get any local color or info, I’ll be sure to pass it on…
I don’t know anything about this case, and unless they can show he was taking money to feather his own next, I have a hard time getting riled up about violatiosn of campaign finance laws.
But honestly, if this dooms the career of the guy who recently said there was no fat left in the budget to cut, I’m all for it.
I don’t know anything about Ronnie Earle, but the excellent website Media Matters for America notes that “a March 17, 2004, Houston Chronicle editorial noted: ‘During his long tenure, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has prosecuted many more Democratic officials than Republicans.’ ”
They further note how the charge of partisanship was levelled repeatedly (principally on Fox) with no corroborating evidence.
peter, I’ll follow up more later, but trust me when I say Ronnie Earle is viciously partisan (or don’t trust me, as I said, I’ll post more on it later). The reason he has prosecuted more Democrats is that Travis County officials are 100% Democrats! (An Austinite who wants to actually win an election would never dream of running as a Republican)…
I trust you, of course — however if you have time to go to Media Matters, you will see how the charge of partisanship has been repeated often with nothing (yet) to support it. Doubtless Earle will be under the microscope as those who support Delay attack the attacker.
So if Austin is heavily Democratic — is that how they Keep Austin Weird?
You got it…and boy, are we weird! (I love this place, but the weather and the politics leave a lot to desire…and I say that not as a slam at Democrats. Austin’s brand of politics is WAAAAAYYYY to the left of what most people consider Democratic…like most big university towns, I guess)…
It’s also worth noting that Media Matters itself is a pretty partisan Web site. So they’re not exactly a source that can comment objectively on whether someone else is partisan or not.
Son of K-Starr Strikes!
I’ll tell you what, Ronnie Earle has got to be the dumbest partisan hack on the planet. After six, count them – six, grand jury attempts to indict Delay he comes up with this weak, impossible to prove indictment. I have to say, the democrat br…
Media Matters is definitely a partisan website — they make no pretense of objectivity — but I believe that their content is well-documented and their evidence is sound.