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Tuesday, October 04, 2005

There sure are a lot of blatantly partisan grand juries in Texas
Posted by Jill | 6:38 AM

Why are TWO grand juries in Texas out to destroy such a fine, upstanding young man as Tom DeLay?

A Texas grand jury indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday for alleged involvement in money laundering related to the 2002 Texas election, raising new and more serious allegations than the conspiracy charge lodged against the former House majority leader last week.

The surprising new indictments followed by a matter of hours a motion by DeLay's Texas legal defense team to quash last week's charge on grounds that the Texas prosecutor in charge of the case lacked authority to bring it. The lawyers alleged that the crime of conspiracy was not covered by the state election law at the time of the alleged violation.

Later on Monday, a different grand jury -- which had no prior involvement in the case -- brought the new charges, which roughly match allegations made against two of DeLay's political associates one year ago.

DeLay, who had earlier accused the prosecutor -- Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle -- of partisan zealotry, promptly issued a statement accusing him of stooping "to a new low with his brand of prosecutorial abuse." DeLay said Earle "is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate." The congressman added: "This is an abomination of justice."

One count of the new indictment accuses DeLay of conspiracy to commit money laundering. It says he agreed with one or more associates to launder $190,000 in corporate contributions through an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington, allowing the funds to be passed illegally into the election campaigns of Republican candidates in Texas. Texas law prohibits the use of corporate money in political campaigns.

[snip]

The other new count alleges that DeLay and the two associates "did knowingly, conduct, supervise, and facilitate" the transfer of the $190,000 to Washington and back to Texas in violation of the state's money-laundering statutes. Last week's conspiracy charge, in contrast, involved the state's election law, and it was that linkage that DeLay's attorneys challenged


"Do over"? You mean like the kind of do-over YOUR guys did with Clinton when you didn't like the results of the 1992 ele3ction? That kind of do-over?

It's going to be very interesting to see how the wingnuts deal with this; whether they think Tom DeLay is worth staking the tatters of the GOP's remaining reputation on, or whether it's time to jettison him in the hope that they can salvage something of the 2006 elections. Not that they have to worry, because unless Democratic candidates are leading by 78%-20% on election day, we're going to see the same kind of exit polls saying one thing and final results saying another on Election Day 2006, with Chris Matthews dutifully reporting that it's SOLELY due to Christian conservatives turning out at the last minute.
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