DeLay wins his appeal…
(Some puns are simply irresistible.)
The evidence in DeLay’s 2010 trial for money laundering to influence an election was ruled “legally insufficient to sustain DeLay’s convictions.” In other words, the case should never have been brought in the first place. The offenses were alleged to have occurred during a 2002 campaign.
I’m not a DeLay fan, although I wish we had more people in Congress now with his toughness. But neither am I a fan of trumped-up politically-motivated charges. Remember Ted Stevens of Alaska?
I didn’t follow the DeLay trial closely at the time, nor do I see a lot of detail about the evidence now, so I don’t know whether I think it was sufficient or not. But, looking up a few facts, I see that the decision to file charges was made by Travis County (includes very-liberal Austin) DA Ronnie Earle. And looking at Earle’s Wiki entry, I see that Earle is a Democrat, and that he has prosecuted several Texas Republican political figures in addition to DeLay, although DeLay was his only conviction.
In the DeLay matter:
For over two years, Earle and eight separate grand juries investigated possible violations of Texas campaign finance law in the 2002 state legislative election. Earle denies that his pursuit of Delay was part of a “fishing expedition.” His investigation of two political action committees that spent a combined $3.4 million on 22 Republican Texas House races focused on a political action committee founded by DeLay, (Texans for a Republican Majority PAC). During the investigation, DeLay charged that Earle was a “runaway district attorney” with “a long history of being vindictive and partisan”.
On September 28, 2005, the grand jury indicted DeLay for conspiring to violate Texas state election law. Texas prohibits corporate contributions in state legislative races. The indictment charged that Texans for a Republican Majority, DeLay’s PAC, accepted corporate contributions, laundered the money through the Republican National Committee, and directed it to favored Republican candidates in Texas. The presiding Democrat judge in the case, Pat Priest, eventually threw out this charge and the Court of Criminals Appeals upheld his decision in 2007.
Earle failed in a second attempt to secure new indictments against DeLay. That grand jury returned a “no bill” due to insufficient evidence according to at least one grand jury member. That member also claimed the “no bill” visibly angered Earle.
It goes on in some detail; read the whole thing. This certainly has the appearance of having been a politically-motivated pursuit and trial.
And you know what? As in the Stevens case, it worked. DeLay’s gone from political office, isn’t he?
[ADDENDUM: More here and also here:
Unless the state appeals the ruling, this means that DeLay cannot be retried on the charges. The court could have ordered a new trial if it restrained its scope to just procedural issues. However, the court apparently believed that the prosecution simply couldn’t make a case for wrongdoing, and as a result took the relatively rare step of overturning a jury’s findings on guilt.
That’s pretty strong.
In addition:
The man who should be under scrutiny now is Ronnie Earle, whose years-long legal grudge match against DeLay and other Texas Republicans has been thoroughly discredited by the appellate court.
That would be by the mechanism of charging Earle with prosecutorial misconduct, and I have no idea whether this case or any of the others rises to that level. In addition, I’m not sure who would have standing to bring the charges—my guess is that it would be Earle’s successor, who apparently shares his political persuasions.]
Delay’s show trial was part and parcel of Pelosi’s “drain the swamp” campaign to retake Congress. And Stevens is a non-Senator. Hmm. Where do they go to get their reputations and jobs back? Oh. Right.
Screw “standing to sue.”
Criminals like Earle need to be hunted down like the rabid dogs they are. A message needs to be sent; an example made.
Another front in the political-cultural war. It is common knowledge that Tom DeLay was convicted. But who’s going to be informed that Tom DeLay’s conviction was overturned, and that the trial “certainly has the appearance of having been a politically-motivated pursuit and trial”?
Who (among the low-information crowd) is ever even going to give a d#mn?
Consider the examples as well, of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich: objects of unrelenting, baseless legal harassment. This is how these people operate. This is what they *do*. This is what they *are*.
We need junkyard dogs who will fight back in a commensurate manner — not (for example) sporting, classy, respectful losers like Mitt Romney or John “my friends . . .” McCain. Or anyone who thinks that these people can be treated with anything less than total suspicion and contempt — because this is who they *are*, they’ll go for the jugular and never give it a second (or first) thought.
Republicans can’t get rid of Obama with impeachment. But they can get rid of the Republican rank and file, corrupt or not, when they feel like it.
How many others are blackmailed and cowered to obey the Democrat Regime, with no need for any trials?
In a democracy, the “rig” is the goal, not a bug.
The Left thinks you are evil. Meaning sub human. It’s very easy to kill targets that aren’t human, for humans.
it’s just a psychological thing.
I think these corruptocrats are playing with fire. See Instapundit’s latest blurb at 2:31 pm regarding Senior Treasury officials (Geitner) who knew about IRS targeting in Spring 2012.
Surely these vicious people can’t be stupid enough to think that there aren’t some equally vicious people who might want to get revenge.
The corruptocrats are living in a dreamworld. There are not enough secret service people or private security people to protect them all.
As a reader of dystopian science fiction, I can easily imagine a not-too-distant future when our so-called federal government is reduced to roving gangs of armed warlords.
That’s why the Obama-Putin dust-up was so funny. Obama, Hillary Clinton, Geitner, Holder, et. al don’t really believe imagine a world in which people like Putin take out a gun or sharp knife and kill his or her opponent.
Mad ideo-dog prosecutors, as in the Duke Lacrosse case. They, the Progressives, and the Muzzies, are great at using our system against us. If we don’t do as MJR suggests, the time will come when the Appeals process is in the tank too, and the delay for justice becomes infinite.
Wow, I can’t wait to hear all the details about this tonight on the network newscasts!
Will there be a special?
carl in atlanta:
You’re a card.
I live in Texas. Ronnie Earle is a pure political animal — a Terry McAuliffe type of snake, for whom it does not matter what is true, but rather what he can get away with.
“As in the Stevens case, it worked. DeLay’s gone from political office, isn’t he? ”
Dems do make massive effort to get rid of Repubs whom the Dems fear. However, the efforts are not merely about that: the efforts are also about branding. Branding wins uninformed voters. Dems are all about branding. The branding, i.e. Republicans are dirty, drain the swamp … was MORE important than merely getting rid of Delay.
I think that is generally true with left attacks against anyone such as Bachmann, Steve King, Issa: the branding is more important than the removal of the individual. The exceptions might be Palin and Ted Cruz. Only in cases of individuals who might win POTUS .. is the removal of the individual more important than the cultural branding of conservatives and Repubs.
Once the Left conditions enough of their shock troops to hate people and republicans, they will initiate the next phase of their strategic vision.
Right now they are lacking in enforcement branches, given the US military has not been successfully assimilated (yet). They are working on with, with Diversity Casey, but it’s not enough. The thugs and gangs are not enough. Black panthers and Eric Holder’s “people”, are not enough.
They need more power. Or more useless disarmed sheep. One or both is required before the next phase.
Forget about anything against the prosecutor.
He won at trial and the appellate court was split 2 – 1.
We need to stop criminalizing politics. Ask Scooter Libby and Ray Donovan.
But can you name any Dems who suffered similar fates?
And don’t forget, Stevens lost a close election. If he would have won, we would not have Obamacare.
And not only did Stevens win on appeal, some prosecutors were sanctioned.
Bert Lance was not available for comment.
Lawyers have their own faction and member status in the Leftist alliance.
That has meaning and consequence.
The Austin DA failed to get an indictment — an indictment — from SIX grand juries. One grand jury even returned a “no bill.” Meaning the DA had no case, none. He finally got one from a SEVENTH grand jury in Austin: just one day before the statute of limitations expired.
The Junkyard Dogs [my new name for our domestic enemies] also dragged out every single phase of these Star Chamber proceedings, to keep DeLay out of the arena and hogtied.
The judge in the original conviction was a Junkyard Dog appointee; he improperly failed to answer the jury’s question about money laundering — they sent a note asking if the money had to be obtained criminally in the first place in order for it to be money laundering, and instead of saying “Yes, it has to be criminally obtained in order to return a conviction for money laundering,” the judge peremptorily ordered them to “read my instructions.”
The one tool who voted against DeLay’s acquittal on the merits was, of course, a Junkyard Dog.
This is flagrant abuse of process, harassment by Baseless Litigation. Damn these bastards.
I didn’t know anything about the DeLay case: lazily, I didn’t look into it at all, just felt a mild distaste for the man (hey, he ran an exterminator firm! that’s kind of icky) and his alleged tactics. Figured there was something to it, or he wouldn’t have been convicted.
Until today. Today, I heard DeLay on Sean Hannity, and later on Mark Levin (who was even more apoplectic than usual), and realized they just dragged the guy out of the Capitol and tarred and feathered him and rode him out of town on a rail, just to get rid of a too-effective opponent.
They are beneath contempt. And VERY dangerous: they did this to the Majority Whip of the United States Congress. Just like they shredded Sarah Palin, Vice Presidential candidate.
What hope would any of us smaller fry have, if the Machine went after us? There, I think, is your answer to the question of why the Republicans don’t fight harder than they do: they’re scared witless of the Junkyard Dogs.
In other words, this was OUTRAGEOUS prosecutorial misconduct, used to destroy the career and reputation of one of the highest-placed politicians in the country.
And from his fellow Republicans? covert support at best. They’re scared to death of the rabid ones.
And according to the Washington Times, the Junkyard Dogs are not only unrepentant, they’re STILL lying, and they plan to go after DeLay AGAIN:
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/19/tom-delays-money-laundering-conviction-overturned/#ixzz2fPMKQOkC
The Kleptocrats will keep trying. Earle was a sleezo-Dem for his entire career. He was a part of my own change story:the Dems were supposed to be the good guys, but did so many stunts like this,smiling all the while. We moved out of Travis County, into honest Republican Williamson County, partly because of the sickening endemic corruption. When Republicans do krep like this, they are found out by other Republicans, and sent packing in our “closed” primaries.
Yes, they are only sort of closed, because we do not have, will not have, party registration. There is no such thing as a registered Texas Democrat. We register to vote, and whichever party’s primary and precinct convention we attend, that is our party designation. We like to see a primary fight on the Dem side, not only for the usual reason, divided enemies are easier to defeat, but also because that will draw them to vote in their own primaries, rather than picking our candidate, the one they believe can be more easily defeated. Note how this fits the pattern, not of honest debate on an issue, but squelching opposition. Discussion is bourgeois, power is Guardian Syndrome. Read Systems of Survival, by the late Jane Jacobs.
Texas politics ain’t bean bag.
The concept of a ‘Guardian’ as someone who rapes, tortures, and loots people for fun is so hideous I don’t even know how to describe it.
Originally a man’s role was to guard, protect, ward off external danger, and so forth his family, tribe, and nation.
The fact that anyone, for any reason, has corrupted the term into something so hideous is greatly disappointing. It’s like Western males have forgotten what it means to be men and just follow what society dictates is right.
Earle made no pretenses about his partisanship in the Delay case or any other crusade to destroy Republicans. He was famous and unapologetic about it his entire career.
He made many statements to the media here that he hated Republicans and Tom Delay was a keystone in taking back The House and re-drawing districts in Texas. Motivation and tactics to destroy Delay were hardly things he or any Texas democrat concealed. He and his supporters openly bragged that they were going to take out Delay any way they could and didn’t care how. Like everything else that shows corruption and ethical problems for Democrats, the media either ignored the obvious transgressions with Earle, or lead the cheering as a righteous cause. Delay was convicted and tried in the media, and by the media, long before it even got to court.