[scrivener]

Levin also explained today on Sean Hannity's program that it is corporations which are not allowed to contribute within 60 days of an election; in this case, it was a PAC which contributed...which does not come under what was cited in the Indictment (as I understand).

[A Citizen Reporter]

SWEET! On Brit Hume's show Moira and Mort had just gotten finished saying that Delay had some shady dealings......with that Brit Hume says that he has just been told that Tom Delay himself is waiting outside the studio, and will be on after the break!

Fantastic Brit!

[sphinx]

Levin also explained today on Sean Hannity's program that it is corporations which are not allowed to contribute within 60 days of an election; in this case, it was a PAC which contributed...which does not come under what was cited in the Indictment (as I understand).

It's been several years since I had to worry much about the technicalities ... and I'm not a lawyer ... and the law in this area changes too fast for anyone but specialists to keep up ... so there may well be wrinkles I'm not aware of. I also didn't hear Levin on Hannity today. But that said ....

My initial response to this observation is that the corporations that contributed to Delay's PAC, in doing so, were NOT contributing to Texas races. They contributed soft dollars which were sent to the RNSEC, presumably to be spent on issue advocacy or in States that allow corporate contributions. Such a contribution would be legal.

The money the RNSEC sent back to Texas was, I presume, hard money -- i.e., funds eligible for use in Texas. All dollars are not equal. Hard dollars are not soft dollars. Two separate pots of money. The accountants and lawyers need to keep it straight, but cutting side deals to get the right kind of dollars to where they can help the most is routine business.

To repeat: Ronnie Earle is taking a series of routine and perfectly legal actions and trying to conjure a crime. He can only do this by confusing the jury about the law. He knows perfectly well what he is doing, but he is a snake.

The MSM will try to confuse the public on the same point. The reporters, however, probably don't know what they're talking about. They could find out easily enough if they bothered to read anything beyond their DNC talking points, but they won't. They are fools, motivated by malice.

Delay will probably win the legal case easily enough, assuming he gets an honest judge. (If I had to make a bet today, I'd bet the case will be dismissed.) The GOP has a much tougher public relations job to do. Of course, the 'rats know this; this is their game.