"An indictment does not force DeLay to resign as a member of Congress, but the GOP's rules demand that he resign his post as majority leader as he fights the charges. Congressional Republicans earlier tried to drop that requirement, citing Earle's investigation as a political vendetta, but they ultimately maintained the rule after withering criticism."
All part of the plan to get DeLay on phony charges. The Democraps can't get him legally, so they use abuse of presecutorial power to sideline him--but only for now. The last day of the grandjury the Dem just couldn't let it go without some trumped up charge. The Dems must be totally destroyed.
Wait till you see the new House Maj Leader...
Delay is being railroaded....
This is just to tie DeLay up in trial stuff till the '06 election. The Austin UNAmerican Statesman had a cow when Ronnie Earle, the Dem lap-dog DA in Travis Co., said he had nothing to indict DeLay on a couple of weeks ago. The national DNC pressured him into this phony indictment to take DeLay out of the picture for next year's elections. This should just about finish the Democrat Party in Texas because everyone knows this fool's tactics are just the Dems' vendetta for redistricting. If the Republicans in Congress weren't such passive sissies, they'd turn around and bring some indictments of their own against Ted Kennedy for manslaughter (no statute of limitations on that one) and Hillary for her blatant campaign finance violations in Hollywood.
In 1993 Kay Bailey Hutchinson beat Ann Richards' hand-picked, limp-wristed (I can't remember his name) candidate, Earle went on a fishing expedition for evidence he could use to indict her. He came up with some really bogus evidence and the judge refused to let him introduce it, instead empaneling the jury and directing them to acquit Kay.
Democrat party hack Ronnie Earle can find enough tinfoil hat lefties in the people's republic of Austin to indict Mother Teresa, if she were still alive. I expect the indictment of DeLay to be bogus and to be thrown out as well.
Time to take the gloves off, Mr. President. You guys have been entirely too nice. Lets show them SOB's who's in charge!
Transcript
DeLay's Remarks
Published: September 28, 2005
The following is the transcript of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's remarks on his indictment, as provided by CQ Transcriptions.
SPEAKER: U.S. REPRESENTATIVE THOMAS DELAY (R-TX), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER
DELAY: How you doing? You got any news today?
QUESTION: A little.
(LAUGHTER)
DELAY: Just another day at the office.
Good afternoon. Thank you all for attending.
This morning, in an act of blatant political partisanship, a rogue district attorney in Travis County, Texas, named Ronnie Earle charged me with one count of criminal conspiracy: a reckless charge wholly unsupported by the facts.
This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history. It's a sham and Mr. Earle knows it.
It's a charge that cannot hold up even under the most glancing scrutiny.
This act is the product of a coordinated, premeditated campaign of political retribution; the all-too-predictable result of a vengeful investigation led by a partisan fanatic.
Mr. Earle is abusing the power of his office to exact personal revenge for the role I played in the Texas Republican legislative campaign in 2002 and my advocacy for a new, fair and constitutional congressional map for our state in 2003.
As it turned out, those efforts were successful. Texas Republicans did, indeed, win a legislative majority. A fair and representative congressional map was drawn and it was approved by the legislature. And the Texas congressional delegation now, after the 2004 elections, fairly represent the values and attitudes of the people of the state of Texas.
Over the course of this long and bitter political battle, it became clear that the retribution for our success would be ferocious. Today, that retribution is being exacted.
Mr. Earle, an unabashed partisan zealot with a well-documented history of launching baseless investigations and indictments against his political enemies, has been targeting a political action committee on whose advisory board I once served.
During his investigation, he has gone out of his way to give several media interviews in his office -- the only days he actually comes to the office, I'm told -- in which he has singled me out for personal attacks, in direct violation of his public responsibility to conduct an impartial inquiry.
Despite his longstanding animosity toward me and the abusive investigation that animosity has, unfortunately, rendered, as recently as two weeks ago, Mr. Earle himself publicly admitted I had never been a focus or target of his inquiry.
Soon thereafter, Mr. Earle's hometown newspaper ran a biting editorial about his investigation, rhetorically asking what the point had been, after all, if I wasn't to be indicted.
It was this renewed political pressure in the waning days of his hollow investigation that led to this morning's action, political pressure that also came from Democrat leaders.
In accordance with the rules of the House Republican Conference, I will temporarily step aside as floor leader in order to win exoneration from these baseless charges.
Now let be very, very clear: I have done nothing wrong. I have violated no law, no regulation, no rule of the House. I have done nothing unlawful, unethical or, I might add, unprecedented, even in the political campaigns of Mr. Earle himself.
My defense in this case will not be technical or legalistic; it will be categorical and absolute. I am innocent. Mr. Earle and his staff know it. And I will prove it.
Here in Washington, there's work, very hard work ahead of our conference. We have a war to win, a region to rebuild, a budget to balance, taxes to cut, a government to reform and a nation to lead.
In the coming weeks, the House is committed to major legislation reforming our border security and immigration laws, alleviating the rising costs of gasoline and heating fuel before the winter, and saving tens of billions of dollars through reforming federal entitlement programs.
My job right now is to serve my constituents and our nation in support of this ambitious and needed agenda.
As for the charges, I have the facts, the law and the truth on my side, just as I have against every false allegation my opponents have flung at me over the last 10 years. Once exposed to the light of objective scrutiny, every one of their frivolous accusations against me has been dismissed, and so will Mr. Earle's.
Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak to you guys today. Thank you.
The game of "take out the quarterback" continues. It grows more outrageous and underhanded everyday in DC.
Do people actually buy this rag? Oh...Austin, never mind.