Posted on 09/28/2005 1:11:25 PM PDT by onyx
Text of DeLay press statement
Associated Press
Text of remarks by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, on Wednesday, as transcribed by DeLay's office:
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DELAY: Good morning. Thank you 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 is a sham, and Mr. Earle knows it.
It is a charge that can not 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 approved by the legislature.
And the Texas congressional delegation now, after the 2004 elections, fairly represents the values and attitudes of the state.
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 long-standing 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 this morning's action.
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.
Let me 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 is work - hard, 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 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 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 with you today.
END
Goodbye Earle.
I decided against doing chores and opted to procrastinate...lol.
Hee hee. I had to delay my procrastination for now.
You've found some trolls here on FR today? Whoa... GOOD JOB.
I am waiting for KBH to issue a statement or hold a presser. She can land the KO punch on Earle and his partisan witch hunt agenda.
Damn democrat thug... or is that redundant?
Knight-Ridder owns my local newspaper, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram....and they are very liberal....
I stopped taking it....until my husband complained about the lack of a sports page....sigh..
at least this guy knows how to hit back in this statement.
My text. But, you know them, they will twist this anyway they can for socialist democratic profit.
Alberto Gonzales.
I have been channel surfing, looking to see if someone has on KBH....not yet.
But, Neil Cavuto had on Mark Levin (by phone), who was saying what he said on the thread here at FR...that he doesn't see one thing in the indictment that points to proof of wrongdoing on Delay's part...
Lis Wiehl was also on....and she sort of said the same thing...but, then said that a DA doesn't have to "show" all evidence to a Grand Jury...so "we don't know all that he has on Delay"...
Mark Levin was NOT happy with her POV...
BTW...I was listening very briefly to O'Reilly's radio show today...because Rush's sub was BORING...
Lis was on with O'Reilly, and they BOTH seemed to indicate that this was a bogus indictment...and brought up Earle's past with KBH...
SO, I wonder if Fox told Lis to be the opposite of Levin, in order for it to "look" fair and balanced...
OR will this go like I have heard a lot...O'Reilly will give an opinion on his radio show...and then kinda change it a little by the time his show is taped...and maybe Lis has changed her mind since then...don't know.
BUT, I still want Levin to represent Delay...
OK. Your right, they will say the same thing in so many words. Damn, in a way I wish they had, would love to see the Slimes taken down.
If President Bush wants his constituents and the whole conservative movement to be really mad...
he will nominate Alberto Gonzalez.
If he wants to nominate the best candidate, as well as making conservative very happy....he will nominate Janice Rogers Brown.
hmmmmm... well he no doubt would have to recuse himself from the case.... (partial sarcasm)
Glad to see he ain't lying down... and I hope the republicans circle the wagons half as good as the dems always do.
He sure does. I am saving it -- I think it's perfect!
"Because My Uncle Rico's an IDIOT!!"
I'm sorry--I just HAD to toss in a wad of something resembling humour.
She's a creep, IMO. She and Mickey Sherman are a pair to draw to...lol.
Ronnie Earle is just plain, 'stuck on stupid'.
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