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Coming Soon:The Ronnie Earle Movie(prosecutor has let a film crew follow him through the case)
NRO ^ | Byron York

Posted on 09/29/2005 3:31:41 PM PDT by hipaatwo

The DeLay prosecutor has let a film crew follow him through the whole case.

For the last two years, as he pursued the investigation that led to Wednesday's indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Travis County, Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle has given a film crew "extraordinary access" to make a motion picture about his work on the case.

The resulting film is called The Big Buy, made by Texas filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck. "Raymond Chandler meets Willie Nelson on the corner of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in The Big Buy, a Texas noir political detective story that chronicles what some are calling a 'bloodless coup with corporate cash,'" reads a description of the picture on Birnbaum's website, markbirnbaum.com. The film, according to the description, "follows maverick Austin DA Ronnie Earle's investigation into what really happened when corporate money joined forces with relentless political ambitions to help swing the pivotal 2002 Texas elections, cementing Republican control from Austin to Washington DC."

"We approached him [Earle], and he offered us extraordinary access to him and, to an extent, to his staff," Birnbaum told National Review Online Thursday. "We've been shooting for about two years."

Birnbaum and Schermbeck showed a work-in-progress version of The Big Buy last month at the Dallas Video Festival. At the moment, they do not have a deal for the film to be shown anywhere else. Their last film, Larry v. Lockney, was shown on PBS, and they hope that perhaps a similar arrangement might be made for the new picture. Whoever ends up showing it, the film has so far been funded entirely by its makers. "We tried really hard to get it funded," Birnbaum says, "but we didn't get any takers."

Schermbeck told National Review Online that the film was an irresistible Texas story. "I've been pretty interested in watching Tom DeLay work," Schermbeck says. "I thought he was a fascinating guy, certainly the most powerful Texan to emerge on the national scene in some time, a kind of Republican Sam Rayburn type, with that kind of mastery of the machinery and the will to do it."

But DeLay did not cooperate with the filmmakers, and neither did a number of DeLay allies. Earle, on the other hand, did. "I had known about Ronnie Earle for a very long time," Schermbeck says. "I thought that would be an angle to approach the whole story, telling something about Tom DeLay, even though Tom DeLay wouldn't grant us an interview."

Earle "allowed us behind the scenes when the indictments came down last year, the first wave of indictments," Schermbeck says. "We got to follow him back to his home a couple of times, which I understand he doesn't allow anybody to do." Schermbeck says the film includes interviews with some critics of Earle, as well as lawyers who are representing some of the targets of the investigation.

So far, The Big Buy has received almost no attention in the press. With DeLay's indictment, and increased attention to Earle as well, that situation seems likely to change. (The filmmakers say they will be back at work next week, filming a new ending to the picture.) "We're pretty low on everybody's radar," Schermbeck says. "We kind of took a gamble three years ago. We didn't know what was going to happen. We feel like, as documentary filmmakers, we gambled and it paid off."


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: delay; delaybashing; earle; fishingtrip; getdelay; jimschermbeck; markbirnbaum; mediabias; propaganda; propagandista; smearcampaign; sovietsmear; sugarland; texas; thebigbuy; tomdelay; witchhunt; zogbyism
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1 posted on 09/29/2005 3:31:42 PM PDT by hipaatwo
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To: hipaatwo

This idiot can't crash his "case" fast enough.


2 posted on 09/29/2005 3:32:43 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Never a minigun handy when you need one.)
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Comment #3 Removed by Moderator

To: Mo1; OXENinFLA

Blood boiling PING!


4 posted on 09/29/2005 3:34:11 PM PDT by hipaatwo
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To: hipaatwo

Unreal. They took a gamble and it paid off?


5 posted on 09/29/2005 3:35:15 PM PDT by andyk (Go Matt Kenseth!)
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To: cripplecreek

WOW - on Levin now and author due on now - 3:40 PST.


6 posted on 09/29/2005 3:35:45 PM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: onyx; BigSkyFreeper

Ping! Sky can you sent this to Rush?


7 posted on 09/29/2005 3:35:45 PM PDT by hipaatwo
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To: hipaatwo

Ronnie Earle is a hack, pure and simple. I don't know why Austin voters keep reelecting him.


8 posted on 09/29/2005 3:36:12 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (Jeanine Pirro for Senate, Hillary Clinton for Weight Watchers Spokeswoman)
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To: hipaatwo

Byron York will be on Mark Levin's show on WABC Radio in a few minutes.


9 posted on 09/29/2005 3:36:12 PM PDT by Agent Smith (Fallujah delenda est. (I wish))
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To: hipaatwo
Ronnie Earle spent 2 years on this indictment, letting a film crew follow his every move.

And then came out with a 3 page indictment that 99% of the lawyers in this country are laughing at.

Sounds like a money maker to me. /sarcasm

10 posted on 09/29/2005 3:36:52 PM PDT by rocksblues (I support the war on terror)
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To: Agent Smith

Thanks. I'm listening. I was posting this just before he started reading it..LOL


11 posted on 09/29/2005 3:37:09 PM PDT by hipaatwo
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To: hipaatwo

http://www.wabcradio.com/


12 posted on 09/29/2005 3:37:56 PM PDT by Agent Smith (Fallujah delenda est. (I wish))
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To: ncountylee

I just heard it too. When it comes to deems - dumb is forever.


13 posted on 09/29/2005 3:39:01 PM PDT by eleni121 ('Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!' (Julian the Apostate))
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To: All

BTTT


14 posted on 09/29/2005 3:39:17 PM PDT by tiredoflaundry (My tag line is at the dry cleaners.)
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To: hipaatwo

I m so furious. This is all about politics and the fact that these democrats can just get away with this has me just fuming. What on earth is happening in this country? We have GOT to stop these evil liberals somehow, and get a hold of the media while we are at it or this country is in more trouble than we know.


15 posted on 09/29/2005 3:39:19 PM PDT by ladyinred (It is all my fault okay?)
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To: Clintonfatigued
I don't know why Austin voters keep reelecting him.

Same reason they keep voting for Lloyd Doggett. It's Austin.
16 posted on 09/29/2005 3:40:14 PM PDT by andyk (Go Matt Kenseth!)
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To: Clintonfatigued
I don't know why Austin voters keep reelecting him.

Because Austin (Travis County) is a liberal cesspool in the middle of the Texas.

17 posted on 09/29/2005 3:40:37 PM PDT by COEXERJ145 (Cindy Sheehan, Pat Buchanan, John Conyers, and David Duke Are Just Different Sides of the Same Coin.)
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To: hipaatwo


Ronnie Earle better wake up and smell the hammer. DeLay & the GOP are comming to reek their havoc on this slimeball and will make Hurricane Katrina look like a fart in a whirlwind.
18 posted on 09/29/2005 3:43:07 PM PDT by demkicker (Life has many choices. Eternity has only two. Which one have you chosen?)
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To: Dog

over here. This is what Mark and Byron are talking about.


19 posted on 09/29/2005 3:44:16 PM PDT by hipaatwo
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To: hipaatwo

I thought you were joking...


20 posted on 09/29/2005 3:45:34 PM PDT by RDTF
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