Posted on 10/05/2005 4:23:39 PM PDT by Pikamax
Earle's actions, movie add erratic element Advertisement EDITORIAL BOARD
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has added several more acts to the already circus-like investigation of alleged Republican campaign funding illegalities.
The latest act unfolded on Tuesday afternoon when Earle disclosed that he had gone grand jury shopping on Friday after an indictment against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, which was returned last Wednesday, was questioned for its legality.
Working on its last day, a second grand jury declined to indict DeLay on Friday. Earle's office said it received new information over the weekend, so it went to yet a third grand jury empaneled on Monday, the last possible day under the statute of limitations. That grand jury returned the new indictments.
Earle's panicked rush lends credence to those who complain that he is a partisan playing politics with the grand jury, and it gives ammunition to critics who argue that he has been hapless in his three-year probe.
Earle also didn't help himself by becoming Austin's newest movie star, allowing a documentary crew to film his pursuit of possible financial wrongdoing by Republican operatives in 2002.
Earle had to know he would be summoning a GOP storm by investigating the party's powerful lobbying and fund-raising organizations. After all, he's been there before. Since Earle's failed prosecution of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 1994, he has been saddled with the "partisan Democrat" label. He must have realized he would face the same wrath if DeLay's political action committees and the GOP business lobby were indicted.
Yet none of that history caused him to doubt the wisdom of inviting a documentary crew to film his probe of GOP fund-raising. It should have. News of the independent film crew's two-year-long access to Earle and his inner sanctum did not serve him well.
Earle disagrees, saying that he was just doing his job. Sorry, but his job is to prosecute, not be red meat for filmmakers looking for a big score. By starring in "The Big Buy," a documentary, Earle gives every appearance of having scripted a vendetta against one of the most powerful Republicans in the country.
It might not have been unethical for the district attorney to give such unprecedented access to a documentary crew, but it wasn't wise. Earle should have known better than to make himself the focus of attention.
His profile has been elevated throughout the long investigation stemming from the 2002 campaign, when DeLay helped fashion a GOP effort to take over the Texas House. The strategy worked, and DeLay forced a mid-census redistricting that gave him more Texas Republicans, and more power, in Congress.
Earle's high profile includes interviews in Esquire magazine and on television's "60 Minutes" — and a speech with a gratuitous slap at DeLay during a Democratic fund-raiser in Dallas in May.
Earle would have served the public and his investigation better with less publicity and a cleaner, calmer and less controversial grand jury presentation.
His intent all along has been to get to the bottom of controversial corporate donations to political campaigns, which in most cases is illegal in Texas.
He should have kept his attention there, and not on publicity.
Earle planted his seeds in a most public way. Now the nation will be watching to see what he harvests.
This is nothing short of amazing. For the Austin paper to turn against Earle, things must be very bad for him. I suspect the backlash will be worse than any potential short-term gain the indictments obtained.
We'll see.
But this is backlash in Earle's backyard. The paper basically is saying that he screwed up, it looks terrible, and either Earle comes through with the conviction or he's done.
No kidding. I can't believe the AAS has drawn first blood on Earle. This has to be the mother of all boondoggles. I wonder if we (citizens of Travis county) will ever be reimbersed for his stupidity. Or if the Texas Attorney General might have somthing to say about this.
At the very best, little ronnie will soon find out that his powers to disrupt the national GOP have dropped to zero.
I just did jury duty for a civil case in August. It took 11 hours just to empanel the jury from the pool. There is no way you can select a jury, go over 3 years worth of evidence, and get 12 folks to agree on this in 1 day without some kind of shady deal.
My guess is Earle organized a willing jury over the weekend, got them to the courthouse Monday morning, they sat around and had a good ole time until about 4:00 oclock, then returned said indictment.
Thanks for that info. So that means they reviewed 3 years of evidence, which no doubt included hours of video depositions from who knows who, and should have included live testimony from witnesses, and reviewed all the facts in one afternoon to reach a 12 person conclusion. NO I DON'T THINK SO. Those things just don't happen that fast under normal circumstances.
We'll see. The problem is that the Texas Constitution makes the state enforcement powers very weak in comparison to other states. The real power lies at the county level.
When we need a bust of corrupt county officials, we need a federal angle so that the FBI can be brought in. The state simply isn't permitted to do it.
Don't think for a moment that Tom DeLay doesn't know this.
Wow Dog Gone, you sure know more about this stuff than I do. I'm just speaking from recent jury duty experience. I sure hope this comes back to bite Earle on the keester. I for one would be willing to do a Freep at the courthouse aimed at Earle. I hope your right about the eventuall outage of ratscapades regarding this.
He's not even a good attorney. In reality, he's a politician with a law license using his political office to manipulate the criminal justice system.
It's beyond the pale. Even those who hate Tom DeLay can see what is happening.
Yes and many will get fed up with Democrats and leave the party.( Karl Rove must be behind all of this. )
bttt
Is it possible to assemble a grand jury of yellow-dog rats only who have sworn to take down conservatives without leaving an obvious trail?
The news is that the money changing happened early in 2002 and DeLays lawyers says the statute against the supposed crime was not passed until sept 2003. Sounds like Malicious prosecution if they have that on the books in Texas.
I don't know the answer to that, but maybe Dog Gone will.
I would guess it would be a hard trail to hide.
Sounds like a big time can of Freep needs to be ripped open down at the courthouse. I'm asking around now.
And should be disbarred forth with so that he can have the legacy he so richly deserves. Small footnotes in history books!
Seems to me he is the one who needs to be investigated. Until the last few days I thought that democrats were the most mean spirited people on earth, and were out to destroy republicans by any means. Now I see that they are not alone at this.
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