Crackpot Partisan Witch-hunt

Sadly, a lot of the media coverage about the DeLay vote is in "he said/she said" mode, happily reporting the outrageous charges from DeLay and his ally Rep. Henry Bonilla, without taking a moment to inform their readers about how bogus they are. Again we see the Republican tactic of filling the air with a Big Lie so that it becomes one of the first "facts" people hear.

The Republican leadership's justification for the vote this week seems to be the implication that the Texas prosecutor is a partisan hack, and that any move against DeLay is political. Thus, the vote this week is not, in fact, the height of hypocrisy, but boldly protecting a great man from the slimy vendetta of this local official. This week DeLay accused the long-time Travis County, Texas DA Ronnie Earle of "trying to criminalize politics and using the criminal code to insert himself into politics." Bonilla implied that he was a "partisan crackpot district attorney."

Who is right? I don't know. I don't live in Texas. (I have my suspicions, of course.) But maybe we should ask the people at the Houston Chronicle, who DO live in Texas, and who presumably know a little about what goes on down there. They ran this on March 17, 2003.

Until recent years, Democrats controlled the Texas Legislature, held most statewide offices and caused the big scandals. Now the situation is reversed, but some Republicans want their scandals to be exempt from investigation.

During his long tenure, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has prosecuted many more Democratic officials than Republicans. The record does not support allegations that Earle is prone to partisan witch hunts.

Furthermore, the argument that Earle should drop the investigation because of its high cost ill becomes a political party that supported the spending of tens of millions of dollars to investigate Bill and Hillary Clinton's failed real estate investment in Arkansas, with little result.

Earle is investigating whether state Rep. Tom Craddick, a Republican, broke the rules in his race to become speaker of the Texas House. That investigation grew out of another begun to determine whether the Texas Association of Business and Texans for a Republican Majority illegally used corporate donations to influence Texas House races.

The whole scandal came to light after the TAB bragged that it had used corporate donations to gain a Republican majority in the House. As proof of his evenhandedness, Earle has subpoenaed the records of former House Speaker Pete Laney, a Democrat, after Craddick's defenders suggested that Laney had behaved similarly.

A spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas called Earle's investigation frivolous. That charge is rebutted by the impressive legal talent hired to represent the targets of the probe.

Earle himself perhaps put the matter best: "This is not about Democrats and Republicans. It is about cops and robbers. This is an investigation of a crime.

'Nuff said.