Corruption or Hatchet Job?
So now we're treated to the gleeful litany from Democrats and their media friends about how Delay's the poster child for a corrupt Republican party in power, and of course this indictment represents only the tip of the iceberg.
Personally, I could care less whether Delay is guilty of the charge, which apparently is one count of criminal conspiracy for breaking a Texas law about corporate campaign contributions. But there certainly is plenty in the back story that makes me scratch my head.
First, there's the prosecutor - Ronnie Earle. Apparently he's a true blue Democrat activist who just might have done at least one previous politically-motivated bogus indictment against another Texas Republican, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. That case never went to trial because Ronnie pulled out at the last minute - apparently for lack of evidence. There's also the strange speech he gave to a group of Democrats at a fundraiser last spring where he basically promised to bring down Delay and all the other Republican "bullies" who step up to replace him. You might want to check on me here, but isn't that an ethics violation by itself, if not a criminal violation, for a prosecutor to reveal a political motivation behind "getting" an opponent?
Of course, if you recall, the Democratic Party Chairman, Howard Dean, has been calling for the prosecution of Tom DeLay for several months now. He hasn't been too specific about what Tom should be prosecuted for, but he and his party cronies sure have been spending a lot of energy trying to destroy the Republican Leader. Stranger yet is how quickly the Democrats have ramped up their political machine to make hay out of this indictment - they were so fast, one would have to wonder whether they knew about Ronnie Earle's plans ahead of time. They've got phone and media campaigns already launched expressing outrage and demanding that all Republican Congresspersons "return the money they received from DeLay" (whatever that means).
Finally, Clinton and Gore actually broke campaign finance laws back when they accepted large contributions from China while still in office. Not to mention that Gore was making fundraising calls from his office, on Federal time, on the Federal dime. And that the Clintons booked the Lincoln Bedroom like their own private little Democrat Hotel. This is factual stuff, and compared to what DeLay's being accused of doing, are like the difference between stealing a candy bar and robbing a bank. Clinton and Gore were allowed to skate on that one with the media barely mentioning it, while the same media is all over the Delay indictment story.
But finally, how is the media covering the DeLay story? By reading the indictment and researching the background to tell all of us what the specific charges are and maybe how DeLay was alleged to have broken the law? Nope. Instead, they line up all the eager Democrats and let them pontificate at length about what a criminal DeLay is, and by extension, how corrupt the Republican Party is as a whole.
The only question remaining, what is the truth? Did DeLay break the law? Whatever they allege he did, how many other politicians have been doing exactly the same things of which DeLay is accused, and if so, will they be prosecuted as well? Will the press ever even try to uncover the whole truth of this issue and pass it on to the public?
Let me make a prediction. No, the press will not do any independent investigations on DeLay's alleged criminal acts, but will continue their lazy habits by taking for gospel whatever their Democrat Party sources tell them. Rather than checking out the allegations about Mr. Earle's modus operandi, they will brush them off or try to ignore them, because of course such things damage their objective of fomenting negative attitudes toward the hated Republican party. And ultimately, the charges will be dropped, and this probably will never make it to trial, but the media will still conclude for the rest of us (and hammer the point heavily and often) that DeLay is most definitely crooked, but his powerful Republican friends successfully derailed the prosecution.
All this partisan obfuscation makes me tired.