Because House Majority Leader Tom DeLay may soon be under indictment for a fundraising scandal in Texas, the GOP has launched a two-prong strategy. One part included a House rules change that would allow DeLay to keep his post, even if indicted by a grand jury. The other part, predictably, is lashing out to smear the district attorney who’s responsible for the charges against DeLay in the first place.
Republicans, true to form, haven’t held back. Ronnie Earle, the DA for Travis County, Tex., who happens to be a Dem, has not only been attacked as a blind partisan, he’s also been accused of recklessly abusing the grand jury process as part of a personal vendetta. Earle’s accusers have no proof, of course, but that’s never stopped them before.
The anti-Earle campaign has manifested itself in a variety of ways. As Josh Marshall noted recently, House GOP leaders are desperate to discredit him, with DeLay saying Earle is “trying to criminalize politics,” Peter King (R-NY) calling him a “runaway prosecutor,” and Henry Bonilla going to so far as to describe him as a “partisan crackpot district attorney.” The Texas GOP is trying to have Earle stripped of his authority as a DA and Fox News is playing by the Republicans’ playbook. The whole thing is a classic, albeit disgusting, right-wing smear.
Needless to say, there is no substance to bolster the attacks. Earle is a widely respected DA with a solid reputation among his peers. In Texas, DAs are elected, not appointed, and Earle has consistently earned the public’s trust.
It shouldn’t be necessary, but Earle is now trying to set the record straight and defend his integrity. The first shot is an op-ed in today’s New York Times. It’s worth reading.
The thinly veiled personal attacks on me by Mr. DeLay’s supporters in this case are no different from those in the cases of any of the 15 elected officials this office has prosecuted in my 27-year tenure. Most of these officials – 12 Democrats and three Republicans – have accused me of having political motives. What else are they going to say?
For a DA that has prosecuted more Dems than Republicans, by a four-to-one ratio, he has a funny way of showing a pro-Dem bias.
Is this to say that Earle is slanted against Dems? Of course not. Earle has a record of rooting out corruption against those in power, without regard to partisanship.
For most of my tenure the Democrats held the power in state government. Now Republicans do. Most crimes by elected officials involve the abuse of power; you have to have power before you can abuse it.
Earle also points out the inconvenient realities of the grand jury process, which seems to have gotten lost in a fog of nonsensical rhetoric.
The grand jury will continue its work, abiding by the rule of law. That law requires a grand jury of citizens, not the prosecutor, to determine whether probable cause exists to hold an accused person to answer for the accusation against him or her.
I guess the next step for House Republicans would be to then smear all of the members of the grand jury members who’d be directly responsible for DeLay’s indictment. Maybe if lawmakers could go digging through jury members’ tax returns looking for dirt…