The first judge in Tom DeLay’s money-laundering trial was too hot. The second judge was too cold. Will the third judge be just right? I kind of doubt it.
The state of Texas finally found a judge yesterday to preside over the criminal trial of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), but not without a new, last-minute dispute about partisan political interference.
Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub, who earlier this week removed a judge overseeing the proceedings against DeLay for alleged liberal bias, withdrew yesterday from decision making about a replacement judge after an official complaint about Schraub’s links to Republicans.
Schraub passed the decision to the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, Wallace B. Jefferson. But within hours, political activists in Texas complained that Jefferson has close ties to individuals and political contributors at the heart of the allegations against DeLay.
By day’s end, Jefferson seemed to settle the matter by appointing a retired judge from San Antonio, Pat Priest, whose only recent political donations were three checks of $150 each to Democratic candidates for the Texas House in 2004, according to the watchdog group Texans for Public Justice.
I haven’t seen any announcements from DeLay’s legal team yet, but I have to wonder if they’ll go for this. Priest is not only a Dem but also a judge who donated to some of the same Dem candidates who fought against DeLay’s re-redistricting scheme, which is at the heart of the criminal charges.
Would DeLay really push for a fourth judge in this case? At this point, nothing would surprise me.