Blogito, Ergo Sum
by Gregg Calkins
25 November 2010, a Thanksgiving Thursday
It’s certainly
odd what kind of transgressions we find time to punish.After 19 hours of deliberation, a jury of six men and six women decided that Mr. DeLay was guilty of conspiring with two associates in 2002 to circumvent a state law against corporate contributions to political campaigns. He was convicted of one charge of money laundering and one charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Charles Rangel is facing a reprimand for ethics violations which include hiding and underreporting income he personally received for himself. How much money did DeLay keep or spend personally? Well, none, as it turns out.
In mid-September 2002, as the election heated up, Mr. DeLay’s state political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, gave a check for $190,000 to the Republican National Committee. The money had been donated earlier in the year by various corporate lobbyists seeking to influence Mr. DeLay, several witnesses said.
On Sept. 13, the check was delivered to the R.N.C. by Mr. Ellis, who was Mr. DeLay’s top political operative in Washington and headed his federal political action committee.
At the same meeting, Mr. Ellis also gave the Republican director of political operations, Terry Nelson, a list of state candidates and an amount to be sent to each. Mr. Nelson testified that Mr. Ellis had told him the request for the swap had come from Mr. DeLay.
In early October, donations were sent from a separate account filled with individual donations to seven Republican candidates in Texas. Six of them won. Republicans took control of the Legislature for the first time in modern history and in 2003 pushed through a redistricting plan, orchestrated by Mr. DeLay, that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004...
Uh huh...six of seven Republican candidates won as a result and also gained Republican seats via redistricting.
Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat and Travis County district attorney, said the decision to pursue charges had nothing to do with partisan politics.
Oh, I’m sure we can all see that. Man breaks law; law punishes man. All strictly routine law-enforcement like night following day.
Mr. DeLay was initially charged with breaking campaign finance law. But prosecutors later switched strategies because it was impossible under the law at the time to accuse someone of conspiring to break campaign finance rules, prosecutors said.
Instead, prosecutors used a novel legal theory never before tried in Texas...
In the special case of Republican Tom DeLay a Democrat district attorney dug up a novel legal theory never before tried in Texas but the decision to pursue charges had nothing to do with partisan politics.
In other news, the Tooth Fairy says Santa’s elves are hard at work at the North Pole so Christmas should arrive on schedule. In an associated story, the Easter Bunny reported a potential shortage of colors for his eggs in 2011. DA Lehmberg said privately that she was actually delighted to see more Republicans in the Texas state legislature because, after all, it was only right that political balance be restored in modern history, and furthermore...
It was a tough trial, the prosecutors admitted.
Another central issue facing the panel was whether the corporate contributions could be considered illicit. To be guilty of money laundering, the prosecution had to show the money had been obtained through an illegal activity before it was laundered.
Apparently they did...which makes the RNC the receiver of stolen goods, doesn’t it? So will they be prosecuted, too?
Judge Pat Priest has wide discretion in sentencing the former majority leader, who was known as the Hammer for his no-holds-barred style during 20 years in the House of Representatives.
Mr. DeGuerin said Mr. DeLay would try to convince an appeals court that the money-laundering statute should never had been applied to the money swap — because the original donations were legal and also because the donations to the state candidates came out of a different account than the one in which the corporate donations were deposited.
"It will never stand," Mr. DeGuerin said.
Not that it matters. Whether DeLay wins or loses is not the important thing now. The novel legal theory effectively removed The Hammer from Texas politics and that was the main thing. Assuming partisan politics had been involved, that is, but the Democrat DA said oh pshaw and balderdash to that...and, indeed, there was one lone Republican on the jury, after all.
But if six of those seven Republican candidates had not been elected and the redistricting followed and gave Republicans even more seats, what odds would you give that Texas prosecutors would have made all that effort to come up with a novel legal theory never before tried?