Thursday, September 29, 2005
Unbelievable
This is a conspiracy indictment. Now I am no lawyer, but I know enough to know that conspiracy is awfully hard to prove. But what's worse is the indictment does not do anything but name DeLay. All actions cited in the indictment are by others and the document contains no statement or evidence of the conspiratorial connection between DeLay and his co-indictees. There was obviously enough evidence to convince a grand jury, but it is not mentioned anywhere in the indictment. If I were DeLay's lawyers I might move for dismissal at arraignment due to a lack of evidence.
Politically motivated indictments are old news, but usually they are better substantiated than this is. I'd talk about this, but there is nothing to talk about.
I now turn you over to Michelle Malkin. who is all over this with every possible useful link.
I think covering the coverage is going to end up being the sport with this story. Already the BBC is screwing up:
This headline belies
- The fact that even the press views this as a political indictment without much criminality to mention - they are after all smearing Bush despite the fact that he has even less to do with the goings on that DeLay
- That the Brits don't quite get the separation of powers in our constitution
Lest you think I am pushing media bias when this is simply a matter of a foreign country not entirely understanding our system consider this alternative headline "Top US elected official faces criminal charges"
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a job custom made for blogging. The indictment will be huge news -- it already is. The dismissal, which based on my reading of the indictment could come very quickly, will be buried -- unless, of course, we bloggers push it to page one. The other thing that bloggers need to do that you can count on the legacy media not doing is a thorough investigation of this prosecutor. At first blush he appears to be an equal opportunity chaser of well placed politcos, which makes him less partisan but no less of a grandstander. The guy needs a workover in the worst way.
And so the games begin.
