Ronnie Earle, Movie Star

Apparently, the Austin, Texas DA has been letting a film crew record his pursuit of Tom DeLay. And Earle’s methods of pressuring corporations to pay off his favorite causes in exchange for leniency are . . . unorthodox, to say the least. And we remember Earle’s use of the DeLay investigation to raise money for Democrats, which the Houston Chronicle called “a stunning display of prosecutorial impropriety.”
You know, I was appalled by the personal attacks heaped during the Clinton years on Ken Starr, an upstanding public servant and a man whose previous career had been one of unblemished integrity and civility. I felt then – and still do – that the relentless attacks on Starr, as a means of delegitimizing his inquiry and distracting from the merits of the case, were bad for the administration of justice. And so, I have deeply mixed feelings about the “pig pile on Ronnie Earle” playbook. But the more I see of Earle’s record, the more obvious it is that this is a guy with a long track record of troubling behavior with regard both to this investigation and other politically charged investigations. Maybe he has the goods on DeLay; I’m still in the process of absorbing the ins and outs of Texas campaign finance law in the hopes of making sense of this whole thing. But his behavior certainly doesn’t inspire confidence.

One thought on “Ronnie Earle, Movie Star”

  1. Just make sure you’re looking at the law as it was when the “crime” was committed. It’s my understanding it has changed since then.

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