DeLay Hammers Earle of Austin

By Ann Coulter

Democrat prosecutor Ronnie Earle's conspiracy charge against Tom DeLay was thrown out this week, which came as a surprise to people who think it's normal for a prosecutor to have to empanel six grand juries in order to get an indictment on simple fund-raising violations. Mr. Earle will presumably assemble a seventh grand jury as soon as he locates someone in the county who hasn't served on a previous one.

It probably goes without saying that it is extraordinary for criminal charges to be thrown out by a judge before any jury ever hears the evidence. Juries decide guilt or innocence in this country. For the judge to dismiss an indictment before trial, it means he concluded that -- even if the jury finds everything Ronnie Earle alleges to be true -- no crime was committed.

Obviously, this was a huge victory for DeLay and, as The Washington Post put it, "a slap at Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle." (More bad news for Ronnie Earle: Today President Bush said the embattled Texas D.A. was doing "a heck of a job.")

Or, in the words of CNN's Bill Schneider on what this means for Tom DeLay: "Not good." In the expert analysis of Schneider, it was "not good" for DeLay to have charges thrown out because it would have been even better if all the charges had been thrown out. It also would have been better if the judge had dismissed the conspiracy charges and given DeLay an ice cream cone.

But that doesn't mean having criminal charges against you dismissed is, I quote, "not good." And they think Fox News has twice CNN's ratings just because it's fair and balanced. The accountants at Fox could give a more penetrating legal analysis.

In the past few years, all TV news has become less biased due to the salubrious influence of Fox News. But Bill Schneider isn't backing off one inch! Watching Schneider is like entering a time machine and seeing how news was reported in the '80s. CNN ought to start broadcasting Schneider's appearances only in black and white.

According to Schneider, the judge's failure to dismiss the money laundering charges proves "obviously, on at least one charge the judge disagreed" with DeLay's claim that the prosecutor was politically motivated. Schneider's entire understanding of criminal law was apparently shaped during the Ally McBeal years.

Schneider would have said more, but he had to run off to file a story about how 4.3 percent growth, 215,000 new jobs, record productivity gains and continued growth in real estate prices were "not good" news for the economy.

In fact, all we know as a result of the judge's ruling on Monday is that the remaining charge against DeLay, if proved, would at least constitute a crime.

To repeat what you might already have heard in third grade: In America, the validity of criminal charges is determined by the trier of fact after a trial. A judge is not authorized to dismiss a criminal indictment handed up by a grand jury just because the prosecutor is a political hack.
This is true even if the prosecutor had to spend three years and empanel six grand juries to get an indictment.

It is true even if the same prosecutor also indicted Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison days after she was elected to the U.S. Senate, but after spending a year holding press conferences in which he called Hutchinson a criminal, still had no evidence and folded his hand.

It is true even if the prosecutor is participating in a documentary about a brave liberal prosecutor (Ronnie Earle) exposing a black-hearted Republican (Tom DeLay) -- which wouldn't make much of a movie if no charges were ever brought.

Thus, for example, Earle's baseless charges against Hutchison -- like the remaining charges against DeLay -- were not dismissed before trial. What happened was, the trial date came and Earle had no evidence. The judge ordered the jury to acquit.

Earle never admitted he had no evidence against Hutchison. Instead, he made a preposterous request of the judge. He asked the judge to issue a pre-emptive ruling declaring all documents that Earle planned to admit throughout the trial admissible -- without allowing the judge to know what those documents were or allowing the defense an opportunity to object. Obviously, the judge said he would have to see the documents first and decide admissibility on a case-by-case basis.

So now and forevermore, Earle claims his case against Hutchison was watertight, but because the judge ruled against him, he was prevented from presenting his "evidence" to the jury.

Remember that when liberals call Bill O'Reilly a "liar" because he won a Polk award, but one time he got confused and called it a Peabody award.

DEMOCRATS ENDORSE DEFEAT IN IRAQ

Democrats are losing all semblance of self-control, and are finally coming right out and saying exactly what they believe in the debate over the war in Iraq.

Yesterday, we heard from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. His stunning statement: we are not going to win the war in Iraq. Dean joins the John Murtha wing of his party which calls for the unconditional surrender of the United States to Islamic terrorists in Iraq.

I’ve been expecting something like this, for weeks now. I'm sure the terrorists are lifting a cup of goat's milk to Chairman Dean today.This goes beyond politics and strays into the territory of the dangerously partisan. Right now there are 160,000 American troops in Iraq. They are there to fight a war that Congress (including a vast majority of both Democrats and Republicans) gave the president support to wage. In just under 3 years, we have liberated Iraq, deposed the dictator there, held elections and drawn up a Constitution. By any measure in the history of warfare, Iraq is a success. . . . In other words, for all intents and purposes, . . . we’ve won!

In just eight days the Iraqi people will elect their own leaders under their own constitution. Not bad, in spite of what the Democrats want you to believe. And what about those terrible numbers of casualties?? During the run-up to the war, there were retired generals on TV saying the US faced tens of thousands of casualties in the Iraq war. Since Baghdad fell, that number is a few thousand. Still way too many, but far short of estimates.

Despite the wishes of the Democrats, we have, in essence, WON the war in Iraq. All that’s left is training their military and police how to maintain a decent democratic society, through conventional rule of law.But Howard Dean wasn't finished with just the moronic rant about not winning. He went on to compare Iraq to Vietnam, even though there is no palatable comparison. He then called for troops to be redeployed. Redeployed, in case you don't know, means withdrawn from Iraq. Last time I checked, Howard Dean wasn't, and has never been, a general in the U.S. Army. He should stick to politics and medicine.

Can you just imagine how the Islamic terrorists and the insurgents must have felt when they heard these words from the chairman of the American Democrat Party?? These insurgents and terrorists have been gathering evidence for some time now that the Democrats were their friends. Now how must they feel? Not only is the leader of the party demanding withdrawal of American troops, but he's declaring the terrorists to be the winners! I think it’s time to begin to question these folks’ patriotism, . . . don’t you??Is there some obscure office at the Democratic National Headquarters where some of the more ardent members of the pro-Saddam crowd are planning for the Democratic delegation to head to Baghdad to celebrate the return to power of Saddam Hussein??

Let’s consider the possibilities, here. What are we supposed to do, to make Chairman Dean happy?? Should we let Saddam out of jail, and return him to his palaces?? What about buying him some nice, new, bullet-proof Limousines?? We could offer him an opportunity to re-start the “Oil for Food” program, so he could rebuild his millions of Iraqi Dinars and American Dollars back to pre-ouster levels. He could adopt a couple of his worst sociopaths to resume the work that his poor sons were interrupted from completing, too. Shouldn’t we just call our generals, and tell ‘em to pack everything up, and get the hell out of Baghdad?? Couldn’t we just call those local Imams, and tell ‘em we’re leaving Faluja, Mosul, and Kirkuk, offer ‘em up some nice letters of recommendation, and wander off, back to our C-130s, load our equipment, and leave?? I’m not sure even France would endorse such a plan, at this stage, . . . and, I KNOW Spain and Italy wouldn’t!

But Howard knows that he’s got the endorsement of millions of Americans on the left, who are apathetic enough, as long as there’ve been no more terrorist attacks inside our borders, to just sit back and let him rant, and let him run his ignorant mouth to the extent that he endangers our troops, and the successful mission they’re on.

God Bless,
Dan'L