DeLay Fights Back

Tom DeLay now has a section of his web site devoted to Ronnie Earle’s partisan attack on him. With sections like “Earle Asks for a Do-Over,” “Ronnie Earle’s Previous Misuse of His Office,” and so on, it effectively presents the facts surrounding Earle and his vendetta against DeLay. And, of course, there is a box where you can make a donation.

The Associated Press doesn’t like it. The AP contacted some experts to see whether there might be something wrong with DeLay’s trying to defend himself; there isn’t. As it has in other stories, the AP mischaracterizes the fiasco of Earle’s first indictment of DeLay:

“Earle asks for a Do-Over,” which focuses on the prosecutor’s decision to seek a re-indictment of DeLay on different charges after DeLay’s lawyers raised technical questions about the first indictment.

DeLay’s lawyers didn’t “raise technical questions” about the conspiracy indictment, they moved to dismiss it. And the issue they raised–apparently correctly, given Earle’s reaction–was that the crime charged in the indictment, conspiracy to violate the election laws, did not exist in Texas at the relevant time. This is hardly a “technical question;” it goes to the entire substance of the indictment.

The AP wants you to think that there is something unreliable about the information on DeLay’s site:

The truth, however, is decidedly DeLay’s version on the Web site.
“Ronnie Earle is wrong on the facts. Ronnie Earle is wrong on the law,” the Web site states as it analyzes the twists and turns in the case in the most favorable light to the congressman.

The Web site also gives readers tools to send a letter to newspaper editors in support of DeLay, to contact a radio talk show or to e-mail DeLay’s carefully crafted “facts” to friends.

But, of course, the AP presents no evidence whatever that there is anything dubious, let along wrong, about the facts on DeLay’s site. The scare quotes are just an expression of pique that things aren’t going well for Earle’s prosecution.

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