Tom DeLay; his time has come.
 

Well, Tom DeLay is indicted and commisurates with Bill Clinton....This is a political witch hunt, just like Clinton.

Ahem, money or a B-job it is always something, eh? Those pols have it made!!!

:mg: :lol:

Has this just about as much chance as Clinton's impeachment or is there the possiblity DeLay will actually go to gaol?

He has about as much chance of going to gaol as he has of going to jail.

Anyone have a more, um, quantitative thought?

The factors:

1) Conspiracy is harder to prove than a basic crime
2) Earle, regardless of what evidence he has, doesn't have jurisdiction over DeLay for anything but conspiracy.
3) The DA who does have jurisdiction is pretty solidly Republican.
4) DeLay has major political clout to frustrate the investigation, especially in Texas.

On the other hand,
5) Earle has a very good track record with corruption cases
6) He isn't likely to want to mess that up with an indictment that he can't back up
7) Several underlings have also been indicted, who may flip
8) The sheer scale of DeLay's corruption makes it more likely that he slipped up somewhere.
9) DeLay was somehow convinced to waive the statute of limitations in order to delay the indictment

Hey, you wanted quantitative.

Thanks, sounds like there is a good chance.

For the case against the case against DeLay, see Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, on Fox News. They are, like, "My God, is this mess an indictment? We've read all three and a half pages half a dozen times and can't even see DeLay's been accused of anything; trying to find legal meaning in this is like trying to screw fog." Hannity speculates the real payoff is not in a conviction, but in obliging, per Republican Party rules, the Republican Majority Leader to step down for the time being. Interestingly, the Democratic Party does not have a similar bylaw -- a Democrat in a similar position can just sit tight.

Makes you go Hmmm.

Oh, well now that you have quoted fair and impartial sources I guess we will all just have to pack up and leave it alone....NOT.

It's called money laundering. Look it up.

So what source told you the Democratic party doesn't have a similar bylaw?

I don't know whether the Democrats have that rule now, but the Republican rule was put in place so the Republicans could gloat over Rostenkowski. When the chickens came home to roost, DeLay tried his best to get the rule removed.

Heh. Well, if they say so.

Rich: Sean Hannity. And this point has been mentioned before by sundry commentators.

Oh,yeah: only the people who wish it publicly known that they aren't too well informed and don't think very well reject Fox News out of hand. Pseudosophisticates, dolts, half-bright leftists, GIGO hobbyists, cranks, persons who'd really rather Saddam won because America opposes him and who aren't perceptibly committed to keeping this Republic -- that sort.

You didn't say Fox News. You said O'Reilly and Hannity, both of whom - especially the latter - it is perfectly safe to dismiss out of hand.

That's where you find 'em, Monkey -- though their radio shows are also around. The radio shows tend to cover the same material as their television shows, so I'd catch either one rather than both in a day. And frankly, dismissing these men out of hand isn't the action of the wise, but rather of the willfully ignorant, carefully foolish, and the shallow pseudosophisticate. I'd rather deal with genuinely sophisticated people, thank you, and I don't think I'm unreasonable in this preference.

Hannity's first literary outing, Let Freedom Ring, isn't as deep as his second, Deliver Us From Evil, which is the Hannity book I recommend. If Hannity isn't your cup of tea, try anything by Larry Elder or Ken Hamblin -- two more goodhearted talk-radio hosts with their heads screwed on nose to front.

In the meantime, Al Franken is asking his listeners for money to try to keep the station afloat. They are even offering a series of PBS-like "gifts."