Tom DeLay admits his indictment was not due to partisan witchhunt

by eriposte

I guess this particular aspect of the case seems to have gotten less attention than it deserves out here in the lefty blogosphere, so let me point it out.

Tom DeLay (R-Corruption and High Crimes) used a lot of the airtime awarded freely by nominees of the Joseph Stalin Award for Propaganda Excellence to falsely attack and slander Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, characterizing Earle's (actually the grand jury's) actions as a frivolous and partisan witchhunt.

Yesterday, with the attention of the Stalin Award nominees having drifted somewhat, he admitted that the indictment had merit (as a bonus to his previous indirect admission). Not in so many words, but in words that were loud and clear enough.

Think Progress has the goods (bold text is my emphasis):

But on Rush Limbaugh’s show (10/4/05), DeLay offered another explanation, based on his meeting with Earle a month before the first indictment (Sept. 28):

I can’t really talk about specifics of that interview because it’s under grand jury secrecy and, unlike Ronnie Earle, I’m going to adhere to that agreement, but suffice it to say, I misspoke one sentence — one sentence — and they have based all of this on one sentence, and that basically, they think that before the check was cut and sent to the Republican National Committee, I approved that check, which is totally false. I didn’t know that this went on ’til well after it had happened.

As Think Progress points out, his statement about when he got to know this does not appear to be true either - but note the fact that he is admitting that the indictment occurred based on a statement he made which he is NOW retracting. So, it wasn't about "partisan" vindictiveness on the part of Ronnie Earle (it never was). It was about DeLay's statement under oath that revealed he was guilty of money laundering - a statement that was so obviously showing him to be guilty that he is now publicly retracting it.

Perhaps DeLay's lawyer would like DeLay to keep his mouth shut, but I'd love for DeLay to keep talking. Deny every trip, every check, every conversation and talk about all the "misspeaking". Please keep the hits coming. It'll all come in handy once the Abramoff investigation heads further in his direction.

P.S. Is it just me or does it now seem rather obvious to all that the sudden "major" Bush speech tomorrow (on Iraq and terrorism) has something to do with this Fitzgerald/Plame story?