Do Barnum & Bailey need a Texas partner?
For the past two days, the Chronicle has posted interesting reporting on the DeLay indictment(s), although the most compelling tidbits have been buried at the bottom.
Yesterday, Chris Elam caught the following information in reporting by R.G. Ratcliffe, Kristen Mack, and Janet Elliott on the first DeLay indictment:
The Chronicle obtained the grand jury list on Tuesday under the Texas Open Records Act. State District Judge Mike Lynch had ordered it sealed.
Seven of the 12 grand jurors have voted in Democratic primaries in recent years, according to Travis County records. One grand juror voted in Republican primaries.
The other four grand jurors either had no history of voting in primaries or could not be positively identified.
Today, an article by R.G. Ratcliffe and Clay Robison contained even more interesting information about that grand jury (also near the end):
William Gibson, the foreman of the grand jury that returned the first indictment against DeLay, said in an interview with Austin radio station KLBJ on Wednesday that he was friends with a Democratic candidate who had been defeated by the corporately funded ad campaign run by the Texas Association of Business in 2002.
James Sylvester, one of the losing Democratic candidates who has sued the business group, worked at the Travis County sheriff's office. Gibson is retired from that same office.
Gibson said newspaper stories about the TAB's activities, which were coordinated with TRMPAC, convinced him that improper political activity had occurred before he ever was on the grand jury.
The partisan composition of the first grand jury -- not to mention the fact its foreman seemed to bring some strong preconceptions to the matters being considered -- does not itself say anything about Rep. DeLay's guilt or innocence, but when combined with Ronnie Earle's jury shopping, his comments about DeLay to a Democratic fundraiser, his starring in a documentary (of which I've requested a preview copy), and his seemingly messianic view of his own role in stopping whatever he might deem "abuse of power" (instead of actual trangressions of law), it's hard not to agree with the Austin American Statesman editorial board's recent assessment of Earle's conduct as "erratic" and "circus-like."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 10/06/05 10:41 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (8)
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