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The real story behind the indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry - Drew Phipps - 16-08-2014
The governor of Texas has been indicted on 2 counts of abuse of office. Here is a link to a story about it:
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/08/16/texas-gov-perry-says-indictment-is-abuse-of-power/20948000/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl2%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D516323
If you want to know how all this came about, here are the facts:
The Travis County District Attorney's office has, by law, statewide jurisdiction over official misconduct cases. In the past they have prosecuted Democrats (latest was a welfare fraud case) and Republicans (most notably Tom Delay, and Kay Bailey Hutchinson). Every single time the traditionally Democratic DA has filed charges on a Republican, charges of partisan prosecution have been raised in the defense.
After Tom Delay was indicted, the current DA (Rosemary Lemberg) took office upon the retirement of her predecessor. In April of 2013 Lemberg was arrested for DWI. Her behavior during the arrest was reprehensible. You can find video clips of the roadside arrest footage, and her behavior during transportation/booking on Youtube, if you care to see it. She eventually had to be restrained "Hannibal Lector"-style for her safety and the safety of the officers. The casual contempt that she displayed for the officers that keep her, and her employees, supplied with jobs, was shocking. You can blame the booze if you like, but I personally don't think that drunks can think of anything to say that they haven't thought repeatedly and privately while sober.
A number of people called for her resignation, including Republican Governor Rick Perry. (I personally think she should have resigned. How can we expect the everyday citizen to respect the law when the DA gets to act that way and keep her job?) However, Travis County Democrats feared that if she resigned, Perry would appoint a Republican DA. (I'll leave it to you to speculate reasons why Democrats might fear that situation.) Lemberg did not resign.
In response Perry threatened to, and did, cut off the State's funding for the ethics office. (In my opinion, a second reprehensible act.) The DA's office appointed a special prosecutor (not under the control of the elected DA) to investigate and seek indictment if appropriate. The Special Prosecutor (who I don't know) did seek an indictment from a regularly sitting grand jury in the 390th District Court, and the grand jury found that there was probable cause to believe that Governor Perry committed 2 counts of the Texas crime "abuse of office". Those are the facts "on the ground" here.
Whether or not this set of circumstances, fits this particular crime, I'll let a jury decide, and then a Court of Appeals or two. Getting creative with square pegs and round holes has backfired on the Travis County DA's office before: The Delay prosecution lost (on appeal) because (for one reason), the "money laundering" statute under which he was prosecuted wasn't specifically aimed at politicians using bookkeeping tricks to avoid the Texas statutory prohibition against corporate campaign contributions. Also, we now (since the Delay indictment) know that the US Supreme Court believes that corporations have First Amendment rights to stuff candidates' bank accounts.
My opinions: Lemberg should have resigned. Perry should not have let partisan politics affect the funding of a (at least in theory) non-partisan watchdog on government scumbags. If that is a crime, Perry should be punished. But found guilty or not, just remember, when 2016 rolls around, that Perry would rather punish his political enemies, than govern in the best interests of his citizens.
The real story behind the indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry - Lauren Johnson - 17-08-2014
Texas politics is pretty rough and tumble from what I hear.
The real story behind the indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry - Tracy Riddle - 17-08-2014
Both parties suck. That should be obvious to everyone by now.
The real story behind the indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry - Dawn Meredith - 17-08-2014
A very good description Drew and I agree with you. I was stunned when the RL story broke. I actually interviewed with her in 1991 (to do CPS cases) but did not have enough jury experience. She waited her entire career for Ronnie Earle to retire so she could be the DA then puts lives at risk by being so drunk that she was out of her mind. We all wondered how many other times she had driven drunk and was lucky. Should she have resigned? I thought back to Judge Aguilar who was busted twice for DWI. He got two chances. I think everyone should get a second chance. Even a District Attorney. She has already said she is not running for another term. What Perry did was thoroughly reprehensible and I am glad that he has been indicted. But he will win on appeal. (If a jury finds him guilty, and in Travis county I believe that will happen).
Dawn