Gov. Rick Perry of Texas was indicted on two felony counts on Friday by a state grand jury examining his handling of a local district attorney’s drunken driving arrest and the state financing for a public corruption unit under the lawyer’s control.Summary: Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, was the D.A. in Travis County. She also oversaw the anti-corruption unit that ended the career of Tom Delay.
In 2013, Lehmberg was arrested for drunk driving. Sensing an opportunity for some partisan payback, Rick Perry tried to force her to resign. He said to her (in essence): Either you go right now, or I'll veto funding for that anti-corruption unit. She didn't go; he vetoed. (The amount in question is not large. They don't spend a lot of money on anti-corruption in Texas.)
Mr. Perry’s detractors said that his moves crossed the line from hard-ball politics to criminal acts that violated state laws.Damn straight. It now seems possible that Lehmberg will keep her job after Rick Perry loses his. He certainly isn't going to get anywhere near the nomination.
10 comments:
No Perry fan here but the behavior or Lehmberg'and her predecessor Ronnie Earle are grotesque. There is an open problem in Travis County Texas and everyone knows if.
No one is going to begrudge Perry trying to force this creature from office. The prosecution of Tom DeLay - another scumbag - was an expensive waste of time, the charges were cleared as soon as the case was appealed outside of Travis County.
Anyone who understands the laws in Texas knew that the charges against Delay would he tossed as soon as they were beyond Travis County and a politically motivated jury. The same thing will happen here - Texas governors can exercise a line item veto on any item for any reason.
The Perry situation is even more ridiculous than Delay's - some insiders believe that a trial where Travis Couny officials are subpoenaed about their activities - and you can bank that very powerful, very shrewd and very knowledgeable GOP friendly lawyers will aid Perry's cause - will result in broader criminal charges and embarrassment for Travis County, and likely pull down the Travis County Democratic machine.
Again, no fan of Texas Republcans here, but as a Travis County resident who isn't "close" to the Travis County machine, I can tell you for a fact that theres enormous corruption at the county and municipal (Austin) level, and that swamp is about to be drained.
It's going to be the last notch on Perry's gun belt, and possibly a benefit to his run in 2016 assuming that's what he is actually doing.
ARGUGWB, you may be right. I am certainly glad to have the perspective of a Texan. But my main purpose here was to assess the (obvious) implications this development will have on the 2016 race.
It's too bad. Perry is entertaining.
@A.R.G.U.G.W.B. (or anyone, including Joseph, if they know the answer),
Over at TPM I noticed a Texas resident commenting that a trial of Rick Perry must, by mandate of the State Constitution of Texas, be held in Austin and nowhere else. So, according to that Texan, any further trials or appeals will be confined to Austin. Is this true, can you confirm or deny this?
"t's too bad. Perry is entertaining."
That was my first reaction at the news. The debates were my kettle corn.
How will they dispose of Rand?
Ben
Not sure about whether it has to be in Austin, but this case will likely quickly make its way to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is in Austin. I believe either this courtmormsupreme court of Texas would handle any matter involving the governor.
To follow up on why this probably simply raises Perry's profile, gins up the right and likely weakens the position of Travis County, is because this case will end up almost immediately in this court, and this court will toss it. And it will be at least the third time the Travis county office gets its ass handed to it once the hearing is taken outside of a Travis county courtroom.
There's no legal foundation for the assertion that Perry abused his power or coerced Lehmberg to misuse or abuse hers. An appeal to resign is outside the authority or enumerated powers of either office, and that's what the law is about. Perry is free to veto legislation for political purposes, which is all he did here.
The Travis County "integrity" unit has a lousy track record of purely political prosecutions, costing Travis County taxpayers millions and resulting in zero successful prosecutions. This is the latest.
If prosecuted, the precedent would basically be set that elected officials have no authority over budgets, discipline, administration, etc. the governor, lt. Governor, comptroller and state legislators "coerce" appointees, minor or local elected officials and state employees everyday. Any veto by a governor (and the governor has broad line item veto powers) could be prosecuted under this decision.
It's not going to happen, and Travis County has given Perry and his ilk a huge boost in stature and rightwing street cred. Republicans in Texas are rallying around Perry to an extent they haven't in a decade.
If this moves forward in any meaningful way, Perry will compel testimony from county and state employees and subpoena information. My understanding from folks at the county and "the pink dome" is that this information will at minimum be embarassing to Lehmberg, prominent state legislators and even a few current Austin municipal officials. One figure in particular with a lot to lose is a former Austin mayor who now serves in the legislator and apparently has been involved in these matters. Again, I don't personally know these things but folks I trust have shared info with me. I trust them but have no way of proving anything.
Why hasn't this info come out before? Again, I'm told that folks have shared the info as instructed to do with the integrity unit, which hasn't taken any meaningful action on it.
In the end, that's why Perry wants to clean house in Travis County.
My assumption this gets tossed without that happening, but many are shocked this prosecution went through, worried that it hasn't been thought through and that Perry comes out of this looking like a figure targeted by a democratic machine gone out of control.
I'm no republican, but will veer in to righting conspiracy theory for a moment. I'm told that Lehmberg, her predecessor and the organization behind this investigation of Perry have strong ties to the Cintons. And again, I have no idea if this is true or not ... But if it is, Perry will do everything he can to get that out in the public consciousness. And if this all gets tossed because theres no substance to any of it . . . ?
@A.R.G.U.G.W.B.,
Thank you for responding. However, I don't believe for one second that you aren't a Republican (or at least a Republican sympathizer) and a Perry supporter. You've gone a long way out of your way and put a considerable effort to write up a defense, and that's only here. You're defense doesn't entirely hold up and your accusations of a Democrat with connections to the Clintons doesn't prove or mean anything. Most Republicans have connections to more powerful Republicans and their families, who usually sponsor the new generation of up and coming Republicans. It is mostly the same with the Democrats too. There is nothing unusual about having connections to more influential and powerful people within either of the two dualistic parties. So even if Lahmberg does have connections or interpersonal relations with the Clintons, so what? Seriously, so what? The Republican Party operates similarly.
A.R.G.U.G.W.B,
Don't try to communicate with these clowns: if you don't adhere strictly to their dogma, you're somewhere to the right of Sarah Palin.
That said, there are no intelligent people out there who think this lawsuit is worth a turd of consideration.
@Anon (1:16 A.M.),
Ad-hominem attacks on your part, typical and ubiquitous of your style, I expected nothing less. You insinuate you are not a creature of habits, adherences and faiths, as all humans are. Point being, you have your own dogma, which you fly off the handle about with ad-hominem displays, calling those that differ from you 'clowns' and other such nonsense. Why? Because you have nothing more than personal attacks to resort to. You aren't clever enough for anything else. Your reference to 'turd of consideration' was, ironically, self-referential, describing your own input here. If you think Joseph's blog is a 'circus', it beckons the question why you drunkenly stumble onto it all the time.
This isn't a place to vent your vehemently fascist rage and loathing for everyone you caricaturize as 'leftists'.
No more fighting, mes amis. Let's move on.
This indictment won't hurt Perry. One must remember that we are dealing with the American people. Everyone of their 'elected' lackies are corrupt. The American citizens have layed around on their worthless, degenerated behinds and allowed the most dangerous and the most sophisticated, corrupt, oppressive oligarchical regime in tbe history of the planet to promogulate on them for decades, known as the U.S. Government, snd waved it's flag, and sent their children to die for it's causes(not theirs), and are dutifully doing it as we speak.
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