From a story here, via Newsmax:
"Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle's announcement yesterday that he was indicting House Majority Leader Tom DeLay came a little more than two weeks after Earle gave clear indications that the top Republican was off the hook.
"I have never said that DeLay is a target of the investigation," Earle told the Dallas Morning News on Sept. 10.
Sources familiar with Earle's investigation had agreed that, before yesterday, it didn't look like the top Republican would be indicted.
On Sept. 19, for instance, ace Newsweek sleuth Michael Isikoff reported that it looked like DeLay was in the clear:
"Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's two-year campaign fund-raising probe is expected to wind down soon without bringing charges against the House majority leader, according to lawyers close to the case who declined to be identified because of legal sensitivities," Isikoff reported.
"Earle doesn't plan to refer evidence to the prosecutor in DeLay's home district either," an Earle spokesman told Newsweek.
So what changed?
DeLay says reports that he was off the hook prompted a firestorm of outrage from national Democrats, who pressured Earle to reverse course.
"Do you really believe that the national Democrat leaders that announced that they were going to take this strategy ... never picked up the phone and talked to Ronnie Earle?" he asked the Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" Wednesday night."
Perhaps the answer is this post from Powerlineblog.
"I believe that the Democrats think they can get away with a filibuster because they have the Republicans on the run--nothing but bad news from Iraq (untrue, but that's the impression you get from the media), the fiasco of Hurricane Katrina (also untrue, as we're learning), Bush's sagging poll numbers, etc. In order to lay the groundwork for their filibuster, the Democrats are doing everything they can to create an anti-Republican frenzy in the press. My guess is that the DeLay indictment is part of that effort.
It would be interesting to subpoena Ronnie Earle's telephone records and see what Democratic Senators or representatives of the Democratic National Committee he has been talking to over the past couple of weeks.
So let's connect dots. We have Earle saying "No go" a few weeks back and then a sudden change of heart.
The baselessness of the indictment (almost as if added at the last moment), makes perfect sense now.
By the way, Travis county phone records come under The Freedom of Information Act. No need for a subpoena.
In an unrelated but totally relevant matter Political Teen has the Video from NRO Byron York's appearance on Hannity and Colmes tonight. Mr. York broke the story about how Earle used the Grand Jury to beome a movie star.
Yeah, the lights are out in Travis County, where "The town and the DA have blood stains on their hands".....
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