Redstate

is digging up that traficant picture.

BEAM ME UP MR. SPEAKER!!!

In the words of Micheal Caine in "The Man Who Would Be King,": "Brass it out Danny, brass it out."

Remember Rush always showing him on his old t.v show.  For a Democrat he didn't vote as bad as most of his fellow party members.

The man is stupid like a fox. Those on the other side have cause to be very afraid right about now. If Ronnie Earle does not succeed in hammering the hammer, does anyone think the hammer is just going to forget about this?

I wonder if the prosecutor will release the picture to DeLay so he can use it in his campaign literature. That picture's better than ones you get of your kids at Sears.

I meant Mr. DeLay's next campaing. You have to admit it's a darn good picture.

I want him back in Congress.  An "honest" crook is good by me.  I would take Jim over Patty Murray, Babs Boxer, and the list goes on.  Throw in some Republicans for good measure.

Give us Traficant.

Does anyone besides me think Nick Nolte looks like Yoda?

thats one h**l of a good looking guy.  Did Clinton's mug shot look this good?

PS- Katherine Harris is my congressman, thats almost as good!

There are thousands and thousands of politicians in Texas, Democrats and Republicans, who didn't have their mug shot taken today. Calling the one who did a "genius" is a bit of wishful thinking.

We're in deep trouble.  DeLay's a political genius for smiling in his booking photo?! Bring back Traficant?! How desperate are we for good news, exactly?

Or, perhaps you were wishing for a firestorm of media derision to erupt against Tom Delay, saw it didn't happen, and are now pouting?

...how he voted on the articles of impeachment drafted against his fellow felonious Democrat?

Hmm...?

I'm pretty sure I didn't deserve that.

but should have is wishful thinking.

I just ran it through my brand new Sears Snark-o-meter and it only registered a 1.2, well bellow the National Limits for Snark on the Internet  as proposed by John McCain.

This politician scored points by looking good... in his mugshot?  Ok, maybe I'll grant you a couple.

Being Arrested on Money Laundering Charges: -5000 points.

Looking good in your mugshot: 2 points

Looking bad in your mugshot: -7000 points

So... my congratulations to DeLay for only being at -4998 points.  Major victory.

It doesn't take a freaking political genius to know you're supposed to look good on TV.

Delay isn't good because he is smiling, although that smile is GOOD.  He is good because he is EFFECTIVE!  He has been responsible for much good legislation getting through congress that would never have otherwise gone through. He keeps members in line and gets the votes needed to pass legislation.

When you do that and you are effective against democrats, they are going to do everything they can to stop you, and that includes bringing up false charges against you.

The fat lady has not begun to sing yet, and this isn't over by a long shot. When the dust settles on this one, there will be a lot of people sorry they ever tried this little trick.  It is going to be interesting to watch the various democrats that are now going to be charged with the same thing they are charging against Delay.  It is going to be just like the unreported trips they tried to nail him on, and then the democrats got caught up in it too.  Hide and watch.  This could be fun.

To the Dems:

If you strike the King, kill him.

There are people charged with crimes every day that they did not commit. Being charged is one thing and being convicted is another. Ronnie Earle has made the charge, now let's see if he can get 12 reasonable and prudent Texans to agree with him.  I'm betting that he can't.  When he can't, how many points does that make for Delay?

This is just the opening act here people.  This thing has to play out, and all the clowns have to make appearances and recite their lines.

It is only when the fat lady sings that it will be over, and at that time, a lot of people had better get ready for a good old fashioned Texas whupping because they deserve it, and I have all confidence Delay is going to give them one.  

I think it's ridiculous that we're even talking about scoring points with a mug shot. Do you really think your average American is buoyed by that winning smile? Nope.  They think he looks like a used car salesman.  

And I wish he and his ex-lawyer could get their story straight.  

This is bad, guys.  It's not about political points.  The guy is going before a judge -- and for a good reason.  Real conservatives would be talking about how to deal with evidence of pervasive corruption that grows harder to ignore every day, not making political points.  And no, it's not all coming from the liberal media, okay?  

sure you are.  Pelosi di the exact same thing, the Texas Dem part did the exact same thing as the Rep one, it is all gonna come out like Rathergate and missing explosives.  O yea, and that includes Valerie FLAME also.

Count me out as a "real conservative" then.  This is a ole fashioned "Texas Shotgun Duel."  Only one guy is walking away this time.  It ain't Kay Baily Ronnie won't get a free shot.  If Delay loses the damage is not much worse than it already is.  If he wins he gets to urinate on all for cornerss of the Capital Building.

I think Earle broke into the wrong rec room this time.

My Grandmother always gave me excellent, timeless advice.  This one seems to apply here.  She would say "If you are going to kill a bee with a fly swater you had better get him on the first try.  If you miss, he is going to be surprised.  If you miss a second time, it's because he saw it coming.  If you miss a third time you better get ready to get a stinger."  If my math is right, Ronnie Earle just missed his third swat.  He better get ready for the stinger.

Exactly!  There are some tigers whose tail you ought not pull, and Ronnie Earle is about to learn Delay is one of those.

Of the largess of authorities with that mug shot.  Ordinarily, people being charged have to remove belts and ties and are asked to stand in front of a wall measuring their height.  In this case those requirements were somehow waived.  

The question is why?

going to take as long to play out as one might think.

Without the letter, Earle has only second-hand hearsay evidence.  The substitute list just doesn't cut it.  He's left grasping at straws, as evidenced by the subpoena which included the phone records from Tom's daughter.

Don't forget the Texas campaign commercial, not actual evidence presented to the grand jury, that was admittedly the deciding factor in one grand jury member's vote.  Prejudiced?

My best guess: The case will be dimissed, based primarily on the lack of material evidence.  

The firestorm that is sure to follow a dismissal is an entirely different story.

Because he is a United States Congressman and not a common criminal, that's why.  He is being charged purely for political reasons which everyone not living in a cave knows, and not because there is any evidence that he committed any crime.  He is innocent until proven guilty, and it is about time some of you gave him the benefit of the doubt as our system of justice REQUIRES that you do until the jury determines that he is guilty of something.

There is not a jury in Texas that will return a guilty verdict on what Ronnie Earle has against Delay, and Ronnie Earle KNOWS that.  He, the dumocratcs, and their syncopants in the media, are trying to damage Delay with publicity they hope will linger after the trial is over.  By wanting Delay treated as if he is a criminal, you are playing right into that trap. They would LOVE to have a mug photo of him looking like Nick Nolte.

But Delay didn't give them the satisfaction of that.  They had planned to use his mug shot with him looking like a criminal in campaigns against him next year.  Let's see them use THAT mug shot against him!  Heee, heee.  He has nailed them even BEFORE this trial begins, and if you think that is something, you haven't seen anything YET.

This thing has just begun to get interesting and Delay hasn't fired a shot yet.  But it's coming and he isn't known for missing.  How many shots have the dumocrats and Ronnie Earle already missed at Delay?  It's about three by my count.  I'm betting they'll miss again with the jury and right about then, when they are standing there out of ammo, Delay is going to start firing back.  It is going to be very instructive to witness and it isn't going to be prety.

in Harris County didn't want to participate in Earle's political vendetta against Tom Delay.  Wrong color county.

Forget Ronnie Earle. This is such minor stuff compared to what's coming down the pike for Delay in the many Abramoff scandals--a man Delay once called "one of my dearest friends".

There is a reason why statues of "Lady Justice" have a blind fold over her eyes. In the eyes of the law everyone should recieve the same treatment, elected or not. This photo may come back to haunt him, because it clearly shows his contempt for the american justice system.

I ask b/c of curiosity...I know that Earle is in Travis County...why was DeLay booked in Harris County?

If Delay was as corrupt as some claim he is, then wouldn't it be a little harder to nail him down?

just a thought

btw...I am gonna say what my friend told me when I asked him why he wouldn't support a proposition in CA that is obviously needed. (the proposition talks about actually asking union members if they can collect fees for political purposes...imagine...someone asking you if they can use your money...what insanity...), and he told me he opposes it just on the merit that the proposition would hurt the democratic party.

I have absolutly no qualms about saying the same in this situation.

he could under Texas law.

And - He chose to disappoint the media circus awaiting him in Travis County.

Because many counties in this country have done away with that procedure.  Mr Delay did not get special treatment.  Quite the opposite.  He wouldnt be in this situation if it were not for his political enemies.

if the man is a genius or not, but he certainly does possess paranormal abilities. I have never yet had an official photo taken (drivers license, passport--no mug shots thank God!) that did not make me look as if I had either just washed in with the tide or was recovering from a two week bender. Indeed, I don't think it's possible for us normal mortals to look good in official photos.

Tom Delay is going to be loaded for Bear.  And Ronnie Earle is going to be praying for rabbit season.

a suburb of Houston and includes parts of Harris County. As a member of Tom's district, I can assure you, he's well liked and respected. I apprecicate those here who have defended him this morning..

When you don't have any ideas to oppose your competetion, and when you don't have any  objectives other than raising taxes and getting out of Iraq, objectives that the majority of Americans will NOT SUPPORT at the ballot box, all you can do is attack the opposition.  And that is all the dumocrats and the media are doing.

It isn't playing well out here in "fly over country."  We are not buying it.  We don't care what Abramoff did.  He was a minor functionary and associated with a lot of politicians.

Certainly nothing he did comes close to Sandy Burgler stealing documents out of the national arcives and then deliberately destroying them to protect Bill Clinton from being PROVED to have let terrorist attack us when our military and intelligence services CLEARLY warned (Able Danger) his administration of what was being planned and by whom.

I truly believe that the majority of thinking Americans are tired of the tactic currently being used by the Dumocrats and the media to thwart the Bush Administration agenda. We are also tired of taking second class appointments to the courts by Bush, and we are tired of his irresponsible spending.

We conservatives have placed the Bush administration on notice that we will NOT sit by and take any nomination he puts up, and that we WANT A FIGHT over conservative issues once and for all.  We futher have placed his administration and congress on notice that if they do not do that, there is going to be he77 to pay. They are already seeing that over the Myers nomination.

We have the list of names.  We have the congress and the White House.  It is time to reward our friends and PUNISH our enemies.  It's time to go down the list kicking butts, and if Bush and this congress isn't going to do it, we are going to throw them out and put in somebody that will.

We have tried to reason with the liberals, dumocratic and republican.  We have tried cooperation (letting Kennedy write the Education Bill, inviting him to movies at the White House, ect).  It has not worked.  Since we can't reason or work with them in a spirit of cooperation, the only option left is to DEFEAT them COMPLETELY. Now is the time, and TODAY is the day to do it!!

I am reminded of the old Roadrunner cartoon - the one with dialog.  The coyote is in his shack patting himself on the back for his latest scheme saying, "Wile E. Coyote, super-genius.  I like the sound of that." Wham!

The shack is flattened by a train.

What is so smart about making sure your mug shot - which you know will be on the news - is flattering?  Okay, I give him credit for taking a good pic - I certainly can't - but that just makes him one of the political class.

Genius?  Yeah, it's real hard to get other politicians to vote for a give away like the drug benefit.

Genius?  Um, the Senate (yeah, the Senate) moved Social Security forward.  The House totally blew it.  Great leadership on a real issue Tom

Genius? Most of the pork in that stupid highway bill came off the House farm.  Kudos to DeLay and the Republican chairmen.

Wise up folks!  DeLay might have been one of us in the past, but now all he is is a money raising machine trying to maintain power.  He cares about power for power's sake and has long ago forgotten why he wanted the power.  He and, unfortunately, a good number of House Republicans have gotten stuck in the tar sands of lobbyists.  Shame on them.

Conservatives have always believed that power corrupts.  Hence the need for limited government.  Maybe we should thank DeLay for confirming the lesson.

ABSOLUTELY!!  And you haven't seen anything yet.

My assertion of it looking bad to be arrested still stands.

I'm more than willing to entertain arguments that being arrested looks good (positive points) or is neutral (0 points), but I think that's an uphill battle.

I maintain looking good in the mugshot, no matter how genius, is not enough to overcome the stigma of being arrested.

When he can't, how many points does that make for Delay?

Zero.  It's not worth anything to be acquitted.  Just ask OJ or Michael Jackson.

The good news is that eventually people forget about the arrest and it becomes not such a big deal any more.  I think he'll always have trouble with a presidential run because of this, though.

The only similarity to cartoons here is watching the dumocrats and their media friends running around trying to find SOMETHING to hang their hats on, and give reason for their being where they are.

WE need powerful people like Delay to counter the power of people like Kennedy, Byden, Shumer et all.  And THAT is why Delay is a target.  Because Delay is VERY EFFECTIVE in countering their approach, he has become their target.  It is the old politics of personal destruction the dumocrats STARTED with their treatment of Judge Robert Bork.

We have NOT forgotten that, and now is the time to jam the same thing right back down their throats.  It is time to REVERSE all of the law that has come out of the Supreme Court and that the liberals could not get through congress.

Delay is in the forefront of accomplishing that, and he is NOT going to back off.  He, and anyone involved in that process, will ALWAYS be a target.  Somehow, that does not seem to frighten him at all, and it is disconcerting to those who are attacking him that he seems to actually RELISH a fight.  If they knew anything about our Scotch-Irish ancestry and our proclivity towards fighting, they would understand what they are up against.

Actually, they do understand it and THAT is why they MUST destroy Tom Delay.  I hope they  brought a lunch and all their friends because if they think Delay is going to go down without taking a lot of them with him, hide and watch.  As someone here has said, if you strike the king, you better darn well kill him.  Last time I checked, Delay is not dead, but very much in the mood for a good FIGHT, and although they don't know it yet, that bunch of liberal jackels are going to get one!!

This is going to be GREAT entertainment.  

The only similarity to cartoons here is watching the dumocrats and their media friends running around trying to find SOMETHING to hang their hats on, and give reason for their being where they are.

WE need powerful people like Delay to counter the power of people like Kennedy, Byden, Shumer et all.  And THAT is why Delay is a target.  Because Delay is VERY EFFECTIVE in countering their approach, he has become their target.  It is the old politics of personal destruction the dumocrats STARTED with their treatment of Judge Robert Bork.

We have NOT forgotten that, and now is the time to jam the same thing right back down their throats.  It is time to REVERSE all of the law that has come out of the Supreme Court and that the liberals could not get through congress.

Delay is in the forefront of accomplishing that, and he is NOT going to back off.  He, and anyone involved in that process, will ALWAYS be a target.  Somehow, that does not seem to frighten him at all, and it is disconcerting to those who are attacking him that he seems to actually RELISH a fight.  If they knew anything about our Scotch-Irish ancestry and our proclivity towards fighting, they would understand what they are up against.

Actually, they do understand it and THAT is why they MUST destroy Tom Delay.  I hope they  brought a lunch and all their friends because if they think Delay is going to go down without taking a lot of them with him, hide and watch.  As someone here has said, if you strike the king, you better darn well kill him.  Last time I checked, Delay is not dead, but very much in the mood for a good FIGHT, and although they don't know it yet, that bunch of liberal jackels are going to get one!!

This is going to be GREAT entertainment.  

The only similarity to cartoons here is watching the dumocrats and their media friends running around trying to find SOMETHING to hang their hats on, and give reason for their being where they are.

WE need powerful people like Delay to counter the power of people like Kennedy, Byden, Shumer et all.  And THAT is why Delay is a target.  Because Delay is VERY EFFECTIVE in countering their approach, he has become their target.  It is the old politics of personal destruction the dumocrats STARTED with their treatment of Judge Robert Bork.

We have NOT forgotten that, and now is the time to jam the same thing right back down their throats.  It is time to REVERSE all of the law that has come out of the Supreme Court and that the liberals could not get through congress.

Delay is in the forefront of accomplishing that, and he is NOT going to back off.  He, and anyone involved in that process, will ALWAYS be a target.  Somehow, that does not seem to frighten him at all, and it is disconcerting to those who are attacking him that he seems to actually RELISH a fight.  If they knew anything about our Scotch-Irish ancestry and our proclivity towards fighting, they would understand what they are up against.

Actually, they do understand it and THAT is why they MUST destroy Tom Delay.  I hope they  brought a lunch and all their friends because if they think Delay is going to go down without taking a lot of them with him, hide and watch.  As someone here has said, if you strike the king, you better darn well kill him.  Last time I checked, Delay is not dead, but very much in the mood for a good FIGHT, and although they don't know it yet, that bunch of liberal jackels are going to get one!!

This is going to be GREAT entertainment.  

...That answers that...I didn't know he could "surrender" where he wanted.

EdHarris:  A friend of mine's dad is actually one of DeLay's neighbors, but he doesn't share that opinion of the man...but that's probably just a "neighbor vs. neighbor" thing :D

You should write up this excellent rant as a diary. You're smokin'!

All of us here are political junkies so I guess we all agree that politics is entertaining.  But, is that the point?  I thought politics was a means to an end, a means to governing.  Okay, I don't agree with he Democrats (well, hardly ever) but I am not Attila or Genghis.  I don't need to pile my opponents' bodies into triumphal pyramids to prove I'm a tough guy.  I do that by crushing aluminum beer cans.

Politics is revenge?  That is crazy.  Where does it end?  It ends in the ruination of the Republic friend.

You, in some ways, make my case for me.  You talk about DeLay being good at their (the Dems) game (of destruction derby).  Yeah, great, he can smash things up.  He is effective at ... being a jerk.  How effective has he been at being a conservative and pushing through a conservative agenda?  Close to nada.

I'll add one item to my original post:

Almost as soon as DeLay is out of the leadership chair the conservative wing of the Republican Party in the House have FINALLY woken up to the spending frenzy.

You say "He is effective at ... being a jerk.  How effective has he been at being a conservative and pushing through a conservative agenda?  Close to nada."

Well sir, if that is true, would you PLEASE explain to me WHY the dumocrats are after him with such gusto?  If he is just a jerk, why do they care?  

You know you are being effective when they mass this much force against you, and it is a tribute to Delay's effectiveness that they are attempting to do this.  

to say please or call me sir.  I work for a living.

You had the Democratic reasoning down cold.  They are going after him because he is effective in the sharp elbow groin shot sort of politics.  I do not dispute that he is effective at that sort of activity and that being so will get so some enemies.  Live by the sword, die by allegation.  Go ask newt Gingrich.

Bit, unlike Gingrich, Delay has done precious little to advance the Conservative cause.

So, I ask myself if he is a genius, or a street brawler.  I've got nothing against street brawlers as long as they are brawling for something.  He isn't.  Brawling isn't genius.  It may make us feel good, but the guy is costing us too much for too little gain.

Did you see the Brooks episode on the NewsHour this evening?  Both commentators agreed that Delay's wings have been clipped because of his lack of staff.  Both said that the result was that the conservatives in the House were being allowed to be, well, conservative.

I don't watch TV so I didn't see what you reference. The challenge has been issued and Delay has eagerly accepted.  We'll see where it ends.