In Texas, The Hammer Runs Into an Anvil
Earle can defy

pigeonholing. Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer and friend of Earle’s, says the prosecutor is “definitely a moderate,” and that he’s

“not involved in the Democratic Party.”

Raised on a cattle ranch in the tiny north Texas town of Birdville, Earle served

briefly in the Texas House before being elected district attorney. A self-described “radical moderate,” he has faced

little serious opposition in his reelection campaigns. This comports with commonly heard descriptions of him — adjectives such as

“maverick,” “idealist” and “crusader.”

Indeed, Earle is a former Eagle Scout more interested in social policy than in collecting

death-penalty convictions. …

“Ronnie has a very deep philosophical belief about good and evil,” Keel said. “He sees

corporate involvement in politics as an evil to be attacked at any costs.” …

Earle says he has no choice. He was hoping

to retire last year, he says, but felt he could not abandon this case.

“The issue that we’re faced with is the role of

large concentrations of money in democracy, whether it’s individuals or corporations,” he said. “The issue is the same.”

Movement of $190,000 at Issue
DeLay Case Could Hinge on Original Source of

Money
By R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post Staff Writer

The head of a Texas political group organized by then-House Majority

Leader Tom DeLay made an urgent request on Sept. 10, 2002, to the group’s accountant: Send a blank check overnight to DeLay’s chief

fundraiser in Washington. The next day, the fundraiser, James W. Ellis, inscribed it to an arm of the Republican National Committee and

wrote in the amount: $190,000.

It was an odd, election-eve donation of funds to Washington by a political group formed to support

Republicans in Texas. But that was not the whole story. On Oct. 4, 2002, the RNC sent the same total amount in seven checks ranging from

$20,000 to $40,000 to candidates for the Texas House.

It is this transaction — the swift and loosely documented transfer of funds

from Texas to Washington and the subsequent transfer of the same amount in multiple checks back to Texas — that lies at the heart of

Wednesday’s indictment of DeLay and two political associates by a Texas prosecutor, Ronnie Earle. …

“I didn’t know they did

this legal activity,” DeLay told CNN, referring to the transfer of $190,000 to the RNC by his alleged co-conspirators, TRMPAC director

John Colyandro and Washington fundraiser James Ellis. DeLay also said he did not know which Texas candidates the two men had “targeted”

for donations from Washington in a note they sent to the RNC along with the check. “I did not know where the money went,” he said.

DeLay Arraignment Is Set for Oct. 21 By Amy Goldstein, Washington Post Staff

Writer

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has been ordered to appear at an arraignment on Oct. 21 in an Austin courtroom, where he plans to

plead not guilty to the charge that he conspired with two associates to funnel corporate donations to Republican candidates for the Texas

legislature.