| Page 3 of 4 < > |
In Texas, The Hammer Runs Into an Anvil
Prosecutor Ronnie Earle put off his retirement to take on Tom DeLay.
(By Thomas Terry -- Associated Press)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"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."
During an April 3, 2003, hearing in which Earle was trying to obtain information about contributors to the Texas Association of Business, a group embroiled in the current DeLay investigation, he declared the state "would offer the words of Benito Mussolini, who said that fascism should more properly be called corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power."
The judge was amused.
"I didn't realize I would be maybe researching quotes from Voltaire and Mussolini before this was over," said Judge Mike Lynch, who gave Earle most of the association's documents he sought.
To veteran Texas trial lawyers such as Roy Minton, a liberal Democrat who is defending the business association, the Mussolini speech "livened up everybody." But "what assistance does that give to the judge?" Minton asked. "Ronnie does not think as a trial lawyer. He thinks in right and wrong as he sees the right and the wrong. You ask him, 'Is that against the law?' and he'll say, 'It's wrong.' "
Keel questions whether the D.A. had enough legal grounds to indict DeLay.
"He has clean motives. I just don't think the facts back him up," Keel said.
Earle speaks of his role in understated terms. He sees himself as simply a fact finder, intent on rooting out the truth and bringing his case before a jury. "I really take seriously the duty to see justice is done," he said.
Even so, Earle's rhetoric can have a messianic feel, suggesting a loftier sense of mission.
"The root of all evil truly is money," Earle says in a monologue in a new film, "The Big Buy," for which Earle allowed the filmmakers extensive access to the DeLay investigation. A copy of the unfinished film was obtained by National Review Online, which posted passages on the Web.
"People talk about how money is the mother's milk of politics," Earle says in the film. "Well, it's the devil's brew. And what we've got to do, we've got to turn off the tap."
Few would deny Earle's fervor, though he has been accused of overreaching at times. One of the low points of his career took place in 1993 when he pursued Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for allegedly misusing state telephones for political purposes. When the judge questioned whether some of Earle's evidence was admissible, Earle asked that the case be dismissed. The judge refused and instructed jurors to acquit Hutchison.
