"I have in my hand a list…"

My colleague at the Gadflyer, Paul Waldman, has a dead-on post, which I'm taking the liberty of re-posting here in it's entirety:

From the NY Times:

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Mr. DeLay said in an interview on CNN that he had evidence to show that the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, and other prominent Democrats had pressured the Travis County district attorney, Ronnie Earle, also a Democrat, to pursue the indictment.

"I'm sure that they worked closely with Ronnie Earle on this strategy," he said, adding that he would make the evidence public "when it's timely."

Mr. Earle, a longtime prosecutor who has brought criminal charges against many other Texas politicians, Democrats and Republicans, did not return telephone calls. A spokeswoman for Ms. Pelosi, Jennifer Crider, said, "DeLay's allegations have absolutely no basis in fact and appear to be the desperate acts of a desperate man trying to save his political career."

Hmm, where have we heard that kind of thing before? I've got the evidence, I'm just not going to let you see it. Oh yeah - Joe McCarthy.

Many people understand this, but it bears repeating: The Republicans have one playbook to work from on controversies like this one. It reads, "Attack, attack, attack." They will be going after Ronnie Earl with a vicious campaign of character assassination. Unfortunately for them, Earl seems to be one tough son of a bitch who doesn't have much to lose (he's soon to retire) and isn't going to back down.

Paul's right, but he wasn't aware of the evidence I've obtained that shows Earle has, in fact, worked closely with the Republican leadership in the past.

He was advancing their partisan agenda when he went after, er … himself for violating campaign finance rules.

That from Knight-Ridder, via the Contra Costa Times:

Since taking office in 1977, Earle has won indictments against more than 10 state leaders, including a state Supreme Court justice, a House speaker, an attorney general, a state treasurer, a state senator and several state representatives -- all Democrats.

He also led cases against three Republicans -- U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and two state representatives. Hutchison was indicted on ethics charges in connection with activities while she was state treasurer; she was found not guilty. And in 1983, Earle indicted himself on a misdemeanor charge of failing to properly file campaign finance reports -- and paid a $200 fine.

It was the leadership that put Earle onto the strategy of indicting himself. As I said, I have evidence of that fact right here in my hand, which I'll release just as soon as it's timely to do so.