“Money is absolutely fungible. It’s like beans.”

That’s quoting Senior District Judge Pat Priest, the judge hearing Tom DeLay’s money laundering trial. It was made out of earshot of the jury to Tom DeLay’s hotshot lawyer Dick DeGuerin this past week.

And if I understand the meaning of the words correctly, I think Tom DeLay needs to make plans for a two year vacation. I think the judge has already made a decision on the guilt or innocence of Tom DeLay, and now it’s simply up to the jurors to come to the same conclusion.

What the judge is essentially saying, something that is completely logical and reasonable, is that once you have money you can exchange it freely. It doesn’t matter what pocket it comes from, money is money and if you use it to gain advantage in an election by violating election laws, then that’s a crime.

In essence, the judge came to that conclusion five years ago when he ruled on the defense’s position back then, the same one they continue to argue last week.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Priest said he had already ruled on the issue in 2005 when the defense wanted the charges dismissed.”

Now all it takes is some appropriate instructions to the jury and we have won a moral victory. And maybe we can say that what started in Texas, the monetization of democracy in America, ends in Texas.

Side Note.

And in my research in this story this morning I made another startling discovery. I discovered that Tom DeLay’s daughter, Danielle, who testified at her father’s trial last week in her capacity as her father’s underpaid campaign manager and event planner for her father’s PACs (she earned only 60 grand as the former, and only 84 – 5 organizing PAC functions) is now a 6th grade science teacher.

A 6th grade science teacher.

I guess the fact that she is still underpaid is the only common theme between her present and her former jobs.