No More Delay for DeLay

My former congressman, Tom DeLay, a convicted felon, will have his day in court minus one Democratic Appeals Court Justice, it seems. According to this American-Statesman article, DeLay’s appeals attorney, Brian Wice, managed to get Justice Diane Henson thrown off the case when he managed to get the Chief Justice of the 3^rd Court of Appeals to bring in a Republican Justice to decide whether Justice Henson’s previous remarks were so prejudicial that she could not fairly decide Tom DeLay’s money laundering appeals case.

Prejudicial because Justice Henson reported to the 2006 convention that DeLay’s appeal would come to her court, a no-brainer, and that Texas courts were “filled…with extremists, with people that are controlled by special interests, big insurance companies and big corporations.”

Another no-brainer and the simple truth to anyone of any political stripe who watches the Texas courts.

So for uttering these two truths, Justice Henson was removed from the case in order to allow another 3^rd justice to hear the appeal, supposedly a Republican one.

This is a court more to Tom DeLay’s liking.

However, DeLay, ever the political animal, has it wrong again.

It’s not about politics anymore. It’s about putting an end to the bad old days of Republican abuse of power that Republicans desperately want to sweep under the rug and forget. Republican justice or no, this case will be decided by the facts, and may be colored by a desire by Republicans to put this all in the past rather than dredge up old wounds and give Democrats more political fodder in the fall.

In short, Tom DeLay delayed his appeals trial to get a “fairer court” and may have just  shot himself in the foot again, as is his habit. No one cares about exonerating Ton DeLay anymore.

Mostly they all just wish he would just go away.

Or go back to Virginia, whatever fits.