Tom DeLay: A Lifer?

This time last week he was one of the most powerful, self-righteous, unaccountable “leaders” of our government — “The Hammer.” Today he has two indictments against him. One of those charges carries a possible life term in prison if he’s convicted.

Is this a great country or what? We’re a nation of laws, not men. Every once in awhile (now more than ever) this fact needs to be driven home. A nation of laws, not men. It isn’t just an empty phrase we memorized in high school history class.

So far there haven’t been enough briberies, crony appointments and Patriot Acts to derail our democracy. Yet. Let’s keep it that way. Richard Nixon, King George 41 and Newt Gingrich (among others) all thought they were invincible and flew too close to the sun. Now it’s DeLay’s turn.

His two newest charges are money laundering (punishable by up to life in prison) and conspiring to launder money (up to 20 years). Life has no sympathy for derailed would-be dictators. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Calling all inmates: Fresh Meat!!

DeLay has been flailing and spouting more and more frantically. If he were an Iraqi insurgent, Bush and Cheney would be saying “he’s on his last legs.” “See how desperate he is — he’s losing.”

DeLay said in a statement: “Ronnie Earle has stooped to a new low with his brand of prosecutorial abuse. He is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a ‘do-over’ since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate. This is an abomination of justice.”

“An abomination of justice”? Some people might think that DeLay’s corrupt, above-the-law, power-crazed political career was “an abomination of justice.”