The Mess in Texas (and DC)
Josh Marshall's column in The Hill expresses wonderment that the Dems on Capitol Hill are not all over the situtation with Tom DeLay. He writes a good overview of the Tom Delay portion of the ever widening scandal.
Meanwhile, back in Texas, the videotapes of the area surrounding the Speaker's office and the Department of Public Safety "command post" during the search for the Killer D's shows the state's assisant attorney for criminal justice coming into the command center several times "seeming to be at least partially in charge of the search operation," according to Rep. Kevin Bailey (D-Houston), quoted in the Austin American-Statesman. Bailey says there and in the San Antonio Express News and Houston Chronicle that he is ending his committee's investigation of the role of the DPS in the search. Travis County DA Ronnie Earl (a Democrat and a veteran hunter of GOP corruption) says, "It's a little early to come to (Bailey's) conclusion. We have a few more questions that need answers before we would be comfortable" in ending the grand jury probe. The Dallas Morning News reports that Kimbrough (the assistant AG) had said in February that he was "in virtually constant communication" with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security."
Go Ronnie. Release the hounds.