Doing things right

Whatever opinion you may have about Texas AG Paxton's lawsuits against the Biden administration, or Paxton as a man, I maintain that it's important to solve political problems at the ballot box and legal problems with due process in court. These are two recent articles, both written before the acquittal vote in his impeachment trial, that ably explain the insufficiency of the evidence against Mr. Paxton.

The Texas AG has enemies, and I can't be sure that some of them don't have a point. If their main problem is his politics, however, they're off base in their chosen tactics. His politics clearly enjoy the support of Texas voters, and the complaints against him clearly have never been sufficient to convince voters. After years of a whisper campaign implying that they had their enemy on some kind of legal infractions, the best they could come up with to impeach him with was a lot of surmises that fell apart as soon as someone bothered to cross-examine the witnesses. As for the argument that we should trust the FBI about any part of the investigation, I can only laugh. That ship has sailed.
on

2 comments:

  1. Grim2:47 PM

    I admit that I have not followed the case. On the “mind your own business” principle, I figure Texans can handle their own.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gringo12:39 AM

    I didn't pay much attention either, even though I am a long-time Texas resident. My immediate reaction on skimming the post was shame- that I didn't keep up with local events. Then a name came to my mind: Ronnie Earle, who was Travis County (Austin) DA for 30 years. Which goes a long way towards explaining why I didn't pay attention.

    From the Austin American Statesman: BREAKING (2020): Former Travis County DA Ronnie Earle has died.
    Through the county's Public Integrity Unit, which he founded, Earle prosecuted some of the state's top politicians — including then-Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, then-U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay — with mixed success.

    A jury acquitted Mattox and the case against Hutchison became a high-profile failure when charges were dismissed. DeLay was convicted of a money laundering charge, but that conviction was later overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

    Interesting that the Statesman said that Ronnie Earle had "mixed success" when none of the three cases resulted in convictions. From another POV, Ronnie Earle was VERY successful, as he made life difficult for Republican poobahs.

    There has been in the post 2016 era a lot of talk about Democrats waging "lawfare" against Republicans. Looks to me like Ronnie Earle pioneered "lawfare."

    ReplyDelete