Texas Retribution Went National: The Wall Street Journal

Great editorial on the whole Delay scandal:

The Majority Leader also deserves the presumption of innocence because of Mr. Earle's guilty past. A liberal Democrat, he has a history of indicting political enemies, Democrat and Republican, on flimsy evidence that didn't hold up in court. In the mid-1980s, he indicted Attorney General Jim Mattox, a rival of his ally Ann Richards, on bribery charges. Mr. Mattox was acquitted and won re-election. In 1993, he indicted Kay Bailey Hutchison, who'd just been elected to the U.S. Senate, on charges of misconduct and records tampering. Mr. Earle was forced to drop the case even before it went to trial. Earlier this year, the prosecutor delivered a widely criticized speech at a Democratic fund-raiser in which he compared his prosecutorial targets to "Mussolini and his fascists" and all but declared that he had Mr. DeLay in his sights.As for political motive, Mr. DeLay has earned the wrath of Democrats by beating them time and again at their own game. His re-redistricting of the Texas Congressional delegation before the 2004 election helped turn six House seats over to the GOP. Without his prodding, the House would never have voted to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998. And his fund-raising and arm-twisting have kept the GOP House majority both unified and re-elected for a decade.

Partisan hack in the guise of District Attorney. Texas politics writ large.