In March 2006 I wrote a long cover story for TEXAS MONTHLY about former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. This occurred at a time when Travis County DA Ronnie Earle was prosecuting DeLay for ethics infractions. It was a complicated case that involved swaps of money between DeLay and the Republican National Committee that prosecutors said amounted to money laundering. Today the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the verdict in the case. I think DeLay was a terrible public servant who was bad for the Republican party and bad for America, but as I wrote in my November 2005 column, “I’d feel a lot better [about the charges against DeLay] if I knew exactly what he did that was wrong.” Perhaps the Court of Criminal Appeals had the same reaction.
