WaPo offers more circumstantial on Delay

This Morning, the WaPo offers a little more circumstantial evidence against Tom Delay.

Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) met for at least 30 minutes with the top fundraiser of his Texas political action committee on Oct. 2, 2002, the same day that the Republican National Committee in Washington set in motion a series of financial transactions at the heart of the money-laundering and conspiracy case against DeLay.

During the meeting at his Capitol office, DeLay conferred with James W. Ellis, the head of his principal fundraising committee in Washington and his chief fundraiser in Texas. Ellis had earlier given the Republican National Committee a check for $190,000 drawn mostly from corporate contributions. The same day as the meeting, the RNC ordered $190,000 worth of checks sent to seven Republican legislative candidates in Texas. ......

The next day, according to the indictment, Ellis delivered the check to the Republican National State Elections Committee, an arm of the RNC, and also provided it "with a document that contained the names of several candidates." He also "requested and proposed" how much each candidate should receive, the indictment said.

And one more quick aside. From living in Texas and watching Dick Deguerin work all these years, I've come to two conclusions. 1) Deguerin is a hell of a defense lawyer, so there is a fair chance he will get Delay off. 2) Generally, because of his extreme cost, people only hire Deguerin when they're guilty.