On actions out of fear

You know a party in court proceedings has nothing to support it when it can't think of any better strategy than to try to get the opposing counsel kicked off the case. Which leads nicely into the latest on Tom DeLay:

Lawyers for former House Republican leader Tom DeLay subpoenaed Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle on Tuesday as part of a campaign to discredit indictments charging DeLay with breaking Texas campaign finance laws.

The subpoena seeks to get Earle and two of his assistants to testify in court in Austin, Texas about whether they improperly sought charges against DeLay, a spokeswoman for DeLay said.

Now, if DeLay is successful in getting Earle and his assistants to testify, the effect won't be to put an end to the charge (unless there actually is something to the claim of impropriety, which is highly unlikely given Earle's non-partisan track record).

But it would make it likely that Earle would have to give way to another prosecutor, since it's generally a breach of ethics for a lawyer to remain as counsel having been a witness in any controversial part of a proceeding. And if new prosecutors were forced to start over with the same evidence, DeLay might buy himself some more time before facing the charges - maybe all the way to the 2006 election.

In the political arena, the Republicans have been all too successful at claiming that the truth is merely partisan opposition to them. But there's no reason for that claim to win any backing when it comes to the law. Presumably the judge in charge will have the choice whether or not to grant DeLay the subpoena, and unless there's some serious evidence in support of it (and no, triple hearsay from the echo chamber doesn't count), it should be considered nothing less than an abuse of process.

Whether or not DeLay pushes Earle off the case, he'll eventually have to answer for his actions. What's unclear now is whether the court will allow DeLay to live up to his name in pushing back the inevitable.