Ronnie Earle, Inc.

Looks like Texas Dem persecutor Ronnie Earle's partisan crusade against House Majority Leader Tom "The Hammer" DeLay isn't quite as idealistic as he wanted us to believe:

According to National Review's Byron York, Earle dropped felony charges against several corporations indicted in that probe in return for the corporations' agreement to make five- and six-figure contributions to one of Earle's pet causes.

He reports that of the eight corporations indicted in the probe on charges that they made contributions to DeLay's political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), in violation of Texas law that forbids corporations to give money to political campaigns, Earle dropped the charges against four of the firms after the companies pledged to contribute to a program designed to publicize Earle's belief that corporate involvement in politics is harmful to American democracy.

York identified the four corporations as retail giant Sears, the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel, the Internet company Questerra, and the collection company Diversified Collection Services. He quoted legal observers who called the arrangement an unusual resolution to a criminal case, at least in Texas, where the matter is being prosecuted.

"I don't think you're going to find anybody who will say it's a common practice," Jack Strickland, a Fort Worth lawyer who serves as vice-chairman of the criminal-justice section of the Texas State Bar, told York.

Earle himself admitted that he has never settled a case in a similar fashion during his years as Travis County district attorney, leading DeLay's allies to call Earle's action "dollars for dismissals."

I guess "corporate involvement in politics" isn't so bad after all if it's your pocket into which their dough is flowing. As memory serves, I believe that used to be known as extortion, which means that Earle is completely wasting his natural talents tort-lawyering on the compartively miserly taxpayer's nickel when he could be reaping Opie Edwards-magnitude paydays doing it under his own shingle.

Might as well, seeing as how his Republican scalp cupboard is still awfully bare.