Who the hell is Ronnie Earle?
Gillian3
913 Posts
That's the title of an article about Earle which appeared in Esquire in March, 2005, well in advance of today's uproar regarding DeLay. The opinion of the author seems to be that Earle just doesn't like corruption, no matter where it is or who is doing it. It is true that Earle, a Democrat, has indicted far more Democrats than Republicans so it is interesting to see him being cast as "partisan". I have been interested in how many of the indictments were successfully prosecuted. The article gives a partial answer. Here are three paragraphs from the article - the last is not consecutive.
"A couple of years after he became DA, he launched an investigation into the suspected expense-report shenanigans of state comptroller Bob Bullock, who would later be Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock, lionized as a paragon of bipartisan virtue by George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign by remembered in Texas as a cranky old bastard. In fact, Earle's inquiry made Bullock so mad that one night in a bar called the Cloak Room he flashed a pistol and said he was going to track Earle down and shoot him. Earle came back fighting, convincing the legislature to give him money for a political-corruption team called the Public Integrity Unit. He went on to investigate a state treasurer for using government workers on campaign tasks, a state attorney general for allegedly threatening a law firm that had crossed his sister, a state land commissioner for using government phones to make campaign calls for Bill Clinton. He nailed a Speaker of the Texas House for failures of financial disclosure. After one of his investigations, a state supreme-court justice named Don Yarbrough got a five year sentence for perjury and fled to Grenada."
"Every one of these was a Democrat - members of his own party (italics). So all they could do was try to dismiss him, calling him crazy or "the hippie DA." Bob Bullock said, "'Ronnie Earle only bathes and shaves in election years.'"
"Some years later, we were prosecuting the Speaker of the House and the House was gonna take away my funding. So I went to Bob Bullock's house to ask him for help. And he was chain-smoking, and he looked at me through a haze of cigarette smoke and said, "You know when you investigated me all those years ago?' I said, 'yes sir'. He said, 'I was guilty as hell.'"
"A couple of years after he became DA, he launched an investigation into the suspected expense-report shenanigans of state comptroller Bob Bullock, who would later be Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock, lionized as a paragon of bipartisan virtue by George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential campaign by remembered in Texas as a cranky old bastard. In fact, Earle's inquiry made Bullock so mad that one night in a bar called the Cloak Room he flashed a pistol and said he was going to track Earle down and shoot him. Earle came back fighting, convincing the legislature to give him money for a political-corruption team called the Public Integrity Unit. He went on to investigate a state treasurer for using government workers on campaign tasks, a state attorney general for allegedly threatening a law firm that had crossed his sister, a state land commissioner for using government phones to make campaign calls for Bill Clinton. He nailed a Speaker of the Texas House for failures of financial disclosure. After one of his investigations, a state supreme-court justice named Don Yarbrough got a five year sentence for perjury and fled to Grenada."
"Every one of these was a Democrat - members of his own party (italics). So all they could do was try to dismiss him, calling him crazy or "the hippie DA." Bob Bullock said, "'Ronnie Earle only bathes and shaves in election years.'"
"Some years later, we were prosecuting the Speaker of the House and the House was gonna take away my funding. So I went to Bob Bullock's house to ask him for help. And he was chain-smoking, and he looked at me through a haze of cigarette smoke and said, "You know when you investigated me all those years ago?' I said, 'yes sir'. He said, 'I was guilty as hell.'"
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p.s. I've been to the Cloak Room a time or two. It offers the advantage of being across the street from the capitol building and, therefore, is within easy staggering distance of the seat of state government. Cuts down on DWI's during the session.