The Texas governor's claims that he
was indicted for merely exercising his veto power is a bunch of hokum.
Lawyers
will tell you that any good prosecutor could convince a grand jury to indict a
ham sandwich.
Well,
meet that ham sandwich: Governor Rick Perry. He’s a real ham — only not as
smart.
A
Texas grand jury indicted Perry, charging the Republican with official abuse of
power. Specifically, he’s accused of threatening to veto all state funding for
a public integrity unit. Among other things, that office was investigating
corrupt favoritism in one of the governor’s pet projects.
Perry
was trying to muscle out of office the woman who is the duly elected head of
that unit, presumably to halt its inquiry. Leave office, he publicly barked at
her, or I’ll take away all your money. She didn’t, and he did.
Not
smart, for that’s an illegal quid pro quo, much like linking a campaign
donation to an official favor. This led to the selection of a judge, the
appointment of a special prosecutor, the establishment of a grand jury and
the indictment of the gubernatorial ham sandwich.
Thuggish
as that is, the national media have mostly swallowed Perry’s hokum that he’s
the victim, indicted for nothing more than exercising his veto power. It’s
crude politics, Rick howled, as he turned his courthouse mug shot moment into a
raucous Republican political rally.
Perry
has hornswoggled the pundits, but don’t let them fool you. This is serious.
Again,
the issue isn’t Perry’s veto, but his linking of a veto threat to his effort to
oust an elected public official. His hamming it up about being a poor victim of
Democrats doesn’t withstand scrutiny.
The judge who appointed the prosecutor is
a Republican. And the prosecutor himself was nominated to federal office
by President George H.W. Bush and endorsed by two Texas Republican
senators.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and
public speaker. He’s also editor of the populist newsletter, The
Hightower Lowdown. OtherWords.org