Democrats are celebrating the felony conviction of Tom Delay. But this verdict may ultimately have more negative impact on Democrats than they expect. It is important to understand what Tom Delay did to put this in perspective. In Texas, corporate business is prohibited from donating to specific candidates. So, Delay collected funds from corporate business owners for his political pact. He made a donation to the Republican National Committee. The Republican National Committee donated money to Republican candidates that Delay supported. This really made Democrats mad, primarily because Delay was extremely successful in getting Republicans elected to the Texas legislature. In fact, one suspects that the jury was largely democratic, because during the trial prosecutors constantly accused Delay of manipulating the redistricting to get Republicans elected. That gave Republicans control of re-districting and helped increase the Republican majority in congress. The major crime that Tom Delay committed, in the eyes of the prosecutor, was getting Republicans elected.
The problem for Democrats is that they have done the exact same thing, only worse, all over the country. Tom Delay is hardly the only one to move some funds around. There have been reports of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama receiving contributions from overseas sources and transferring those funds to legitimate sources. If these reports are true, Delay may look like an amateur compared to the fat cat Democratic machine. If tracking the source of contributions is going to result in felony convictions that I would guess a lot of high ranking Democrats should be more than a little nervous.
There has been a long history of prosecutors gaining recognition by taking on high profile cases. That is how Rudi Giuliani built his resume. There are prosecutors all over the country who have been watching this case with great interest. Right now Democrats are thrilled that Delay has a felony conviction. But in the end, they could reap the whirlwind if prosecutors start investigation similar political gimmicks by Democrats.
TDM