Birmingham Blues

Ya think? If he’s sitting in the pokey, it will be pretty hard to campaign.

Tom DeLay is in court right now, heehawing it up for the cameras. Dick DeGuerin will do everything he can to obfuscate — which is his job as a defense attorney. He’s asking for the judge to recuse himself and asking for a change of venue. DeGuerin is unhappy because Judge Bob Perkins is a Democrat. Well, that’s what happens when states elect judges — you have judges with party affiliations.

The judge is handing off the recusal decision to the presiding judge, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens. As for change of venue, I’m sure DeLay would like to move the trial to the most conservative county in Texas.

CNN is reporting that Dick DeGuerin defended Kay Bailey Hutchison ten years ago and was successful with both recusal and change of venue motions. DeLay will get the best defense money can buy, and he may very well avoid a conviction. But he seems to think he’ll be restored to power immediately if that happens. I’m betting some of the other ambitious Republican leaders will make sure he isn’t. Then we’ll see a major smackdown.

Still wondering why this man is smiling. Maybe the photographer goosed him….

UPDATE: The Smoking Gun has the mugshot. Why is this man smiling?

I guess all the law enforcement officers in Texas can rest easy now. Sure hope someone in Harris County releases that mug shot soon. Meanwhile, we’ll go with this one:

Tom does not look happy.

Hee hee. This is standard procedure, but it still has to be embarrassing for the Hammer. Bond has been set at $10,000 and will be posted in advance so DeLay won’t have to sit in jail. Too bad.

I guess it should come as no surprise that Bush is a big ol’ liar whose primary concern is protecting Karl Rove — and himself.

WASHINGTON - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.

“He made his displeasure known to Karl,” a presidential counselor told The News. “He made his life miserable about this.”

Bush has nevertheless remained doggedly loyal to Rove, who friends and even political adversaries acknowledge is the architect of the President’s rise from baseball owner to leader of the free world….

….A second well-placed source said some recently published reports implying Rove had deceived Bush about his involvement in the Wilson counterattack were incorrect and were leaked by White House aides trying to protect the President.

“Bush did not feel misled so much by Karl and others as believing that they handled it in a ham-handed and bush-league way,” the source said.

Bush has maintained for two years that he didn’t know the identity of the leaker in the Valerie Plame case. Of course, when he testified before Fitzgerald’s grand jury, he wasn’t under oath, so he’s safe from perjury charges. I wonder if there’s any chance Fitzgerald will indict him for obstruction of justice. The plot continues to thicken.