DeLay - confessed criminal now cries victim

from the Washington Post:

Lawyers for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) tried unsuccessfully in late September to head off felony criminal indictments against the then-majority leader on charges of violating Texas campaign law by signaling that DeLay might plead guilty to a misdemeanor, according to four sources familiar with the events

The lawyers' principal aim was to try to preserve DeLay's leadership position under House Republican rules that bar lawmakers accused of felonies from holding such posts. DeLay was forced to step down as leader on Sept. 28 after the first of two grand jury indictments.

The last-minute negotiations between the lawyers and Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle were arranged after DeLay made what Earle considered a seriously damaging admission about his fundraising activities during an Aug. 17 meeting with the prosecutor in Austin.

At that session, DeLay acknowledged that in 2002 he was informed about and expressed his support for transfers of $190,000 in mostly corporate funds from his Texas political action committee to an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington and then back to Texas, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named.

Those transfers are at the heart of the prosecutor's investigation of the alleged use of corporate funds in the 2002 Texas elections, in violation of state law. In the prosecutor's view, DeLay's admission put him in the middle of a conspiracy not only to violate that law but also to launder money.
...
Another DeLay lawyer, Bill White, confirmed that "we had authority to kick . . . around a bit" the idea of guilty pleas. But he emphasized that DeLay was negotiating with Earle out of duress. His lawyers were trying to figure out: "Is there any way around this so he does not have to give up the leadership?"

First of all, I can't believe that DeLay actually admitted to being involved in money laundering. There is no other way to describe what the Republican PACs did, illegally transfering money to hide its source and funnel it to Republican campaign coffers. But now his lawyer wants to claim that he made the confession under duress? Give me a break! What kind of duress? Physical torture? No. Psychological torture? No. He didn't endure threats of a personal nature, either. No, poor Tom DeLay was under the extreme duress...of having to give up his cushy, money-raking post as Majority Leader. This just shows how nuts the guy is, and how out of touch Republican Party Leadership has become. He has no remorse for the crime; he committed it, it paid off handsomely for Repubs in Texas, and now, if it would allow him to keep his coveted post, he's willing to confess to it. Only the D.A. said No Deal, and now DeLay wants to take it back! Duress my foot. If he wants to know what duress really feels like, he should try to live a month in the life of an average American citizen, balancing the costs of his family's food and health care and trying to make room in the budget for clothes and school supplies, all while living with the uncertainty of not knowing whether your job will still exist next month. The man, if he's as guilty as he admitted, deserves no sympathy: he's a criminal! But then to claim duress at the thought of having to give up his leadership post? What a jerk!