Yeah, Yeah, Here’s the Deal UPDATED
Okay, let’s get some background for folks from foreign states and those who do not eat politics and poop schadenfreude.
Rosemary Lehmberg is the Democratic Travis County District Attorney. The Travis County (think: Austin) DA prosecutes public corruption all over Texas. Rosemary got arrested for DWI. It was not her finest hour. She plead guilty and got 45 days in jail for a misdemeanor DWI.
Rick Perry knows the GOP has some ethics problems. For example, their current candidate for Attorney General is being investigated for a violation of a state securities law. So, Rick would love to put a safe Republican in that office.
Soooooo, Perry threatens to veto funds for the public corruption office if Rosemary doesn’t resign. She calls his bluff. Rumor has it that he even offered her another state job if she would just step down and let him appoint her replacement.
That’s called abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. Both are felonies.
We get a special prosecutor a year ago who goes to the grand jury.
And that brings us to April of this year, the last time I wrote about it.
My biggest hope is that Tom DeLay and Rick Perry get to share a prison cell.
I came to Austin for Tom’s trial and we had a little party the night before sentencing. I will do the same thing with Rick Perry so start saving up barbeque and hotel room money.
More to come. My phone is ringing a lot.
UPDATE: Hey, watch the Executive Director of the Texas Democratic Party get interviewed.
UPDATE: Tomorrow I will talk to you about the cancer fund and why Rick Perry didn’t want the Travis County DA investigating that. By the way, he did not get indicted for asking her to step down. He got indicted for extorting her to step down. He did not ask. He extorted.
Yessssss!
Love Love LOVE the indictment! I especially enjoyed this at the end:
“AGAINST THE PEACE AND DIGNITY OF THE STATE OF TEXAS”
I don’t know if all indictments in Texas end with that phrase but it’s just too perfect!
1Dignity? Dignity? Maybe it’s time Texas got some.
2I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning. It smells like . . . Victory!
3I’ve always preferred Republicans to take office with the grand jury at work. Saves time later.
Reminder to Governor Perry: soap on a rope should now be high on your gifts wish list. Just sayin’…
4Sarah Palin to the rescue with her good ally Kim Jong-un at the Lube Factory. She can use her contact to send pRicky his first prison care package.
http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/v652g6/smile-file—kim-jong-un-at-the-lube-factory
5This was one of the few things Perry did right. Lehmberg is a useless drunk who should not be in office. Anyone who blows 0.24 and can still walk has a serious alcohol problem. There’s no way I would entrust the government investigation unit to someone with Lehmberg’s issues.
6Mr. Moderate. So, it’s okay for the Governor of Texas to extort people? Cool. I’m running for Governor.
7Oh, looking for the year George bush joined AA.
8Are you sure your name shouldn’t be Mr. (Im)moderate?
My friend says she will dance naked in the streets if Rick gets convicted and sentenced to jail time.
9YEs I must admit, I got some very Nasty looks down at the AA when my phone, which was silenced Mind you, Flashed on with the NY times Breaking news about the Indictment, and I yelled HA!!!!!!!
10Had to make yet more amends…..ODAAT
Juanita Jean, if you run for Governor of Texas, we’d need to relocate to Texas just so we could vote for you.
Know of any ranches for sale, like maybe Dubya’s? Maybe I can win his in a class action default judgement.
11Friendly Alaskans and South Dakotans are aware of Perry’s little problem,thanks to the internet.
12JJ, you could gloat for Texas (meaning if there were a competition, you’d be on the state team), but you deserve it.
I hope they nail his nadgers to the wall.
13My friend Chuck texted me: And Rick always seemed to prefer that gated community he lived in more than the mansion. Now he’ll have gates and his own border security. If only he could get the prison population to secede…”
Couldn’t have said it better. Although I could say something about Bubba and the boys liking good hair and sexy glasses. But that wouldn’t be prudent.
14Do Texas prisons have cheerleading squads? Oddly, that was one of my first thoughts.
15Things are looking up. PRick deserves this, let’s hope it dashes his bid for the presidency. Lmao, Gov Goodhair will have lots of “friends” in prison. No need to hide anymore.
16I’m from California but this news has made my day. What a nasty piece of work Perry is – Texas deserves much better. VOTE!
17Such delicious news on a Friday night.
18Simply made my…otherwise somewhat boring…day!!! Regardless of the outcome, it should signal an “adios 2016” moment. Of course, with that, we all will lose some comedic moments.
19Mike, your friend will dance all night to this number: 109.
Yes sir, 10×10 + 3×3 years for pRick in a 4×8.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/08/15/rick-perry-facing-109-years-prison-indicted-abuse-power.html
20Dear SomeEcards,
21I find myself in desperate need of a “Congratulations! Your Governor has just been indicted!” card. Between, Bob McDonald, Chris Christy, Rick Perry, and quite possibly Sam Brownback I am simply unable to find enough appropriate greeting cards to fill the bill! Please, help a sister out!
Whether or not he is convicted, his career is over.
Rick Perry will never be elected to another public office. Period.
Hoooooray!
22“My biggest hope is that Tom DeLay and Rick Perry get to share a prison cell.”
I’m hoping for dancing – just because…. *wink*
23My daughter has a lot of friends in the Midwest – Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri. Last night her Facebook page lit up with posts about this. It was in the Des Moines Register and several of the other newspapers in Iowa – where Perry is right now. I bet he comes home soon.
24I keep thinking of the Greeks: tragedy – a “great” person brought to ruin as a consequence of a character flaw or a conflict with an overpowering force such as fate or society. And hubris, which Perry has plenty of! Sort of a mixed metaphor here, but “hoist with his own petard” comes to mind also.
My local Houston paper has some “analysis” on what they think Governor pRick should do now.
I can’t read it, because you have to pay money to do so, and I refuse to pay anything to read the local paper.
I would, however, suggest to them that if they would do more investigative reporting on all the politicians in the State of Texas, they would have to do less “analysis” on the ones who are so damned corrupt they finally get caught.
25http://tinyurl.com/k25swc7
Jeanne Devon from the Mudflats sent me this. Something about how wingnut guvs are rock stars. I wonder if that includes busting big rocks into smaller rocks?
26Love the good news from Austin, hope they nail him!
27I’ve wondered ever since if someone spiked Lemburgh’s water bottle. Perry was so damned eager to get rid of her, and the GOP goons are willing to peek in an old lady’s bathroom window and surprise her getting out of her own shower…what’s so hard about spiking a drink? Yes, I know some women do drink to excess, but it just seemed fishy that the timing was so perfect for Perry and so bad for her.
As for Mr. Moderate, does he apply his standard to every Texas pol who’s been stopped and found over the limit? Or only Democrats? Or only women? Heck, Dubya wrecked a car while drunk…if never trusting the person with a responsible job after driving really drunk, I sure hope Moderate never voted for him.
28Always wondered about that “traffic stop” involving Lembaugh. Was someone tailing her all night?
Also, Lembaugh’s reaction of toughing it out and in your face guv is not something that automatically comes to mind of someone who has just had this kind of experience. It sounds more like someone who has been set up and is fighting back.
29Abbott has been Perry’s legal sidekick through all this. You think anyone can find something grand jury worthy during this time?
30Lots of great writing material in the Perry/Abbott saga, along with the Koch bros and other super duper rich folks. Anyone ever heard of Farris and Dan Wilks? I wonder if Perry is friends with them.
31If found guilty, Perry could be face up to 109 years in prison. He’ll surrender to the Travis County Jail where he will be fingerprinted and have a mugshot taken. According to the Associated Press, his defense attorney David L. Botsford is being paid $450 per hour with state funds.
32Hey David,
At the Governor’s alma mater, those Aggie cheerleaders are called ‘yell leaders’. For whatever reason(s).
33Can anyone explain why the State lege didn’t just remove the funding during the budget hearings?
34Marge Wood, Farris and Dan Wilks are apparently buying up huge tracts of land to reinvigorate the hydraulic companies they sold. We need an invigorated EPA with some teeth to prevent these ecological fools from destroying more than what they have already destroyed.
Eminent Domain law is used to strip responsible ranchers and farmers to accommodate the KeystoneXL pipeline. That is so wrong. Eminent Domain needs to be focused on the Wilks parasites to strip them of the lands they intend to destroy.
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