Judge declines to rule immediately in DeLay case

Folks--It's time for another episode of The Tom DeLay Comedy Hour! This is from the CNN.Com website:

AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- The judge in the money-laundering and conspiracy case against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay declined to rule Tuesday on a motion to dismiss the charges against the Texas Republican, saying he would need two weeks before he came to a decision.

"I had a pretty good idea 24 hours ago what I thought about this case. Having listened to some pretty good lawyers, I'm confused," said Senior Judge Pat Priest.

DeLay has maintained his innocence and asked for a speedy trial if he is unable to get the charges dismissed.

But Priest said that if the charges stand, "I doubt very seriously we can take this case to trial before the end of the year."

Earlier Tuesday, DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, had asked the judge to throw out the money-laundering and conspiracy charges against his client and two co-defendants.

"No crime occurred, and no crime was charged," Dick DeGuerin told the judge as the Travis County district court hearing began.

Priest came out of retirement to preside over the case after an earlier judge was removed amid defense accusations that he was a partisan Democrat.

OH DEAR! Looks like Tom DeLay's not going to have a Happy Thanksgiving this week! DeLay's lawyers have been trying every legal trick they can find to have the case thrown out--including some new tricks such as shopping for politically-correct judges. So now they have this new trick of trying to throw DeLay's case out of court so that DeLay can get back to his job as House Majority Leader. Continuing on with the story:

The case concerns the 2002 transfer of $190,000 in corporate money from a political action committee created by DeLay to the national Republican Party in Washington, which then sent $190,000 back to Texas Republican state candidates.

It is illegal under Texas law for corporations to contribute to political campaigns, but DeGuerin argued that the money sent to the RNC was not the same money as was returned to Texas, so no violation occurred.

He also argued that the state law under which the charges were filed did not take effect until 2003.

Wait a minute? DeGuerin is saying that the $190,000 corporate money that DeLay received for the national Republican Party is not the same $190,000 that was sent to the Texas Republican state candidates? It is not the same money? What was different about the money? DeGuerin, are you saying they were different dollar bills? Perhaps the $190,000 in corporate money was in $20 dollar denominations, while the $190,000 to the Texas Republicans for state was in $5 denominations? Is that what you're saying? Or perhaps the serial numbers on those bills were different? Is that what you're saying? So if the money goes in and out of the same account, but they are different dollar bills, does that make them different? What a concept! We could make this into an economically viable business plan--corporate sponsored money laundering! We'll take your old, worn-out dollar bills and clean them up, providing you with fresh, clean, innocent new dollar bills. So bring in all your tired, old corporate PAC donations, your drug smuggling profits, and your stolen Iraqi reconstruction funds--we'll convert them into fresh, new, squeaky-clean dollar bills. And it's 100 percent legally guaranteed!