Tom DeLay, Fox News and the Republican media machine have done an effective job in portraying his indictment as some kind of set up by an out-of-control partisan prosecutor. If this goes any further it could actually help him by making `the Hammer' into a victim in the drama.
The problem is they have a little ammunition. The written indictment is vague. The evidence has yet to be revealed. The prosecutor is a Democrat who failed to nail Hutchinson. And his attorney is good. Explaining exactly what he is alleged to have done is more complicated than most government corruption like taking a kick back on a government contract.
Before this "DeLay The Victim" spinning goes any further he's got to questioned on the Testimony Lie.
DeLay publicly tried to get sympathy for his cause by saying that he was not allowed the opportunity to defend himself by testifying in front of the grand jury. That's a basic problem that the casual political watcher can relate to. A one-sided indictment. Those jurors only heard one side of the story and that mean prosecutor would not let them hear from DeLay.
But Delay way overstepped the bounds of credibility with his plea. He was asked to testify but refused. The grand jury foreman now says that the grand jurors were waiting for him to testify - that's why they waited until the last day to issue the indictment.
From a legal-strategy standpoint, it was probably the smart thing for him not to testify but politically it was not. But more damaging is that he tried to manipulate the fact that he did not testify to further the case that he is an abused victim.
Interviewers must nail him in the days ahead as to why he said he was not allowed to testify when in fact he was asked to testify. When the casual political watcher hears that he pleaded for sympathy when it was his strategic legal move not to testify, the victim image will start to fade.
"But if you are entirely innocent why did you refuse to testify and avoid this problem? Why not clear your name?"
