Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is a Republican. If his generic awfulness—or the fact that he sued to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election—weren’t enough to clue you in, you’d know it instantly based on this fact alone: He was charged with a felony seven years ago and still hasn’t stood trial.
We need some sort of Republican-to-Democrat crime conversion chart just to know where we stand when GOPsters flout the rule of law and common decency. Because the Republican Party is starting to look like an organized crime syndicate where you have to do something egregiously evil and illegal before they teach you the secret handshake. (The secret being that at least one of the parties has tested positive for COVID-19 and/or monkeypox but decided not to tell anyone.)
I’m no legal expert, but I assume, for media scandal purposes anyway, the baseline GOP conversion rate would be: “one tan suit at a presidential press conference = one secret $130,000 hush-money payoff to a porn star + one months-long campaign to permanently end American democracy.” Though to be honest, you may need to toss in a baker’s dozen of sexual assault accusations to the right side of that equation to further balance it out. The media’s attention span is kind of, well, short.
That said, the Associated Press is resurrecting some of Paxton’s greatest hits as he appears poised to defeat Bush family scion George P. Bumbles in Tuesday’s primary to determine the GOP’s nominee for Texas attorney general.
Associated Press:
The twists and turns of how the Republican, who is on the cusp of winning the GOP nomination for a third term Tuesday, has yet to have his day in court after being indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015 has little comparison in American politics. And along the way, it has upended what it means to be a compromised officeholder in Texas.
Four different judges have overseen his case at some point. Where a trial would happen — if it ever does — has ping-ponged from Dallas to Houston to Dallas again. All the while, other clouds have gathered over Paxton: the FBI is investigating him over separate accusations of corruption, and the State Bar of Texas is weighing possible reprimands over his attempts to baselessly overturn the 2020 election.
Well, that’s okay. These days, all a Republican needs to do to defuse a scandal is mumble something about critical race theory or “wokeness” and they’re pretty much in the clear in the eyes of the base. And trying to end American democracy to install a venal orange Jell-O mold for another four years is practically a prerequisite for electoral success in red states now (except for Georgia—maybe).
Andrew Wheat, the research director for Texans for Public Justice, which filed a complaint against Paxton in 2014, told the AP that he wondered if the trial would ever happen. “And by the time it does, if it ever does, will it have any significance left to it?” he asked. Well, it could for Paxton, who would face five to 99 years in prison if he were ever convicted. But it should matter to Texas voters, who returned Paxton to office in 2018 despite these charges hanging over him like the Pewter Cheese Knife of Damocles.
Obviously it doesn’t, despite the seriousness of the accusations:
The indictments accuse Paxton of defrauding investors in a Dallas-area tech startup by not disclosing he was being paid by the company, called Servergy, to recruit them. The indictments were handed up just months after Paxton was sworn in as Texas’ top law enforcement officer.
Nothing like having a likely felon as your top law enforcement official. What’s next? Sending a corrupt and compromised Russian agent to the White House? Come on now.
The Associated Press reports that “no single reason” can explain the delays, but notes that Paxton is an example of “how powerful allies and acts of God can drag out career-threatening criminal charges” while allowing seemingly tainted politicians to continue winning elections.
Meanwhile, the primary for the Lone Star State’s top cop itself is an indication of how much political clout the Bush family has lost to the mouth-breathing MAGA mites, even in Texas. George P. Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jebsclamation Point Bush, has been furiously running attack ads against Paxton in an attempt to reverse his flagging fortunes, but Paxton nevertheless appears poised to win. Bush even groveled for Donald Trump’s endorsement despite the latter’s ugly attacks on Bush’s own father. Trump ultimately backed Paxton—because all else being equal, why not back the Republican with the long-festering felony indictment? Paxton also tried to improperly overturn the election on Trump’s behalf, and that kind of disloyalty to the nation sends a frisson of delight up Trump’s leg.
Meanwhile, Democrats such as state Rep. Gene Wu, who served three years as a prosecutor, appear alarmed by these delays. Wu noted that even high-level cases tend to go to trial in at least two or three years.
“There is a legitimate criminal violation and justice is not being served because the people being charged have money and they have power,” Wu said.
Yeah. Welcome to America, circa 2022, Wu. This is par for the course in Republican circles now—which is an appropriate turn of phrase, I suppose, since we all know how much Donald Trump and his ilk like to cheat at golf.
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