DeLay's hopes dashed for quick end to case

From the Houston Chronicle:

Priest dismissed charges of conspiracy to violate the state election code but upheld a money laundering indictment against DeLay and two of his associates: Jim Ellis and John Colyandro. They were charged in connection with spending corporate money in the 2002 legislative races.

And

DeLay's legal team, headed by Dick DeGuerin of Houston, had challenged the indictments on numerous legal issues, but DeGuerin called two the "silver bullets."

Those points were that the state conspiracy law did not apply to the election code until a year after the 2002 elections.

The other was that the definition of money laundering did not include checks until 2005. TRMPAC transferred the $190,000 in corporate money to the RNC by using a check.

Click here for the rest.

Well, one out of two ain't bad. The dismissal of the conspiracy charge was expected--while unethical, it wasn't actually against the law until after DeLay's conspiratorial activities. The money laundering charge, however, seemed much more solid, and the judge agreed. Really, this is great news. It strikes me as simply a matter of time until DeLay is behind bars. All they've got are bullshit arguments: everybody agrees that the money was transferred; DeGuerin (full disclosure: I shook his hand last summer), a great lawyer, has no choice but to conjure up a slew of technical arguments to defend his client. There's a chance that he could confuse a jury, but there just seems to be so much sleaze surrounding DeLay, I don't think they have a chance in hell.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$