When Politics Becomes More Important Than Justice

On Wednesday, The National Review posted an article about the recent legal case against Texas Governor Rick Perry.

The article reports:

On Wednesday, Texas’s highest criminal court threw out the charges against Rick Perry, which came as no surprise. Lehmberg’s (Rosemary Lehmberg,Travis County prosecutor) predecessor, Ronnie Earle, pulled the same sort of stunts, with the same outcome, in his partisan campaigns against Kay Bailey Hutchison, a U.S. senator at the time, and Tom DeLay, who was the House majority leader. The point of such prosecutions isn’t to get convictions — Texas Democrats are a stupid lot, but they aren’t that stupid — but to ruin political careers, as DeLay’s was ruined, and to bankrupt and harass political opponents.

The lawsuit began when Governor Perry, following Lehmberg’s arrest for drunk driving and her subsequent inappropriate behavior, cut funding to her department unless she was removed.

The article further reports:

Governor Perry, being a reasonably responsible chief executive, judged this state of affairs to be intolerable. But Lehmberg is not a state employee subject to gubernatorial dismissal; she is an elected official of Travis County. Her office, however, is funded by the state government, and Governor Perry made it clear that he would veto that funding so long as the person in charge of the place was — let’s reiterate — an out-of-control criminal misusing her official prosecutorial powers in an attempt to suborn misconduct from law-enforcement personnel.

Governor Perry carried through on his promise, and Lehmberg retaliated by indicting him on felony charges, alleging that his use of the veto — an ordinary part of his prerogatives as governor — constituted an abuse of power. That Rosemary Lehmberg, of all people, was developing innovative theories about the abuse of official power is the source of some grim mirth. But politically motivated felony prosecution of governors and presidential candidates is no joke.

Texas is known for this kind of shenanigans. If I were to criticize Rick Perry for anything during his time as governor, it would be failing to deal with the legal system in Texas that allows the use of legal actions to destroy political careers. The population of Texas is increasing as people and corporations from states with higher taxes move there. Now is the time to fix a legal system that has too often been used for political purposes.