in Houston, Texas

State Rep. Wayne Christian has proposed legislation aimed at weakening the Travis County district attorney's office, which became the pariah of Republicans everywhere after it indicted GOP stalwart Tom DeLay on charges of money laundering and violating election law.

But this may not simply be partisan payback.

Indeed, the Center Republican has ties to DeLay and his co-defendant and one-time associate John Colyandro. In addition, former District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who hastened the end of DeLay's political career and indicted Colyandro, also named Christian in an indictment of the Texas Association of Business for violating campaign finance laws. Naturally, some of DeLay's critics are now wary over Christian's true motives: Does he want good government? Or does he want to get back at the lawyer who publicly embarrassed his friend?

"Tom DeLay built his career on changing the rules to his advantage," says Nate Wilcox, a political consultant who ran online communications for Richard Morrison, a challenger to DeLay in 2004. "Even after his political death his zombie minions continue to attack the idea that public officials can be held accountable for their actions."

Christian's signature piece of legislation, HB 566, would require that state elected officials and officers only be charged for official misconduct in their county of residence. The intent of that is clear: The Travis County DA's office would no longer be able prosecute the vast majority of lawmakers on public corruption charges. That would now be the task of local prosecutors, who often don't have the resources, if not the moxie, to indict their local representative.

But while Christian's bill has galvanized DeLay's many detractors, leading Republicans argue that the left-leaning voters of Travis County wind up influencing law and politics across the entire state. They're the ones who elect a DA whose power reaches all over Texas.

"I have no problem with this bill," says Eric Opiela, the executive director of the Texas Republican party. "People always used to joke that the highest Democratic elected official in the state was Ronnie Earle."

Continues ...

Read more on the interwoven dealings of Christian, DeLay and Colyandro. On page 2.
Read about a similar measure proposed by Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville. On page 3.


Photo of a judge's gavel by flickr user KeithBurtis, used via a Creative Commons license.