[Affaire du Bugman]

The Piano Player in a Fancy Bordello

Tom DeLay's defenders have all taken the same tack: he's innocent and the prosecutor is targeting him for solely political purposes. Yesterday Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at UCLA and one of my long-time favorite bloggers, pretty handily refuted this claim. He outlined the various possibilities based on the indictment, and in no case can the defenders reasonably argue he's innocent. Not guilty? Kleiman allows that exoneration is possible in these cases:

• TRMPAC orchestrated a violation of the law, but DeLay had no knowledge of that fact.
• TRMPAC orchestrated a violation of the law, and DeLay knew of the facts but not of their illegality, and therefore didn't "conspire."
• It's all true, but the prosecutor can't prove one or more of the elments beyond reasonable doubt.

At best, Kleiman argues, "DeLay will be offering the defense of the man who played the piano for twenty years in the parlor of a fancy bordello but claimed he had no idea of what was going on upstairs." Great stuff.