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George Soros and the Nifong of Texas
September 29, 2007 In September of 2004, associates of former U.S. Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, and eight corporations were indicted for money laundering and illegally making corporate contributions to a political campaign by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in Texas. Earle, an elected Democrat and partisan prosecutor is known for his flimsy political prosecutions, most notoriously is the case against Republican U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison when she was the state treasurer in Texas and was prosecuted by Earle for misusing employees and computers for political gain. His case completely fell apart in trial and she was fully acquitted on all counts. Soon after these initial indictments of DeLay’s associates and the corporations, Earle started his negotiations with Sears, Inc., one of the corporations also indicted. Earle said he would drop the charges against them if they would pay $1 million to the “Center for Deliberative Democracy” (CDD) program at Stanford University. CDD is the brainchild of Professor James Fishkin, who used to be a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Earle told Sears the money would be used to fund a television program about the evils of corporate influence in politics. Byron York of National Review wrote about this negotiation in a story called, “Dollars for Dismissals”. “Earle says a program based on deliberative polling would be a good way to "educate" Americans about the threat that he believes corporate political activity poses to the country's political system. Such a program's influence, he says, would extend far beyond Texas, which is one of 18 states that ban corporate giving. To be most effective, the program would be televised nationally; Fishkin has in the past done polls in conjunction with MacNeill-Lehrer Productions, the company that produces 'The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer' on PBS.” Looking into James’ Fishkin’s background reveals strong ties to none other than George Soros. Fishkin has copyrighted and conducts “Deliberative Polls” here in the U.S. and all over the world. Many of the overseas polls are funded by Soros. The polls in the U.S. are televised once a year on a PBS program called, “We the People”. Fishkin is in partnership with McNeil/Leherer Productions to produce these polls for broadcast. One of the local partners for “We the People” is the local PBS station in Dallas, KERA. KERA is where documentary filmmaker Mark Birnbaum worked and where his previous documentaries were broadcast on the show, Point of View (POV.) The POV Web-site says the program is funded by the Open Society Institute (Soros.) Filmaker Mark Birnbaum (KERA), along with Jim Schermbeck, filmed a documentary on the indictments against Tom DeLay and two of his associates called, The Big Buy.” One of the early copies of “The Big Buy” on DVD, while it was still in production and before Tom DeLay was indicted a year after his colleagues, has a label that says, “’The Big Buy’ (produced for Ronnie Earle During the Tom DeLay Trial/2005/2006/ for Com/mercial Use). So the documentary filmmaker who was funded by Soros on earlier projects is now filming a documentary on the evils of Tom DeLay and the glorious justice crusader, Ronnie Earle. Was the television show that Earle referred to in his negotiations with Sears actually the documentary against DeLay? Four of the indicted companies told Earle they would not give any money to Fishkin or Stanford but would give a much smaller amount to University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School of Public Affairs. James Fishkin used to teach at UT Austin and is still polling partners with a professor at the LBJ school, named Robert Luskin. The two of them conduct deliberative polls together and work with PBS to broadcast the results. Michele Dietch was recently awarded a Fellowship from Soros’ Open Socitey Institute to study justice issues at UT Austin School of Public Affairs, in the same department as Robert Luskin. Dietch also signed a letter to Congress from several university professors, including Bruce Ackerman who is co-author and a colleague of James Fishkin. The initial complaint filed to Ronnie Earle that launched the investigation and eventually the indictments, came from Craig McDonald, the director of Texans for Public Justice (TPJ) TPJ gets significant funds from Soros’ Open Society Institute. Twenty years ago, Craig McDonald also started Public Citizen Texas, a state spin-off of the national organization that is also heavily funded by Open Society Institute. Public Citizen also has been openly critical of Tom DeLay and has asked him to step down as Majority Leader (before the indictment.) Craig McDonald also hired documentary filmmaker and environmentalist Jim Schermbeck to do an environmental study for Public Citizen Texas when it first opened for business. And, Soros has funded MoveOn.org over $7 million. MoveOn.org Texas produced television ads against DeLay with doctored photos showing him in handcuffs. Another Soros funded group, Progressive Democrats of America officially praised Earle for his work and awarded him as one of the best progressives in the country. So far, we have MoveOn.org Texas, Progressive Democrats of America, Fishkin, Schermbeck, Birnbaum and McDonald all being funded by Soros. But now, it really starts to get interesting. Soros’ Open Society Institute says on their Web site that their number one objective in the U.S. is to give to individuals and foundations that promote justice. Soros gave $250,000 to Florida Atlantic University professor Gordon Bazemore, for a “Planning Grant to Design a Civic Justice Corps Reentry Project.” Bazemore then co-wrote the book, “Restorative Justice and Family Violence” with Ronnie Earle’s wife, Twyla Hugely Earle. So did the money that Brazemore received from OSI help fund the book co-written by Earle’s wife Twyla? Are Earle’s corporation dismissal deals extortion? These were not plea deals. Who came up with the idea that the companies should pay money to have their cases dismissed, and have that money be used in a coordinated way to demean Tom DeLay and his associates? If Ronnie Earle is so concerned about corporate money influence in the Texas political process, why is the focus on Republicans when Democrats received more soft, corporate and labor money than Republicans and had more money transfers between state and national parties? Why didn't Ronnie Earle prosecute TX Democratic Attorney General Dan Morales for shaking down lawyers for kickbacks in the anti-tobacco lawsuits? Earle could have done so either because Morales lived in Travis County or because Earle is in charge of the statewide Public Integrity Unit. Earle did nothing to his Democratic friend so the Feds eventually stepped in and now Morales is in federal prison. Earle is either partisan or incompetent. If Ronnie Earle is concerned about soft money influence in Texas, why did Texas Democrats, on four different occasions, give away a large amount of hard money dollars to the DNC and then on the very same day, get back the same amount or more in the form of soft money? And Texas Democrats far out-raised Republicans in soft money. See an excerpt from “Passing the Bucks: Texas” compiled by Followthemoney.org. "National party contributions to Texas state committees increased dramatically over the three election cycles. These committees gave just $2.3 million in 1998, $5.2 million in 2000 and $16.3 million in 2002. The Texas Democratic Party received the bulk of the 2002 contributions, taking in $11 million to the GOP's $5.2 million." If Ronnie Earle is not selectively trying to embarrass or "target" Tom DeLay, then why weren't scores of other PACS investigated that raised large amounts of soft money, and did not disclose how they spent it? If Earle is concerned about the large amounts of money raised, he should look at three PACs: Texas 2000 PAC, The Lone Star Fund and Texas Partnership PAC. Both Texas 2000 PAC and the Texas Partnership PAC raised large amounts of money in 2002 but never gave any money to candidates, why? There were also several money exchanges between Democrat general-purpose committees, why? Barcardi, Inc., is one of the eight companies indicted along with individuals associated with TRMPAC. Barcardi gave to both TRMPAC and Democrat Martin Frost's Lone Star Fund. Why was Barcardi and the three associates of TRMPAC indicted but not the Lone Star Fund if Ronnie Earle contends the Bacardi corporate money was illegal? The Texas State Surpreme Court just last week refused to reinstate the dropped charge against DeLay on conspiracy to violate the election code. This charge was the first and only charge DeLay received in September, 2005 after a three-year investigation and six grand juries -- five of whom refused to indict DeLay. Two other charges were filed later that came from a grand jury seated only a few hours. Those charges are still pending but are far weaker in nature and Earle knows it. He is miring himself in pre-trial motions because he is petrified to actually go to trial and face the facts in this case. Next up? The presiding judge Pat Priest says once the appeals are exhausted, which they are, he will take up the pending prosecutorial misconduct motion filed against Earle by DeLay's lawyers. It looks like there are plenty of specifics in that motion to make Earle shake in his boots. I smell a Nifong here.
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