Sliding under the radar on Thursday was the announcement that former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had been exonerated of all charges stemming from the politically motivated prosecution orchestrated by Democrat shill and former Travis County (TX) district attorney Ronnie Earle.

That’s right. Exonerated. The Texas Court of Appeals ruled that not only was the evidence presented not sufficient to sustain a conviction but that no law had even been broken. So after nearly a decade since the original indictment, Tom DeLay is a free man though he is deeply in debt from the protracted litigation and his political career lies in ruins.

Ronnie Earle is no stranger to weaponizing the law in the service of the Democrat . A quick look at his career shows that he made a habit of targeting Republican politicians for indictments on the most bizarre of pretexts. And unfortunately Ronnie Earle, a tiny man devoid of honor and integrity, will continue to walk free despite the lives he has ruined out of spite and political ambition.

Ronnie Earle, though, represents a substantial and profoundly dangerous train of thought within the Democrat party which seeks to criminalize political differences. Historically, one of the traditions that has separated the United States and nations like Great Britain from the third world is that politics is not a bloodsport. Unlike Egypt and Pakistan we don’t imprison and execute former leaders because when you know you are going to be hanged if you lose and election you tend to have the army vote for you.

This started in a big way under Ronald Reagan when the Democrat Congress, frustrated by Reagan’s insistence on fighting communism in Central America (communist aggression that was fully supported by our current Secretary of State), decided to prosecute Reagan staffers for pursuing the policy.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was harassed for years on bogus “ethics” charges  in retaliation for him having wrested what had been a Democrat fiefdom from the Democrats.

Fast forward to the Bush (43) administration and we have the spectacle of Scooter Libby being prosecuted for something… no one exactly sure what. We have Justice department staffers put in judicial jeopardy for replacing political appointees… these being people who are appointed by the President and whom can be removed at his pleasure… who were compliant with the demands of various Democrat politicos with others not so compliant.

The conviction of Tom DeLay, though, represented a nadir even by the standards of Democrats. DeLay’s PAC followed campaign finance law, obtained advisory opinions, and did what virtually every other PAC did but somehow the morally obtuse Ronnie Earle decided that handing the Democrat’s ass to them in the House was a crime that merited a prison sentence.

One is torn on how to proceed on this. On the one hand it is obvious that if such behavior degenerates into a tit-for-tat then the political fabric of the nation may be irreparably damaged. On the other hand, if you don’t extract some retaliation then the Democrats, being bullies to the depths of what passes for their soul, will be emboldened to even greater excesses.