The moral of the story

It's a shame to see Republican's embarrass themselves and waste a perfectly good "highly partisan" attack on a clearly non partisan guy go to waste. Really:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, appears to have dodged a bullet.

The powerful GOP chieftain is unlikely to be indicted by a state grand jury probing alleged campaign finance violations in Texas, according to an official involved in the investigation.

(snip)

A review of documents made public through civil litigation indicate DeLay was kept aware of the fundraising activities that were taking place. (DeLay’s daughter was a paid consultant to two fund-raising committees that pumped money into the races.)

Nevertheless, the official familiar with investigation said investigators would have to establish that DeLay "acted to promote" the illegal activity, and that such evidence had not been forthcoming.

"To indict and prosecute someone, we have to be able to show not just that they were aware of something," the official explained. "We have to show that they engaged in enough conduct to make them party to the offense."

There were also jurisdictional hurdles, the official said.

"For a penal code offense [such as money laundering] we would have to find something done in Travis County, Texas, to be able to indict," the officials said. "And [DeLay] wasn't here very often."

So now we can add to our definition of Republican morals the act of watching your own daughter do something you know is illegal but doing nothing to report or stop the illegal activity. Turning the other way while a felony is committed is okay in the red states. Feel good teaching that to your sons and daughters, America?