The Eye of the Beholder

Charles Kuffner comments on a report that Travis County DA Ronnie Earle spoke at a fundraiser recently. His assessment:

All that said, I do agree it's not wise politics for Earle to have done this. He can't afford to let the editorial page tut-tutters make their inevitable case for moral equivalence between himself and DeLay, because once that happens, once this becomes a political squabble instead of a "cops and robbers" story, he's sunk. I hope they're clearheaded enough to draw a distinction, but I'm not confident of it. It sucks to be Caesar's wife, but that's the way it is.

I agree. Sometimes, no matter how [fill in virtue] we are, it's how we are seen that determines whether our [virtue] will be appreciated at its full and face value. Just because something is legal doesn't mean that it's a good idea to do it, especially when the whole world (more or less) is just waiting for you to screw up.

I do believe that Ronnie Earle is a genuine hero, a Texas treasure. We are privileged to be served by such a man. But the stakes are now too high to just give away credibility, so I'm hopin' that he'll be a little more choosy in selecting his venues for getting out his message in the future.

That being said, the folks in his audience probably needed to hear every word he spoke.