Last Friday Kevin Bailey

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Last Friday, Kevin Bailey (D-Houston), chairman of the Texas House Investigations Committee, received copies of surveillance videos of the “command center” next door to House Speaker Tom Craddick’s office, where the Texas Department of Public Safety ran the manhunt for the runaway Dems.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, Bailey’s committee and Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle have zeroed in on six hours between noon and 6:00 PM on May 12th as the most likely time that state trooper Will Crais placed his call to the Department of Homeland Security, roping them into the manhunt.

Bailey’s committee wanted to see if there was any evidence that members of Tom DeLay’s staff had entered the ‘command center’ during that period.

Over the weekend, Bailey and his staff reviewed the tapes and found that everything was in order except for a gap from 12:47 PM to 6 PM on May 12th.

Needless to say, this caught Bailey and company’s attention. Bailey told the Houston Chronicle, “I don’t know if people are trying to run out the clock so we’re not in town any more or if it’s just incompetence. Either one is bothersome.”

The DPS said the problem was due to a mechanical error. And late Monday, the DPS provided new copies that apparently contain the missing hours from the afternoon of May 12th. They’re now being reviewed.

Mention of DeLay’s staff would seem to be a reference to Jim Ellis, long-time DeLay aide and the head of DeLay’s leadership PAC Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC). Ellis was the one running the redistricting operation for DeLay down in Texas.

Yesterday Ellis confirmed to the Express-News that he was in Austin on the 12th and that he “could very likely have been” close to the command center “on my way to (Craddick’s) office.” But he insisted that, “At no time did I ever talk to anybody from DPS. I was there for a strictly political purpose, redistricting, and I did not talk to anybody from law enforcement at any time.”

Note the specificity of the words — he says only that he himself did not talk “to anybody from law enforcement.” Remember, DeLay also passed on information through Speaker Craddick.

Meanwhile, Bailey also told the Express-News “a Travis County grand jury investigating the destruction of records has apparently extended to some House members; Tom Ellis [sic], an aide to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay; and perhaps DeLay himself.”

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