The Hammer’s ConsiglieriThere are a number of tactical differences between being Majority Leader and a criminal defendant, but the most important one of all must be that the “Hammer” approach isn’t bound to fly too well with prosecutors. As I wrote before, it’s not clear DeLay has any leverage with the Justice Department; so his only option may be to make sure he gets a good lawyer and play nice. In the end, all of the venom he spewed toward Texas District Attorney Ronnie Earle didn’t seem to win him anything but an indictment.
So who’s running the Hammer’s federal defense?
Richard Cullen, the recipient of a glowing profile in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch. He’s the one who offered the DoJ 1,000 emails from DeLay’s office late last year as a “Christmas gift,” and the one who carefully stage-managed DeLay’s announcement of his retirement last week. And so far he’s been able to keep DeLay from saying nasty things about the prosecutors.
DeLay seems to have landed himself a fine tactician. Cullen has a piece of three of the major criminal investigations of the day: he also has clients in the Plame investigation and the AIPAC investigation. Other clients include Boeing and Time Warner. You might say that he’s right at the center of American life in these mucky times.
