You wouldn't have to look far, in Austin TX, to find people who are now or ever have been batshit over the activities of Ronnie Earle.
"Batshit" is a respectable word in Austin. People in Austin (and now, oh lordy, from Waco and Lubbock) line up to see the bats flutter out of an evening from under the Congress Avenue bridge to take care of central Texas' mosquito population. Bat Conservation International (now there are conservatives you can be proud of!) has its home in Austin. About half of Austin (the southern half) is considered bats -- and proud of it. After all, they're the ones about whom the bumper sticker, "Keep Austin Weird," was created.
Ronnie Earle is no less loved (and feared) than the bats. He's an equal opportunity muckraker. Because he's gone after one of theirs, they're trying to convince us that he's a "partisan hack." As Austinites know, Earle has been as hard (actually harder) on Democrats as on Republicans. He can't stand the idea of political power being bought and sold. He is no less tenacious about prosecuting his own. As Mark Kleiman notes: "Earle's professional reputation among his fellow prosecutors is impeccable."
So Ronnie Earle is not an ideologue. If he were, his public statements (occasionally intemperate) would be smoother and more ideological, well-crafted by one or another Rove.
Ideologues are as different from idealists as rabid bats are from healthy mosquito-assassins. It was good to hear Earle described as an idealist this morning on NPR. Idealists are a major pain in the butt much of the time, but say a silent thank-you for them -- they're helping us save our democracy.
