Ronnie Earle: Matinee Idol

There is so much to talk about when it comes to Ronnie Earle. He's the gift that keeps on giving.

At a May 12, 2005, Democrat fund-raising event, Earle said:

Integrity is not the sole possession of either party, but it is symbolic of the great division in our country now. That division is between those who would take more than their share from the rest of us and those who believe we’re all in this together.

The real division is between these two sets of values. The problem lies in the ethical behavior that is based on those values. The spirit of partisanship is not compatible with we’re all in this together.

It turns out that this man, obsessed with ethics, allowed a film crew to follow him around for two years and document his investigation that led to Tom DeLay's indictment.

I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like the supposed non-partisan D.A. Earle may be brought up on some ethics charges himself.

Byron York writes about Tom DeLay: The Movie.


Entitled The Big Buy, I think it's destined to receive a ten minute standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival. I imagine Barbra Streisand will have a screening of the film at her mansion, with A-list Hollywood liberals in attendance.

Poor Michael Moore must be green with envy right now and finding comfort by downing a tub of Ben and Jerry’s.

York writes:

For the last two years, as he pursued the investigation that led to Wednesday's indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Travis County, Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle has given a film crew "extraordinary access" to make a motion picture about his work on the case.

The resulting film is called The Big Buy, made by Texas filmmakers Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck. "Raymond Chandler meets Willie Nelson on the corner of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in The Big Buy, a Texas noir political detective story that chronicles what some are calling a 'bloodless coup with corporate cash,'" reads a description of the picture on Birnbaum's website, markbirnbaum.com. The film, according to the description, "follows maverick Austin DA Ronnie Earle's investigation into what really happened when corporate money joined forces with relentless political ambitions to help swing the pivotal 2002 Texas elections, cementing Republican control from Austin to Washington DC."

"We approached him [Earle], and he offered us extraordinary access to him and, to an extent, to his staff," Birnbaum told National Review Online Thursday. "We've been shooting for about two years."

Birnbaum and Schermbeck showed a work-in-progress version of The Big Buy last month at the Dallas Video Festival. At the moment, they do not have a deal for the film to be shown anywhere else. Their last film, Larry v. Lockney, was shown on PBS, and they hope that perhaps a similar arrangement might be made for the new picture. Whoever ends up showing it, the film has so far been funded entirely by its makers. "We tried really hard to get it funded," Birnbaum says, "but we didn't get any takers."

Birnbaum and Schermbeck must have failed to contact George Soros when they went on their hunt for funding. I can’t believe that Soros would have failed to bankroll a hit piece on DeLay, if given the opportunity.

Schermbeck told National Review Online that the film was an irresistible Texas story. "I've been pretty interested in watching Tom DeLay work," Schermbeck says. "I thought he was a fascinating guy, certainly the most powerful Texan to emerge on the national scene in some time, a kind of Republican Sam Rayburn type, with that kind of mastery of the machinery and the will to do it."

But DeLay did not cooperate with the filmmakers, and neither did a number of DeLay allies. Earle, on the other hand, did. "I had known about Ronnie Earle for a very long time," Schermbeck says. "I thought that would be an angle to approach the whole story, telling something about Tom DeLay, even though
Tom DeLay wouldn't grant us an interview."

Earle "allowed us behind the scenes when the indictments came down last year, the first wave of indictments," Schermbeck says. "We got to follow him back to his home a couple of times, which I understand he doesn't allow anybody to do." Schermbeck says the film includes interviews with some critics of Earle, as well as lawyers who are representing some of the targets of the investigation.

So far, The Big Buy has received almost no attention in the press. With DeLay's indictment, and increased attention to Earle as well, that situation seems likely to change. (The filmmakers say they will be back at work next week, filming a new ending to the picture.) "We're pretty low on everybody's radar," Schermbeck says. "We kind of took a gamble three years ago. We didn't know what was going to happen. We feel like, as documentary filmmakers, we gambled and it paid off."

Birnbaum's website describes The Big Buy as the tale of a "bloodless coup with corporate cash" and a "political crime story."

Gee, I don't know, but I get the feeling that the filmmakers might have an anti-DeLay agenda.

Just a hunch.

Yes, Ronnie Earle is a real stand-up guy, playing to the cameras during an investigation, giving "extraordinary access" to the film crew.

This part kills me:

Earle "allowed us behind the scenes when the indictments came down last year, the first wave of indictments," Schermbeck says. "We got to follow him back to his home a couple of times, which I understand he doesn't allow anybody to do."

Why would Earle make an exception and allow the filmmakers to follow him to his home?

Apparently, Earle felt his "moment of glory" was so historically significant that it had to be captured on film.

Right.

All of this and we're supposed to believe that Earle is not an out of control, egomaniacal, partisan hack.

That's impossible for me to do.