This is actually a much smaller deal than what I expected by "indicted", but no doubt this is bad news for Perry's ambitions.
Let us all remember the huge qualification for anyone under indictment or arrest or even at trial: the four words that keep legal process from becoming a lynching:
IF GUILTY A CHARGED Elected officials have no right to tamper with the legal process. Such violates the concept of an independent judiciary, a cornerstone of liberal democracy in the classical sense of liberalism, and one of the critical checks and balances of our system. Governor Rick Perry, even if he has done something that fails the stink test, has yet to be convicted of anything.
Of course we all need to remember that an indictment is only the first stage of prosecution, in essence the necessary and official statement that someone is in legal trouble.
Obviously, voters can show demand a higher standard of ethical behavior for an elected office than the legal system has for sending someone to prison, assessing a criminal fine, banning him from certain occupations, or denying him the right to vote or the prerogative of holding an elected office: they can vote against him and deny him his political ambitions .
