About the only question remaining regarding Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal is whether his holiday season was as bad as the Aggies‘?
First, there were the revelations in a civil lawsuit that Rosenthal placed his former mistress in a cushy administrative assistant position and used DA office email to send sweet nothings to her, all of which was picked up quickly by such national media outlets as the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal.
But if that were not enough, Rosenthal — in declining local GOP leaders’ requests that he step aside for the 2008 election — publicly stated that “the local Republican Party had never done much” for him in his 2000 and 2004 election campaigns and “that party leaders have become ‘Chicken Littles,’ unjustifiably fearful the scandal will damage the entire Republican roster of candidates in the county.”
Well, those remarks are certainly an interesting way of engendering loyalty among the party faithful. ;^)
Finally, Rosenthal still has some explaining to do in the civil suit regarding the apparent deletion of 2,000 emails. Was the D.A. involved in destruction of evidence? Sheesh!
I’m no political pundit, but when an elected official seeks to retain a position as hard as Rosenthal is attempting to keep his in light of the above, it’s a pretty good indication that it’s past time to replace that official.
As usual, Kevin Whited, Slampo and Cory Crow have insightful thoughts on the affair.
Update: Late on Wednesday afternoon, Rosenthal withdrew as a candidate for District Attorney in the Republican primary.