Conspiracy Charge Dropped Against DeLay

The headline I put here is not the one you will see at most online news sources. Looking at some of the first page news links at Google News just now here is what I found:

• Update 3: DeLay’s Money Laundering Charges Upheld – Forbes
• Judges Upholds Some Charges Against DeLay – ABC News
• DeLay Faces Trial as Judge Rejects Motion to Dismiss Charges – Bloomberg
• Judge drops conspiracy charges against DeLay – USA Today
• DeLay’s Money Laundering Charges Upheld – San Francisco Chronicle
• Judge Upholds Some Charges Against Delay – New York Times
• Money laundering charges upheld against DeLay – News 8 Austin, TX
• Judge upholds money laundering charges against DeLay – KHOU, TX

Almost all parents have had the song, “one of these things is not like the others” go round and round in their head. That’s what I feel like here. Those are the headlines related to this story:

A judge dismissed the conspiracy charges Monday against Rep. Tom DeLay but refused to throw out the money-laundering counts, dashing the Texas congressman’s hopes for now of reclaiming his post as House majority leader.

Judge Pat Priest, who is presiding over the case against the Republican, issued the ruling after a hearing late last month in which DeLay’s attorney argued that the indictment was fatally flawed.

Yes the money-laundering charge is still in play, but the conspiracy charge being dropped is the story. James Joyner at Outside the Beltway noticed the same thing and had this insight:

News, as the name implies, is about things that are different. An hour ago, Delay faced two serious charges; he now faces one. Considering that he faced the remaining charge when the day began, the new thing is the charge he no longer faces.

Right.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has this from Rep. DeLay’s office:

The judge notes in his letter that a motion to dismiss based on prosecutorial misconduct is still pending for the second indictment (also known as the “Do-Over Indictment”) and will require the hearing of evidence. The bulk of the arguments made in that motion concerned the manner in which Ronnie Earle went about getting this second indictment. Thus, the pending indictment can still yet be dismissed after additional hearings.

From today’s ruling:

[1] At least one motion to dismiss upon the basis of alleged prosecutorial misconduct was filed by Defendant DeLay and is presumed by the Court to have been adopted by defendants Colyandro and Ellis. This motion may require the hearing of evidence (a matter not yet resolved), and it is not included within the ambit of the present rulings.

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