Prayin' With the Devil

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/28/18475459.php

In Houston, Texas, those who were the staunchest supporters of the now embattled D.A. there, Harris County's Chuck Rosenthal, are now calling for his resignation.

Among his best, most passionate supporters were Black ministers, many of whom even considered him to be a close friend.

What changed?

The release of hundreds of e-mails from the D.A. for starters; for they reveal a man who loved a racist joke, especially those aimed at Blacks. The e-mails also uncovered sexual improprieties with his co-workers.

It should be more than enough that Rosenthal, and his District Attorney's Office, led the nation in death sentences and executions. But, this being Texas, this didn't get the Black preachers sufficiently riled up.

What stung them were the racist images circulated on his e-mail, like the photo of a prone Black man, sprawled on the sidewalk, near large pieces of watermelon, a cup of soda, and an empty bucket of chicken. The photo is titled: "Fatal Overdose."

Robert Jefferson, pastor of the Cullin Missionary Baptist Church (and member of Houston Ministers Against Crime), responded to news of the e-mails by observing, "We prayed with him; we have been working with him - I feel jilted." The pastor added, "He was smiling with us in one place and stabbing us in our backs in another."

(Well --welcome to politics, Pastor!)


http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iiKrSdzDcmjNpUBqQOJEW6lMK_WgD8UGF0N00

Prosecutor Has History As Loose Cannon

By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON – 18 hours ago

HOUSTON (AP) — When people ask Chuck Rosenthal how he's doing, the most powerful prosecutor in Texas has a trademark response: "I'm blessed." And for most of his bulletproof career, he seemed to be.

He could have been fired for lighting firecrackers in a stairwell at the district attorney's office as a prank shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing. Or disbarred for violating a gag order to discuss the Andrea Yates murder trial on "60 Minutes." Or run out of office for only reluctantly returning a $2,500 campaign donation from the owner of a company he was prosecuting.

Rosenthal survived all three episodes. But now, with the release of dozens of pornographic, racist and political e-mails on his government office computer — along with love notes between the married prosecutor and his secretary — his career has taken a remarkable nosedive.

He's been forced off the Republican ballot for re-election as Harris County district attorney, endures almost daily calls for his resignation and is under state investigation into whether his campaign-related e-mails violated the law. On Thursday, he goes before a federal judge on an opposing lawyer's motion to have him held in contempt of court.

Some critics who say Rosenthal is too quick to judge defendants, too slow to show mercy and too stubborn to admit his mistakes are barely masking their satisfaction at his fall.

"Chuck Rosenthal is an arrogant individual who believes that he's doing God's work so he can do anything and get away with it," said Katherine Scardino, a Houston defense attorney.

Rosenthal, a conservative Christian, calls the death penalty a "biblical proposition" — and his office has sent more people to death row than any other in the country. He claims to be responsible for carrying out both God's law and Texas law and is rarely seen without his "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelet.