Chip Reid Plays Down Earle's Partisanship

On this morning's Today show NBC's Chip Reid attempted to play down Tom DeLay's charges of partisanship in Texas Democrat prosecutor Ronnie Earle's indictment:

Chip Reid: "In a blistering attack DeLay called Earle, who is a Democrat a partisan fanatic."

[DeLay: "This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in, in American history. It's a sham and Mr. Earle knows it."]

Reid: "But in an interview with NBC News earlier this year Earle vigorously denied his investigation of DeLay is motivated by politics."

[Earle: "We prosecuted four times as many Democrats as Republicans. This is not about Democrats and Republicans. This is about cops and robbers."]

Reid then went on to paint a dire political future for the Republican Party as a whole:

Reid: "The DeLay indictment comes on the heels of a federal investigation of Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist for insider trading. Frist strongly denies the allegations but Democrats are pointing to the investigations of Frist and DeLay as evidence of a culture of corruption among Republicans."

[Charlie Cook: "It hurts Republicans a lot and it's the kind of thing that Republicans really fear because it could, it could kill them in the next year's midterm elections."]

Reid: "Now Cook says the corruption issue alone isn't enough to end Republican control of Congress but he says it could be a contributing factor. Katie."