GOVERNMENTS DO NOT HAVE “FRIENDS”
Craig Washington, the former U.S. Congressman from Houston, who defended the Speaker of the Texas House in the “Brilab” prosecution, masterfully juxtaposed the delicate tact, cordiality and politeness of your average Texas politician to the cold amorphous legal fiction affectionately referred to as our “government,” arguing that:
“Maybe the government can’t understand how it is that a man like [the Texas Speaker] could have $5,000 passed to him and not want to embarrass that person. Maybe the government has never had a friend. If you have had a friend, then you can understand how you could be finessed into a situation the [the Texas Speaker] was finessed into. Being polite is not a crime yet in Texas. You don’t have to be rude to your constituents to demonstrate you do not want to break the law.”
