Hebert noted that his disbelief also rests in the fact that the Justice Department had given convicted former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff a deal to delay his sentencing for months in exchange for providing information.
"They delayed his sentencing so they could take advantage of that," he explained, expressing shock that Abramoff's information did not result in a DOJ indictment of DeLay.
"In the arrogant world that Tom DeLay lived in, he was kingpin," Hebert said. "He did a lot of damage to people, and to the democracy ultimately, when he tried to undermine and circumvent important rules about corporate funding and clean money."
"DeLay basically put Congress up for sale," he continued. "He went down and stood on the corner of K Street and tried to sell it."
As for Siegelman, he is confident about the outcome of today's hearing. The judges are not expected to release an opinion for about three months. But Siegelman sees hopeful signs, reports Glynn Wilson of The Locust Fork News:
The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the convictions of Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy back in June of last year and ordered the appeals court to review them again, in light of a recent high court ruling questioning the application of a vague honest services fraud law in the case of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling.
"I believe that the U S Supreme Court vacated the earlier ruling of the Eleventh Circuit and sent my case back because the court wants a different result," Siegelman said. "That's good news for me."
What could be at stake for the country in general, considering that the Siegelman/Scrushy case involved a standard political transaction that generally has not been seen as a crime?
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