U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel has dismissed a civil suit against one of Tom DeLay’s co-defendants. The civil suit is closely related to the criminal case Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle is pursuing against DeLay. The AP reports:

Yeakel found Monday that the plaintiffs “failed to allege any facts that [DeLay co-defendant John] Colyandro intentionally or even knowingly violated the applicable sections of the Texas Election Code, let alone that he intended to agree to accomplish an unlawful purpose … “

These are strong words in a case that involves the same campaign-finance statutes involved in the DeLay case, and similar circumstances. In both cases, there is little evidence to tie the defendants to campaign-finance transactions that are only against in law in the minds of bitter Democrats who lost their races (the plaintiffs in this case) or campaign-finance reform zealots (Ronnie Earle). We’re seeing the first cracks in the eventual collapse of these cases.

UPDATE: MB reader Michael B. makes a great point:

The really big deal here is that a civil suit requires a much lower standard for a finding in favor of the plaintiff. “Preponderance of the Evidence” as opposed to “Beyond Reasonable Doubt”. Note that both OJ and Robert Blake lost very large civil suits relating to the deaths for which they were acquitted in criminal trials.
If the facts in evidence won’t support a civil trial, let alone going to trial and having a not guilty finding, this is real fluff. Ronnie should be impeached because the incompetent SOB probably won’t be voted out of office by the moonbat population of Austin.

You know, I’ve wondered what’s going to happen to Ronnie Earle when this whole thing crashes and burns around him. Probably not much. He’s already in the Democrats’ No Agenda Hall of Fame. As I said before, he got what he wanted: Tom DeLay out as House Majority Leader. And he got results, too.