# How Dare They Not Prosecute Tom Delay?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dare-they-not-prosecute-tom-delay/551280>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 24, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dare-they-not-prosecute-tom-delay/551280 "2010-08-24T12:43:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 139

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**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dare-they-not-prosecute-tom-delay/551280/139 "2010-08-28T05:33:14Z")

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> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Now let me rebut in turn: if that was in fact the goal, do you have an opinion on whether or not this was the best way of reaching the goal?

You have brought this up several times.

What I find interesting is very recently you were schooling us on how the “best” solution has nothing to to with the law. And this was regarding a Constitutional right which, I would think, is deserving of more scrutiny than just any old law. Indeed you hammered at this point in the other thread repeatedly:

> [@How would SCOTUS rule on California's Prop 8? With what consequences?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-scotus-rule-on-californias-prop-8-with-what-consequences/550182/193):
>
> For about the sixteenth bazillion time, you cannot attack a law under rational basis by asking, “Well, if that’s the reason, why don’t they do this other thing that is an even better way of advancing their interest?”
> 
> Stop doing that. It’s not part of the rational basis test. I have no idea why people continually return to asking that question, despite being told repeatedly that this is not how the test works. It’s in the quoted text right above: **we do not care if there happens to be a better or more efficient way of advancing the apparent state interest.** Can’t you see it sitting there, waiting to be read and understood?

Now here you demand that DeLay is off the hook because a bill was not the “best” means to achieve a given goal. A goal that is not even a Constitutional question.

So which is it counselor?

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