More Texas Supreme Court Unethical Behavior

Are there any honest Republicans on the Texas Supreme Court? I'm beginning to wonder. Last week it was David Medina. He and his wife were indicted in the arson burning of their home in the Houston area -- his wife for arson and he for tampering with evidence. He was saved from that charge by the ethically deficient District Attorney of Harris County, who threw out the indictments.

Then it was learned that Medina was using thousands of dollars a month from his campaign funds to reimburse himself for commuting to and from Austin. You'd think a Supreme Court Justice would know better, since the Ethics Commission declared this verboten back in the 90's. Medina admitted his ethical lapse, and is in the process of repaying his campaign fund supposedly.

Then we learn that another Justice on the court was guilty of the same thing -- Justice Paul Green. But Green is not being so honest about his ethical blunder. He is still trying to justify the payments from his campaign fund. He says the trips between Austin and San Antonio were for "business purposes". Looks like he wants to keep the illegal payments.

Now we learn that a third Justice has been dipping into the campaign funds for personal use -- Nathan Hecht. Hecht (pictured above) admits using campaign funds to pay for dozens of plane trips to his hometown last year. Hecht also wants to keep the cash, because he's claiming the trips were "campaign trips". That's kind of hard to believe since he's not up for re-election until 2012.

This is not Hecht's first trip into unethical behavior. He is still being investigated for soliciting and accepting funds from people who appear before the court. How's that for giving an impression of "justice for sale"?

I'm almost afraid to read the paper tomorrow, wondering who'll be next.