Yesterday, during an interview with Fox News' Brit Hume, President Bush offered the opinion that he believed Texas Congressman Tom DeLay was innocent of the money laundering charges he is faced with in Travis County, Texas.

Now the Democrats have voiced their outrage -- and it makes Page A4 of the Washington Post.

Democratic leaders sternly criticized President Bush yesterday for saying former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is innocent of felonious campaign finance abuses, suggesting his comments virtually amounted to jury tampering before DeLay stands trial.

"The president of the United States said a jury does not need to assemble, that Tom DeLay is innocent," said Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). "To have someone of his stature, the president of the United States, prejudge a case is something I've never seen before."

Let's hop in the Wayback machine and check out Democrats and their efforts at jury tampering.

"The criminal indictment of Majority Leader Tom Delay is the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people." — House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

___

"Today, the state of Texas is doing what the Republican-controlled federal government has failed repeatedly to do, which is to hold Republicans in Washington accountable for their culture of corruption." — Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

I know there's a word to describe this ... oh, yes ... hypocrisy!

And to top it all off, it's just silly.