AJ Pate's letter is a semi-tragicomic effort at correcting an
(admittedly deeply and embarassingly flawed) article.

Re the "legality" of DeLay's actions with the FAA... we all know that
for many reasons -- including prosecutorial discretion and the necessity
to prove beyond a reasonable doubt facts about which one can otherwise
make reasonable deductions -- not every illegal act is prosecuted.  

But consider the bipartisan House Erhics Committee's letter to DeLay:

"Your intervention in a partisan conflict in the Texas House of
Representatives using the resources of a Federal agency, the Federal
Aviation Administration, raises serious concerns under these standards
of conduct.  Your contacts with the FAA were in connection with the
dispute over congressional redistricting in the Texas House of
Representatives that occurred in May 2003.  The purpose of these
contacts was to obtain information on the whereabouts of Democratic
Members of the Texas House who had absented themselves from Austin for
the purpose of denying the House a quorum.  You have stated to us that
you made these contacts at the request of the Speaker of the Texas House
of Representatives, who was seeking information on the location of an
airplane that was shuttling the absent legislators, and that you relayed
the information you had obtained on the location of the airplane solely
to the Texas House Speaker. 

The submissions that you made to the Committee argue that those contacts
with the FAA were proper, but those arguments are not persuasive. [. . .
] In sum, the statements made by the FAA official regarding his views of
his actions after he had learned the purpose of the requests, and the
FAAÕs later establishment of a restrictive policy on responding to such
requests, indicate a larger concern about the propriety of the FAAÕs
response to your requests for information, regardless of whether, in the
specific circumstances, the actions of the FAA official did not violate
the FAA rules or regulations that were in effect at the time."