Is the political indictment of Gov. Rick Perry already backfiring on Democrat governor hopeful Wendy Davis?

Gov. Perry’s official courthouse portrait immediately became the Mugshot Seen ‘Round the World. Instead of becoming a liability, it became a badge of honor. It will probably be on campaign T-shirts, mugs and shot glasses (the Rick Perry “MugShot” is irresistible) before long.

Perry followed that visit up with a trip for ice cream, sealing the win on what the Democrats hoped would be a terrible day for him and the beginning of the end of the Perry era.

The case itself is already ripping the heart out of what’s left of the Texas Democratic Party. The lead investigator has destroyed, as in burned to the ground and salted the earth, the TDP’s narrative that Perry battled Travis County drunk driving DA Rosemary Lehmberg in order to scuttle an investigation into a Texas anti-cancer agency, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Not true, says Chris Walling, lead investigator on that case. So, that’s done and dusted.

The CPRIT allegations have been swirling for a while. Back in May, Democrat governor hopeful Wendy Davis was trying to tie the CPRIT investigation around the neck of Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republicans’ nominee for governor. The leftwing Texas Observer dutifully transcribed her attack.

On Tuesday, Davis appeared at the Austin Tex-Mex restaurant Juan in a Million to level some of the same criticisms. “Greg Abbott allowed our cancer institute to become a piggy bank and allowed his donors to siphon off millions of tax dollars from cancer patients and from taxpayers,” she told a crowd of supporters. “When Abbott served on the oversight board of our state’s cancer research institute, he wasn’t looking out for cancer patients. He was looking out for his political donors.”

That was an appalling misuse of a fine restaurant and an Austin institution. Juan in a Million has even been featured on Man Vs. Food. Davis is without excuse for using it as a platform for such a scurrilous attack. A reliable witness tells the Tatler that Davis didn’t even eat the restaurant’s world famous fare during the stop. That’s practically a crime by itself.

Abbott, like Perry, was never tied to the CPRIT investigation and was not a target of it. Never. Despite what Davis said.

Now that the indictment has become a fiasco for the Democrats, Wendy Davis is dodging questions about it, reports the Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog.

Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth and Democratic nominee for governor, even avoided answering a question about Perry’s link to the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, an agency embroiled in scandal.

Davis wants some distance now, but it’s too late for that. Perry’s indictment is world news, and even the likes of the New York Times think that it’s bogus. Liberal professor Alan Dershowitz even compared it to show trials in the Soviet Union.

Davis undoubtedly took her cue to launch the CPRIT attack from Matt Angle’s Lone Star Project. He posted a hit piece on CPRIT the day after Davis’ comments at Juan in a Million.

Here’s how this works. Matt Angle is the out-of-state operative who controls the Democrats’ shadow party in Texas. He lives in Washington, operating off of millions of dollars left to him by the late Fred Barron, the Dallas lawyer who helped John Edwards hide his awful behavior.

It was a Matt Angle hit group, the Soros-funded Texans for Public Justice, who filed the complaint against Perry that got the governor indicted for exercising his constitutional veto power. (George Soros — convicted felon). That complaint went to Lehmberg’s Public Integrity Unit. She handed it off to a judge, who likely for political Pontius Pilate reasons appointed the special prosecutor, Michael McCrum. McCrum won the indictment, using at least two grand jurors who have turned out to be partisan Democrats. One of them even attended the Democratic Party’s state convention while she was weighing the Perry indictment — and sought to meet with a prosecution witness who happens to be an elected Democrat during the convention.

Angle and the TPJ exist to generate complaints against Perry and other elected Republicans, so that the media will report those complaints and thereby stir up an impression with voters that said Republicans are corrupt. That is the heart and purpose of their well-funded operation. The purpose is to drive Republicans out of office, rather than have to try to defeat them at the polls.

Angle’s allies generate the complaint, media run to Angle for comment, and he’s happy to oblige — and brag about it on his own web site.

Most of Angle and his allies’ complaints go nowhere. Deep down they know how frivolous their complaints are. Even the TPJ was surprised that their complaint against Perry actually landed an indictment. They are the dog who caught the car now.

So that’s the anatomy of the indictment of Gov. Perry. Look all the way to the bottom, and the only “there” there is a collection of leftwing activists who are trying to use lawfare to change the state’s politics from red to blue.

Wendy Davis may now consider running away from them, but the damage is done. She is sinking in the polls and the indictment has renewed Gov. Perry’s popularity. That helps Greg Abbott. The Texas Democratic Party has taken politics in this state to a new and dangerous low. They have Matt Angle to thank for it, and would be wise to jettison him and Texans for Public Justice as soon as possible.