Alan Dershowitz, the much-respected Harvard law professor, does not particularly care for conservative Republicans like Rick Perry. But that did not stop him from coming to the defense of the Texas governor, indicted last week on charges that appear politically motivated.

A criminal complaint against Perry was brought by Texans for Public Justice, a decidedly left-leaning outfit, after he followed through on his threat to veto $7.5 million in funding to the state Office of Public Integrity — which is run out of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office — after D.A. Rosemary Lehmberg refused to step down following her conviction for drunken driving.

A special prosecutor persuaded a grand jury in overwhelmingly Democratic Travis County to indict Perry on charges of abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony, and coercion of a public official, a third-degree felony.

The first charge is punishable by up to 99 years in prison and a $10,000 fine; the second by up to 10 years behind bars and a $10,000 fine. “I looked at the law,” said special prosecutor Michael McCrum. “I looked at the facts.” And he believes he has an open-and-shut case against Perry.

Dershowitz disagrees — emphatically so. “Everybody, liberal or conservative, should stand against this indictment,” he said. “If you don’t like how Rick Perry uses his office, don’t vote for him.”

Of course, McCrum insists that his prosecution of the Republican governor has absolutely nothing to do with politics. But to believe that the case was driven by principle, rather than politics, requires a suspension of disbelief.

Indeed, said Dershowitz, McCrum’s prosecution of Perry “is another example of the criminalization of party differences. This idea of an indictment is an extremely dangerous trend in America.”

And that applies, said Dershowitz, “whether directed at Tom DeLay,” the former House majority leader who was prosecuted by Democratic apparatchiks in the Travis County D.A.’s office, “or Bill Clinton,” who, as president, was targeted by Republican prosecutors at the federal level.

We do not entirely condone the hardball tactics Perry employed to remove Ms. Lehmberg from office. But we find the legal counterattack — which has prompted a call by the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party for Perry to resign — far more odious.

— Orange County (Calif.) Register