06.30.13
Posted in 83rd Legislature, Around The State, Had Enough Yet?, Special Session at 4:38 pm by wcnews
Perry and the wing nuts look like they’re coming unhinged. That’s what happens when an enetitled group, that has been allowed to roam free for years, is finally having to deal with a competent and successful opposition, Sen. Davis: ‘Rick Perry’s statement is without dignity’.
Davis later responded to Perry’s comments.
“Rick Perry’s statement is without dignity and tarnishes the high office he holds,” she said. “They are small words that reflect a dark and negative point of view. Our governor should reflect our Texas values. Sadly, Gov. Perry fails that test.”
Even Republicans are realizing that it’s OK to call them our for their shameful rantings, Straus: Perry Crossed Line on Davis Comments.
“Disagreements over policy are important and they’re healthy, but when he crosses the line into the personal, then he damages himself and he damages the Republican Party,” Straus said.
Perry’s beeen making oops-worthy statements for a couple of years now.
Dewhurst must really be feeling the heat after his weak showing. He’s taken to threatening to arrest members of the capitol press corps, Lt Gov David Dewhurst decides against arresting Texas media.
The problem for the GOP is that they are trying to hide their real intentions, (shutting down access to legal abortion), behind protecting women’s health. Which is a solution in search of a problem. It’s similar to voter ID, where they tried to hide their true intenion, (disinfranchising likely Democratic voters), behind the non-existant problem of voter fraud. They’re following a pattern.
They feel they need to hide their true intentions becauste while many people may believe abortion is wrong, they also know that making it too difficult to get a safe legal abortion may force women to take drastic measures.
State Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) made the rounds of the Sunday shows today. My favorite comment was the one asked by David Gregory on Meet The Press when he asked if she’s just delaying the inevitable. She responded by saying, “I don’t thinks it’s every acceptable to concede the argument on incredilby important issues like this”. And that’s the point even if this fight is lost, fighting for it is likley to bring those who have been sitting out into this and future fights.
The longer this fight goes on the better it is for the Democrats and worse it gets for the GOP. The 2nd special session starts tomorrow. Or as Kuff says, Time to lace up your Mizunos and head back to the Capitol.
Further Reading:
Filibuster Drama Shows Side of Texas Rarely Seen.
Wendy Davis says Rick Perry talks small government but likes big government when to his political advantage.
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06.28.13
Posted in Around The Nation, Around The State, Had Enough Yet? at 3:56 pm by wcnews
Scotus had a big week:
Fisher v. University of Texas – in plain English.
Shelby County v. Holder, the end of preclearance in the Voting Rights Act – in plain English.
United States v. Windsor, aka the end of DOMA – in plain English.
There was huge political goings-on in Texas:
The rise of Wendy Davis – What the future may hold for Wendy Davis.
The end of David Dewhurst’s political career – For Dewhurst, a Critical Failure With a Large Audience.
Another oops by Rick Perry – Perry v. Davis. Round 1.
Texas Rush wants to move up – Patrick is in for Lite Gov.
Also:
The President gave a speech on climate change – Seeking More Presidential Action, Less Rhetoric, on Warming.
It’s been a huge news week. Three historic (not all in a good way), SCOTUS decisions. (This one was under the radar, A Legal Blow to Sustainable Development).
It’s hard to say anything new about what went on in the Texas Senate on Tuesday into Wednesday morning. Democrats in Texas certainly hope this is a seminal moment in Texas politics. But I hope every Texan knows now that the GOP in Texas can no longer be moderated. They will do everything they say. People in this state can no longer blow off voting and believe the GOP won’t go forward with it’s extreme agenda. And if Texans have finally awakened to the seriousness of the Texas GOP’s extremism, then so be it, better late then never. But the only way to end the extremism is to vote the extremists out.
I would like nothing more then to see Wendy Davis make a run for Texas Governor. Democrats need to take a chance, with a quality candidate sooner, rather then later, to see where they really stand. If she will have the ability to fundraise nationally, and even internationally, and have a movement of the people behind her there’s no telling what might happen. Not to mention the havoc a new electorate could wreak on Republicans up and down the ballot in Texas in 2014. But without a movement and financial support there is no chance.
Rick Perry showing himself as an idiot and Dewhurst looking weak are just par for the Texas political course. But a right wing crazy like Texas Rush trying to take advantage of that weakness shouldn’t shock anyone or, as Kuff says (see above), scare anyone anymore. Especially after the idiocy of Jody Laubenberg. But it can still get worse if the people don’t act.
As the Summer weather heated up this week so did the news.
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06.25.13
Posted in Around The Nation, Around The State, Elections, Had Enough Yet? at 5:15 pm by wcnews
While Chief Justice John Roberts is right that “our country has changed”, the South hasn’t. As the recent NYT article shows. Here’s the last paragraph of Roberts opinion, via TPM, Supreme Court Guts The Voting Rights Act.
“Our decision in no way affects the permanent, nationwide ban on racial discrimination in voting found in §2. We issue no holding on §5 itself, only on the coverage formula. Congress may draft another formula based on current conditions,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “Such a formula is an initial prerequisite to a determination that exceptional conditions still exist justifying such an ‘extraordinary departure from the traditional course of relations between the States and the Federal Government.’ … Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions.”
The dissent was bitter, Justice Ginsburg Slams Supreme Court’s ‘Hubris’ In Fiery Dissent On Voting Rights Act.
“The sad irony of today’s decision lies in its utter failure to grasp why the VRA has proven effective,” she wrote. “The Court appears to believe that the VRA’s success in eliminating the specific devices extant in 1965 means that preclearance is no longer needed. … With that belief, and the argument derived from it, history repeats itself.”
One irony is that the reason the changes have occurred in voting is only because of the VRA and preclearance. Without it voting will become much harder for many until we finally make voting a right in the United States of America.Please sign the petition to join Daily Kos, Color of Change, and a growing movement to pass a constitutional amendment guaranteeing and protecting the freedom to vote for all.
The state of Texas has wasted no time in moving it’s voter disenfranchisement plan forward, Photo ID now required for voting in Texas.
Further Reading:
Brains and Eggs, John Roberts: “Our country has changed”.
TXRedistricting, Supreme Court strikes down section 5 coverage formula – the impact for Texas.
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06.24.13
Posted in Around The State, Commentary at 1:33 pm by wcnews
The Texas Progressive Alliance is once again ready to wish the Legislature a happy summer as far away from Austin as possible as it brings you this week’s roundup.
Off the Kuff says to look at Farmers Branch for an example of how to turn out the kind of low-propensity voters that our candidates need to win races.
Ted Cruz outed himself as a sociopath on immigration reform, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs documented his atrocities.
WCNews at Eye on Williamson had this to say about Perry and the GOP playing politics with the Public Integrity Unit, It’s not shocking or unfair, it’s what they do.
At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw explains Perry’s approach to healthcare in Rick Perry’s Texas. No Obamacare. No Perrycare. Give it a read.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to know Republicans prefer business profits to safe food. I wonder where they eat.
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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
Open The Taps thanks everyone for getting the craft beer bills passed while promising to be back for more in 2015.
Keep Houston Houston doesn’t think closing streets at railroad crossings is a good idea.
The Lunch Tray pleads for common sense in labeling GMO foods.
Concerned Citizens has some advice for San Antonio’s new Council members.
Juanita cannot believe she has to talk about fetal masturbation.
Texas Leftist reminds us why we celebrate Juneteenth.
Texas Watch celebrates their victories from the 83rd Lege.
Texpatriate goes George Carlin on the anti-woman caucus of the Legislature.
Flavia Isabel asks a favor of Amazon.
And finally, former Texan Elise Hu puts her time in Austin to a strangely appropriate use.
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06.19.13
Posted in 83rd Legislature, Around The State, Commentary, Special Session at 2:29 pm by wcnews
Last night the Texas Senate passed SB 5, an omnibus anti-abortion bill, on a 20-10 vote. To Republicans it’s a bill to improve the quality of care, and to Democrats it is a bill that will restrict access to abortion. From the Texas Tribune, After Hours of Debate, Senate OKs Abortion Regulations.
“My objective first and foremost, second and third, is to raise the standard of care,” said state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the author of Senate Bill 5, which passed 20-10 and now heads to the House for approval.
SB 5 includes three abortion regulation measures that failed to reach the floor of either chamber during the regular legislative session: a requirement that abortions be performed in ambulatory surgical centers, which state Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, has filed as SB 24 in the special session; a requirement that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion facility; and a requirement that if doctors administer the abortion inducing drug, RU-486, they do so in person, which state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, has proposed separately in SB 18 in the special session.
[...]
The Republican-led Senate tabled all of the amendments to SB 5 offered by Democrats, including a measure to exempt drug-induced abortions from the requirement that abortions be performed at surgical facilities, a proposal to push the effective date of the surgical facility requirements from 2014 to 2015 to allow existing clinics more time to comply with the regulations, and a provision to exempt abortion facilities located more than 50 miles from another facility that primarily serve rural communities. The Senate also rejected proposals by Democrats to increase financing for women’s health services, expand Medicaid coverage to poor adults and reduce unwanted pregnancies by offering evidence-based sexual education in public schools.
“Truly, this isn’t about making women safe,” said state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. She highlighted legislative testimony by medical experts, such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who argued the abortion regulations in SB 5 would endanger women by requiring the use of outdated medical protocols and decreasing access to legal abortion services. “It’s about political primaries and making sure you’re feeding the red meat [to] the people who will be voting in those primaries,” she said.
According to the Department of State Health Services, the most recent death in Texas related to an abortion procedure occurred in 2001 from a drug-induced abortion. The most recent death from a surgical abortion occurred in 2000.
Deuell, a family physician, denied Davis’ assertions that the abortion legislation was “red meat” for GOP primaries and defended the provisions in SB 5.
“Medicine has found out that when you adhere to certain standards for certain surgical procedures that the outcomes are better — there’s less infection, there’s less bleeding, there’s less complications,” he said. Deuell also argued that abortion providers have the money to improve their facilities to meet the regulatory standards in SB 5 and SB 24, and he said the legislation would result in more than 30 clinics becoming ambulatory surgical centers.
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, a pharmacist, offered an amendment, which was rejected, that would have removed a requirement in SB 5 that physicians follow the FDA regimen for drug-induced abortions. She argued that the regimen the FDA developed 13 years ago is outdated and that most doctors currently follow an evidence-based protocol backed by medical associations to induce abortion with lower doses of the medication.
“Why would we endanger a women with three times the dose of that drug when that’s not the way it’s currently used?” Van de Putte asked Hegar. “It’s more toxic. It’s got more side effects, and if this is really about women’s health, why would you do that?”
Hegar defended the drug regimen required by the bill, saying that the “FDA has not signed off on these additional evidence-based methods that you mentioned.” Later, he accepted an amendment offered by Deuell to allow evidence-based protocol for the administration of drug-induced abortions.
Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) hit the nail on the head last night when he said that the best way to reduce abortions is to limit the number of unintended pregnancies. A major factor regarding why a woman terminates a pregnancy is her financial circumstance, which is one result of income inequality. According to XXXX:
As the economic downturn continues, abortion rates – especially among poor women – are rising. Birth rates are falling, and demand for contraceptive services, including vasectomies, is increasing. Currently available research and data support the explanation that lower incomes and rising unemployment are affecting Americans’ choices about pregnancies. This is consistent with research showing that financial circumstances have always been a major determinant of women’s choices regarding unintended pregnancy. Poor women are more likely to terminate unintended pregnancies than their more well-to-do counterparts. As more women and families fall below the poverty line and are otherwise constrained by financial circumstances, abortion rates can be expected to rise.
Texas, of course, is known to have a high rate of income inequality, which likely contributes significantly to the incidence of unintended pregnancies being terminated in Texas. Also note that poor women, as opposed to wealthier women, are more likely to terminate a pregnancy and those poorer women are exactly the ones who will be affected the most by these new regulations. Fixing economic inequality and the neglect of social issues in Texas would do more to prevent the number of abortions than shutting down accessibility to abortion.
Sen. Watson also tried to pass an amendment to reduce unwanted pregnancies by offering evidence-based sexual education in public schools, which is much needed. Sen. Eddie Lucio’s (D-McAllen) pro-life comments have gotten much play, but what’s missing are the comments he made about the GOP, and I’m paraphrasing, caring only about the unborn and not wanting to provide for children once they’re born.
Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) has again shown herself as a champion for women’s issues and the issues of hard working Texans. She is definitely one of the brightest stars on the Democratic side not named Castro.
The bill now moves to the House where Speaker Joe Straus will have to decide if he’s going to allow this bill to move to the floor for debate and likely passage. Will Straus allow a vote and force his lieutenants and fellow “moderates” to choose between voting anti-abortion or pro-choice, where they would have to choose between giving red meat to either a primary opponent or general election opponent?
The last thing on this is that if SB 5 becomes law, will this change anything in Texas, politically speaking? Will this issue, the GOP’s attack on women, which infuriates a lot of women in Texas, be a driving force in the 2014 election cycle in Texas? The GOP has done some really infuriating things in the recent past–defunding public education, children’s health care, Medicaid–and it’s hasn’t changed how Texans vote. But until there is a movement of the poeple to get rid of the current elected representatives and replace them with some new ones, nothing is going to change.
Further Reading:
Democrats reaction via First Reading, Change of venue: Senate sends abortion and roads bills to the House.
“Democrats focused much of their ire on the surgical center provision, charging that it is intended to close the state’s 37 clinics by making it too expensive to meet certification standards, including large operating rooms with specialized medical equipment, sterile-environment ventilation systems, backup generators, difficult-to-retrofit standards such as minimum widths for hallways and other rules found in 117 pages of government regulations.”
“Tonight, a majority of my colleagues advanced a bill that they claim would protect women’s health and safety. In fact, it will deny them their constitutional rights,” said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, “It is obvious that the real goal of this bill is to make it harder, even impossible, for women to elect a procedure that is perfectly legal — especially women who live hundreds of miles from major urban areas, the only places in the state that will still have abortion facilities if this bill becomes law.”
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06.18.13
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Cronyism at 11:00 am by wcnews
There’s a lot of ink and bytes being spilled over Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s veto of the funding for the Public Integrity Unit (PIU). Some are shocked and others thinks it’s unfair. But it’s neither. It’s what the Texas GOP and Perry have been doing since they took complete control of our state government. They exploit any and every opportunity, no matter how shocking and unfair the Texas village may think it is.
In this case Perry is trying to get around having his cancer agency (CPRIT) being scrutinized for allegations on cronyism and lack of oversight. And maybe giving Tom DeLay as little help as well.
The Public Integrity Unit has work to do only because it’s in Austin, the seat of state government. Legal tangles involving state officials, many of them ethics cases, are filed there.
The unit is investigating millions of dollars in grants given by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas without proper vetting to entities run by closely connected individuals.
In 2010, the unit’s work led to the conviction of former House Speaker Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, on money-laundering charges. DeLay is appealing the case.
And the 30 people whose jobs Gov. Perry has vetoed and the important work they are doing.
The PIU is currently investigating more than 400 cases, including one involving the alleged misuse of $56 million intended for cancer research that is suspected of going into companies with investors who support Gov. Perry.
The unit employs 35 people, including 10 assistant district attorneys, seven investigators, and six forensic accountants.
Kuff has a breakdown of what will be tried to keep the PIU up and running. And Perry still looks like a shoo-in to win his parties nomination for another term. None of this is to excuse what Rosemary Lehmberg did. But it’s certainly a convenient excuse to wipe our an agency our elected officials, of both parties, have never liked.
[UPDATE]: Lehmberg’s response via QR:
“The Governor’s veto removed the funding for the Public Integrity Unit, but the responsibility for these cases remains with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.”
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06.17.13
Posted in Around The State, Commentary at 9:47 am by wcnews
The Texas Progressive Alliance dismayed but not surprised by the hard right turn of the special session as it brings you this week’s roundup.
Off the Kuff wants to know where are all the jobs that Rick Perry is supposedly poaching from other states.
The cruel conditions that are allowed to persist in Texas, while it’s proclaimed to be a miracle economy, is deplorable. That’s why WCNews at Eye on Williamson says The Texas Budget comes up short.
There were some fireworks at last week’s redistricting hearing in Houston, but a few of them turned out to be just sparklers. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs provides the details.
Judge Edith Jones is a piece of work. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chimse hopes that the judges reviewing the complaints against her force an impeachment.
Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker explores The Invisible Abomination – Texas and the indigent mentally ill.. Give it a read, its time more people knew about this!
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Swamplot and Glasstire eulogize Houston “pop-up” sculptor Lee Littlefield.
Scott Braddock tells the tragic tale of the bill that would have helped prevent worker misclassification, a/k/a payroll fraud, had it not suffered the usual fate of well-intentioned reform bills in the Legislature.
Nonsequiteuse marvels at a recent example of trivializing violence in the media.
Better Texas reminds us that the fight to expand health care access to all of Texas will continue after the Legislature finally leaves.
BOR notes how far out of touch with public opinion on immigration reform Texas’ Senator are.
Colin Strother and Texas Leftist are firmly on board the Sebastien De La Cruz bandwagon.
Texpatriate publishes its own Best and Worst Legislators list.
Texas Vox bemoans the veto of the omnibus ethics bill.
Juanita is spitting mad at the veto of the Lilly Ledbetter bill.
Egberto Willies talks to Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the author of the Ledbetter bill, about Perry’s veto. She vows to bring the bill back next session.
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06.16.13
Posted in Around The Nation, Had Enough Yet?, Money In Politics at 2:19 pm by wcnews
It’s not the people we elect but the political system they’re are elected into that is our problem. And until that’s fixed the problems of the American people cannot and will not be fixed. That’s the takeaway fromthis must watch video or Lawrence Lessig on Bill Moyers & Company this week.
One of the best parts is when he describes his plan for what he calls a “money bomb“:
BILL MOYERS: You have been putting forward a great big idea that you think might make a significant difference in this and radically change the system. It’s called the money bomb.
LAWRENCE LESSIG: It, yeah, well, right, the money bomb is a mechanism for creating the political power that we need to force this change. The change is not such a huge change relative to what other states, even what New York is thinking about right now, just changing the way you fund elections. But the money bomb is let’s figure out how much it would cost in the next two election cycles to win enough seats in the United States Congress to guarantee we get this change.
You know, I don’t know what that number is, but we’re hiring a group to calculate that number let’s say it’s a half a billion dollars. So then let’s go around to 50 billionaires and say to them, “Okay, we want you to write, we want you to promise in Kickstarter-like way, that if we find 49 other people to write a check for that number over 50, you will write a check for that same amount.”
So whether it’s a $10 million check or a $50 million check, I don’t know what the number is going be, but commit to us that you do that. So that by the end of this we’ve got a super PAC with the power to end all super PACs.
It would be for the purpose of electing representatives and a president committed to, we’d identify the package of reform they’ve got to promise. So you go into a district and you say, “Okay fine if this congressperson is not committed to that, we’re going to take that congressperson off, take that congressperson–”
BILL MOYERS: You’re going to punish him for not supporting reform?
LAWRENCE LESSIG: Right. Now, of course, you had Jonathan Soros on your show and Jonathan Soros gave us the pilot that demonstrated how powerful this idea could be. Soros ran a little super PAC called Friends of Democracy. They targeted eight seats. They spent about $2.5 million, not a lot of money, and seven of those eight seats flipped in the way they wanted it to flip.
They made money in politics the issue and in seven of those eight seats people came out and said, “Fine, that’s right. This guy is corrupt in our view and we’re going totake him out.” Now, if you in 2014 went from eight seats to 80 seats and you won even 50 of those 80 seats on the basis of money in the politics so if you had $50 million in 2014 and you won 50 of those seats, that would terrify the United States Congress.
So when you came back in 2016 there would be a lot of people who would all of a sudden magically have become reformers in this fight and we would have a real chance to get a Congress committed to in 2017 their very first bill being the bill to enact the change that gives us a reason once again to have confidence in the system. Now, it’s a huge fight.
And the reason that money bomb has gotta be so big is that the closer we get and the closer that K Street realizes that we might actually have a chance of winning, they’re going to create all sorts of pushback. Because if we win lobbyists don’t go away. We need lobbyists. Lobbyists are an important part of our system. But the value of lobbying services gets cut in half, right, because they are no longer the fundraiser-lobbyist. They are just somebody, a policy wonk giving a good idea about what they want. So you know, as John Edwards used to say when we used to quote John Edwards, there’s all the difference in the world —
BILL MOYERS: The former John Edwards.
LAWRENCE LESSIG: –yeah. There’s all the difference in the world between a lawyer making an argument to a jury and a lawyer handing out $100 bills to the jurors. And our lobbying system doesn’t understand that difference.
Lessig’s plan cannot succeed without an involved populace and politicians that are accountable to the people and not just the wealthy and corporations like we have now. We’ve all let our democratic muscles atrophy, it’s long past time we started working them our again. This is a great place to start. More at Rootstrikers, Three easy asks.
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06.14.13
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Corruption, Open Government at 2:42 pm by wcnews
Ever since taking over complete control of our state’s government the GOP has had it out for the Public Integrity Unit (PIU) that resides inside the Travis County District Attorney’s office. The Democrats, when they were in power, didn’t like it much either. Which means it probably does a good job. The PIU is known for taking on political corruption in our state – see Tom DeLay. But as Nate Blakeslee points out, Sneak Attack on Public Integrity Unit?, the PIU does much more.
The Public Integrity Unit doesn’t just do public corruption investigations—it also prosecutes insurance fraud and tax fraud, including on sales of gasoline and tobacco. In the last 4 years, the unit has recovered over $8 million in restitution. With no funding, those investigations would cease, too. In other words, Zedler wouldn’t just be screwing the men and women of the Public Integrity Unit, he’d be screwing the taxpayers of Texas–which is something that Tom Delay would not have appreciated.
They’re also looking into Gov. Perry’s cancer agency, CPRIT. Which is likely why Perry is making threats.
A number of Republican efforts have failed to dislodge her from the office, which she steadfastly has maintained that she intends to keep. As the Travis County DA, Lehmberg’s office also oversees the public integrity unit that investigates malfeasance by public officials.
The problem with Perry’s insistence that she step down or see all funding cut for the public integrity unit is that the office currently is investigating Perry appointees and their roles in awarding millions in public money to cancer research outfits — some that had ties to Perry backers — that failed to undergo the normal vetting process.
Glenn Smith, director of the Democratic group Progress Texas political action committee, filed a criminal complaint last year with the district attorney’s office over the dealings in the Cancer Prevention and Reseach Institute of Texas.
Smith said he is alarmed the the governor would veto money for the public integrity unit, seeing such a move as a gross conflict of interest.
“Killing funding for the public integrity unit obviously would end the investigation into CPRIT, which is looking at at diversions of public money to Perry cronies,” Smith said.
Rich Parsons, spokesman for the governor, said Perry is concerned at the integrity of the district attorney’s office under Lehmberg. Perry would appoint her replacement should she step down.
And Texans for Public Justice is alleging those threats may be illegal, Governor’s Threats to Travis County DA Likely Violate the Law Says TPJ Complaint.
In a complaint sent to prosecutors today, Texans for Public Justice alleges that Governor Rick Perry potentially committed several criminal offenses related to his recent threatto use his discretionary power to withhold money from the Travis County District Attorney’soffice unless DA Rosemary Lehmberg resigns. TPJ believes the governor’s actions violate the Texas Penal Code, Title 8, Offenses Against Public Administration.
“Governor Perry has no legal authority to remove the Travis Country District Attorney from her job. Threatening to take an official action against her office unless she voluntarily resigns is likely illegal,” said Craig McDonald, TPJ Director.
“The governor overstepped his authority by sticking his nose in Travis County’s business. Alegal process is currently underway. That process is alone should determine the fate of the District Attorney.
“Governor Perry’s official threats attempt to obtain two things that he can’t achieve through legal democratic means. First, to remove an elected Democrat and replace her with an appointedRepublican DA. Second, to wipe out the state’s public corruption watchdog, which is currently investigating corruption in at least one of the governor’s signature corporate subsidy programs.
Of course all of this was only made possible because of the horrible decisioin that Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg made in driving drunk and her actions while under arrest. But it’s clear that Perry and the wing nuts see this as a great excuse to take power from the PIU which is one of the best checks the people of Texas have on power. And of course Perry sees it as a way to deal with a possible political problem, by appointing a loyalist to a position to make a possible problem go away. It wouldn’t be the first time, see John Bradley and the Forensic Sciences Commission.
There are petitions pending to remove Lehmberg and a recent Statesman editorial asked Perry’s move unseemly.
Lawsuits citing intoxication and official misconduct have been filed to remove Lehmberg from office. They are winding their way toward a trial date.
The governor would clearly be acting within his authority if he were to line out the integrity unit’s budget. But just because he can doesn’t mean he should. Instead, Perry should let the petitions take their legal course. Instead, the governor is threatening to neuter the Public Integrity Unit to force Lehmberg to resign, and by getting involved in this way Perry is complicating matters he should let Lehmberg and others deal with.
In a senatorial understatement to Ward, Democratic state Sen. Kirk Watson of Austin said it would be “very unfortunate if the governor is going to do this.” Indeed.
We’ll be more direct than Watson: It’s unseemly politics.
While Lehmberg’s mistake was bad she plead guilty, did her time in jail, and is now in treatment. It doesn’t make up for what she did but it looks like she is trying to atone. But Perry sticking his nose into this, in a big way, might be enough to make those who saw this as a non-political issue to think twice. Clearly those in power see this as a golden opportunity to move against the PIU, which they’ve been after for a long time.
Further Reading:
Perry will veto Integrity Unit funds unless Lehmberg resigns.
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06.13.13
Posted in 83rd Legislature, Bad Government Republicans, The Budget at 2:36 pm by wcnews
Yesterday I went through several ways The Lege came up short in creating the budget last session. Better Texas has much more in their 2013 Lege Wrap-Up, about what was and was not in the budget.
But there’s an effort afoot on the right to make the right wing budget that passed look moderate, or even librul. Via the HChron, Republicans bristle over budget criticism.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams R-The Woodlands, hit back Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal’s “Texas Goes Sacramento” editorial and Texas groups that he contended have misled the publication about growth in the budget.
This is nothing more then an effort to push the middle further to the right. Make no mistake, they passed a cruel right wing budget and we will be paying for the neglect for decades to come.
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