Get this blog via RSSFebruary 09, 2010
The debate over Texas high-speed rail heats up; state officials say they're making progress
Texas officials concede that the state is behind some other states on planning for high-speed rail, but they are unhappy with the U.S. Transportation Secretary for his sharp criticism of the Lone Star State's efforts.
 Texas Politics photo State Sen. John Carona |
"No question Texas is behind the curve compared to these other states, particularly in terms of funding high-speed rail." said Texas state Sen. John Carona, a leading proponent of high-speed rail.
"However, the Legislature made great strides in the most recent session. We passed legislation creating a Rail Division at the Texas Department of Transportation and requiring a comprehensive, focused state rail plan. We also joined the Southern High Speed Rail Compact, updated intermunicipal rail statutes, and began cooperative efforts with the Northern Flyer Alliance. We are optimistic about bringing high-speed rail into the modal mix in Texas."
Last week, at a breakfast meeting with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood blamed Texas officials for the state's failure to win federal aid for a high-speed rail system linking its major cities.
While Texas did receive a $4 million grant for planning a project in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it was significantly less than other states vying for similar project grants.
"Unless a state or region has its act together, with (local) money, with a good plan that connects things, they're not going to be in the high-speed rail business,"said LaHood.
A spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry dismisses LaHood's comments as Washington-centric bluster.
"This is another example of the Obama administration's presumption that it knows what is best for states, and they don't," said Perry press aide Allison Castle.
Texas transportation officials, elected leaders and private-sector figures have been talking for years about several potential high-speed rail corridors.
The proposed locations would link the population centers of Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Waco and Dallas, yet without proper funding, breaking ground on these projects will inevitably be delayed, frustrating those working to bring high speed rail to Texas.
Still, Texas officials are stung that their bid for federal funding didn't make the cut.
"If they (the Obama administration) were really interested in high-speed rail, they
would have funded our feasibility study rather than funding Amtrak," concluded Castle. "There is nothing high speed about Amtrak."
Posted by Diana Carlton at 12:15 PM in Texas business, White House
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Houston Democrats mourn death of Rep. Murtha
Two Houston-area Democrats serving in Congress are publicly expressing condolences to the family of Rep. Jack Murtha, the former Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam and career-long supporter of the armed forces who died over the weekend.
Murtha had built a loyal following in the House where he devoted his chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee's panel on defense to helping lawmakers win federal spending in their congressional districts.
Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat who died at the age of 77, mentored many incoming members of Congress, as well.
 Chronicle photo Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee |
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, said the nation "lost a war hero of the Vietnam War, an outstanding senior member of Congress and a great patriot."
Murtha will always be remembered for coming out against the war in Iraq during the Bush administration, Jackson lee said.
"When he stood up as a former Marine, and said that we should redirect our efforts away from Iraq and that we were wasting lives and dollars there, it was really the turning point," Jackson Lee said.
"The nation saw his courage first hand when he spoke out against the military engagement in Iraq - winning him the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award."
The congresswoman said she hoped that Murtha's widow Joyce and their three children will take comfort knowing that Murtha had provided leadership to the nation during "a time of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"Jack Murtha was my friend and will be missed by the Congress and the nation."
Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, says Murtha will be "remembered as an American patriot who devoted his life to serving our great nation, first as a soldier in the Korean war and in Vietnam, and later as the Representative of the Pennsylvania 12th Congressional District."
Green said that Murtha had just become the longest-serving Member of Congress from Pennsylvania last Saturday.
"He leaves a legacy of a life dedicated to public service that spanned more than three decades," Green said.
"Rep. Murtha was one of the first Vietnam veterans elected to the House of Representatives, which seemed to be his calling because through his 19 terms he became one of the greatest champions of the group of men and women who are willing to sacrifice all for the sake of freedom and democracy not only in the United States, but also in the rest of the world," Green continued.
Murtha "proved himself highly valuable while serving on the House Committees on Appropriations and Ethics" as well as demonstrating "his passion for public service by mentoring new members of Congress who learned from his expertise."
Green said he was extending his "deep condolences" to Murtha's family.
Posted by stewartpowell at 10:40 AM in Congress (Delegation Watch), Sheila Jackson Lee
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Gary Andres: How Obama blew it on bipartisanship ... and how he can salvage some
Texas on the Potomac welcomes guest opinions from across the political spectrum. Today, we present a commentary from Gary Andres of Dutko Worldwide.
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What went wrong? Simply put, President Obama's wounds were self-inflicted.
For starters, he decided to use his party's large congressional majorities — rather than building bipartisan coalitions — to achieve legislative success. "Having the votes" trumped compromising with Republicans on issue after issue.
But he's keeping hope alive.
He tried to in both the State of the Union address and his more recent appearance at last week's House Republican retreat in Baltimore (a cross section of conservative and liberal bloggers and activists launched a "Demand Question Time" campaign to ensure these bipartisan sessions to occur regularly
Yet despite his rhetorical efforts, the president's bipartisan stew is missing some critical ingredients.
For starters, he has to call out his own party in Congress for its unwillingness to compromise. Focusing all the attention on the GOP's reluctance to bargain makes Obama look either naive or cynical.
Moreover, the president needs to recalibrate both his bipartisan tactics and expectations. All policies are not created equal. Discriminating between realistic bipartisan possibilities and unlikely pipe dreams is another area where the president needs improvement.
His rhetoric and responses to the GOP in Baltimore two weeks ago reveal a president on a steep learning curve when it comes to cutting polarization's Gordian Knot.
For example, he couldn't come up with a convincing retort when Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., asserted at the GOP retreat that the House and Senate Democratic leadership doesn't share Obama's desire for bipartisanship — because they don't.
The exchange underscored how the president's lack of legislative experience undercuts his ability to make good on his post-partisan promise. Up until now, he and the Democrats in Congress virtually ignored Republicans. While the president pays lip service to bipartisanship, his party's leaders in Congress don't even try.
Continue reading "Gary Andres: How Obama blew it on bipartisanship ... and how he can salvage some"
Posted by Richard Dunham at 08:09 AM in Congress (Delegation Watch), Guest Blog, White House
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Today in Texas History: Apollo 14 returns to Earth
 New Mexico Museum of Space History photo Texas native Edgar Mitchell was the lunar module pilot for the Apollo 14 space mission. |
On this date in 1971, the crew of Apollo 14 -- including Texas native Edgar Mitchell -- returned to Earth.
Mitchell, the mission's lunar module pilot, walked on the moon's surface for nine hours and 17 minutes. He and Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard hold the record for the longest time spent moonwalking.
At age 40, Mitchell was the sixth person to walk on the moon.
Mitchell was born in Hereford, Texas on Sept. 17, 1930. Originally a member of the Navy, he was selected to be a NASA astronaut in 1966.
Apollo 14, the third mission to make a lunar landing, launched from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 31, 1971. It landed Feb. 5 in the Fra Mauro, the area that was supposed to be explored by the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission.
One of the objectives of Mitchell's and Shepard's moonwalks was to find the 1,000-foot wide Cone Crater. Though they could not find it, their photographs later showed that they had come within 65 feet of the crater's rim.
After the nine-day mission, the crew landed Feb. 9 and was the final crew to be quarantined after returning from the moon.
Mitchell is the only living crew member, and, at age 78, he currently lives in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Mitchell has said he is "90 percent sure that many of the thousands of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, recorded since the 1940s, belong to visitors from other planets." He also has said aliens have contacted humans numerous times, but this communication has been covered up by various governments.
-- By Hailey Branson
Posted by Richard Dunham at 07:03 AM in Today in Texas History
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News links: Poll says 75 percent 'angry' at government
Welcome to the Texas on the Potomac news links. We will offer Texas links, "Potomac" links for Washington stories and a sampling of the best Texas political blogs. Please feel free to e-mail us with link suggestions.
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Texas Links
Perry says Predator drones should patrol Texas border. The Dallas Morning News>>>
Hearing set in Fort Hood shooting case. The San Antonio Express-News>>>
Texas Nurse to Stand Trial for Reporting Doctor. The New York Times>>>
Michael Jackson's doctor, a Houston cardiologist, pleads not guilty. The Associated Press>>>
Potomac Links
John Murtha dies, special election looms. The Washington Post>>>
For Human Spaceflight, Can Measured Beat Bold? The New York Times>>>
Poll: 75 percent 'angry' at government. Politico>>>
Obama's health care summit: Just for show? The Associated Press>>>
Texas Blogs
Debate: White attacks Perry, Shami makes big promises. The Austin American-Statesman>>>
Perry ad says D.C. changed Hutchison; she hits back with Beck. The Houston Chronicle>>>
Court suppresses evidence from search of Texas polygamist ranch. Grits for Breakfast>>>
Political notes: Medina inspires rap. The Dallas Morning News>>>
Posted by Katie Brandenburg at 05:00 AM in News links
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February 08, 2010
Study: Latinos will play key role in Texas governor's race
Latino voters could play a key role in deciding the outcome of several key 2010 political races across the country, including the Texas gubernatorial contest, a new report released today by liberal groups concluded.
 NCLR La Raza president and CEO Janet Murguia |
The report from America's Voice, a group that advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, found that the economy remains the top issue of concern to Hispanics. But it concluded that candidates' positions on immigration reform could make a big difference in hotly contested elections.
Eliseo Medina, international executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, called immigration reform a "litmus test" for many in the Latino community in deciding how to vote.
The report cited a poll concluding that 87 percent of Latino voters said they wouldn't consider voting for a candidate who was in favor of forcing most undocumented workers to leave the country.
Former Houston Mayor Bill White, the Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner, strongly favors comprehensive immigration reform with a possible pathway to citizenship for those in the U.S. illegally. The Republican field — incumbent Rick Perry and challengers Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Messina — have focused on tighter border enforcement rather than comprehensive reform.
Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza emphasized that Latino voters haven't yet been pushed away from the Republican Party even though they swung toward Democrats in the 2008 presidential election. The votes are still up for grabs if candidates make an effort to appeal to Latinos.
"What matters to us ought to matter to any wise politician seeking office," she said.
Texas is just one of the states where Latinos could sway results. Among the others: California's Senate race, where incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer is facing spirited opposition from three Republicans; Florida, which has open-seat elections for Senate and governor; Nevada, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in deep political trouble; New York and Colorado, where appointed Democrats are trying to win voters' approval to fill the remainder of their terms; and Illinois, where Republican Mark Kirk is leading in the race to fill President Obama's former Senate seat.
Latino voters make up 21.7 percent of Texas voters and have supported Republican candidates such as George W. Bush in the past.
Since then, demonization of Latinos by some Republicans pushed many Latinos back to Democratic candidates, said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice.
 Congressional photo Rep. Lamar Smith |
This trend can be seen in presidential votes in Texas where Latino voters chose Barack Obama over John McCain, 63 percent to 35 percent. In 2004, the vote was more evenly split with John Kerry getting 49 percent of the Latino vote and Bush getting 50 percent, according to the report.
Sharry said there is opportunity for Republicans to regain some of the Latino vote by appealing to the family values of voters as then-President Bush did in 2004.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, took a similar stance when he wrote a commentary in September about how to appeal to Hispanic voters. Smith wrote that, while a mass amnesty program shouldn't be considered, Republicans can appeal to Hispanic voters through shared values on issues such as support for small business and education.
Posted by Katie Brandenburg at 05:26 PM in Bill White, Campaigns, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Rick Perry, Texas Governor's Race
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Llewellyn King: This is no way for President Obama to sell us on his energy policy
Texas on the Potomac regularly offers you insight from Hearst Newspapers columnists including Helen Thomas, Phil Bronstein, Rex Smith and Jonathan Gurwitz. Today, we present a commentary by Llewellyn King, one of Washington's most respected analysts and host of the syndicated "White House Chronicle" television show.
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President Barack Obama has a propensity to take the long way around. This gives his enemies more time to waylay him and perplexes and disheartens his fellow travelers.
Consider these political peregrinations:
On health care, Obama refused to tell his allies where he was going and what he hoped to see in legislation. The result was a congressional scrum from which the ball never emerged.
On dealing with China, the president has meandered around the edge of critical issues like climate change; meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama; and human rights across the board in China.
Obama wants to get China to revalue its currency, and to get Chinese help with Iran and North Korea. But he's on a rambling road to Beijing.
| "If Obama wants every constituency to be happy, none will. He needs to be feared, or at least respected, not liked." |
Instead of cooperation, intolerance and truculence has come out of China. This forces Obama to meet toughness with toughness, as he did by supporting Google and the U.S. arms vendors who have supplied Taiwan.
Boeing is a critical test here, because it has supplied arms to Taiwan and has sold jet airplanes to China. Not a time to go walkabout in the diplomatic woods.
On climate change, Obama's route is again circuitous. His favored tool is the licensing of pollution through a cap-and-trade scheme in which pollution credits will be sold, and non-polluters will profit while polluters will be penalized. It's the kind of arrangement that delights market-design experts in the universities. These are the people who "designed" deregulated market structures for electricity and opened the doors to abuses by Enron and other energy trading shops.
Two of the kings of industry Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil and John Rowe, chairman of the giant utility Exelon, have both said that if they had their druthers, they would rather have a direct carbon tax than one buried in cap-and-trade. (Ironically, it was the American Petroleum Institute that led the successful fight against a carbon tax a generation ago.)
Cap-and-trade is the long way around and Obama is committed to it; which means, like health care, it will probably perish in the Senate.
But that's not all.
Posted by Richard Dunham at 04:45 PM in Energy, Llewellyn King
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Palin says she, Perry 'proudly cling to our guns and religion'
The following post was excerpted from Joe Holley's report in today's print edition of the Houston Chronicle.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's reigning rock star, parachuted into suburban Houston on Super Bowl Sunday, for a rally that had all the trappings of a rock concert — driving music, a boisterous crowd and a genuine star.
 Chronicle photo by James Nielsen Sarah Palin greets adoring fans in Cypress—but there were a lot of empty seats. |
It also included a screeching guitar rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by Ted Nugent that sounded as if the vintage rocker and outspoken conservative channeled Jimi Hendrix.
Wearing a black velvet dress and knee-high suede boots of an Aggie-maroon hue, Palin entered the arena on Perry's arm. The audience responded with a raucous standing ovation, whistles, "We love you, Sarah" shouts and flashing cameras.
| Perry-Palin in 2012? Says Perry aide: "Never gonna happen." |
Some had waited outside for a couple of hours in chilly, overcast weather. The 9,500-seat arena in Cypress was about two-thirds full for the free event.
The 2008 vice-presidential candidate told the cheering crowd that Perry's reelection "will send a message to Washington ... Washington is broken, but your state, under Rick Perry, is setting an example that a lot of others want to follow."
Palin said that she told her daughter Piper, who stood on the stage, that Texas was Alaska's "little-sister state."
"A lot of us in our states proudly cling to our guns and religion," she said.
Asked whether a Palin-Perry ticket might be a possibility in 2012, Perry communication director Mark Miner said, "Never gonna happen."
Posted by Richard Dunham at 10:55 AM in Rick Perry
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Texas refiners slammed by double whammy: Reduced demand, higher prices for crude
The following report was written by Vicki Vaughan of the San Antonio Express-News.
Whispered prayers from the San Antonio headquarters of refining companies Valero and Tesoro are almost audible: Bring back the golden age of refining.
In just over two years, those glory days have eroded in a massive domino effect of bad luck that left Valero Energy Corp. bleeding out almost $2 billion last year and Tesoro Corp. also stuck in the red.
 evolution.skf.com A Valero refinery in Paulsboro, N.J. |
Refiners have been hit with a weakened economy that led to fewer drivers and fewer truckers delivering goods, meaning less demand for fuel. This at the same time the cost of crude oil went up, which lowered the refiners' profit margins.
The situation has experts asking if this is the new normal, or if refiners will return to the 2004-07 era of record profits.
Both companies "have some big problems facing them that are not easy to solve," said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston, an energy consulting firm.
Valero, the nation's largest independent refiner with 15 plants, lost $1.98 billion in 2009 on top of a $1.1 billion loss in 2008. Just two years before, in 2006, its profit had soared to $5.5 billion.
Valero CEO Bill Klesse said recently that he expects the company to turn profitable in 2010, although he told analysts that it will be a challenging year.
Tesoro posted a loss of $140 million in 2009. Profits have eroded since 2006, when the company, which owns seven refineries, earned $801 million and revenue hit a record high of $18 billion.
Continue reading "Texas refiners slammed by double whammy: Reduced demand, higher prices for crude"
Posted by Richard Dunham at 09:02 AM in Energy
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Sen. Hutchison's record in Washington becomes double-edge sword
With her race for governor, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is trying to make a political shift from Capitol Hill to the Texas governor's mansion that only two Texas sematprs have achieved in the past -- Sam Houston in 1859 and Price Daniel did it in 1957.
That's the entire list.
 AP photo Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison |
But the veteran senator is learning that her skills in Washington have become a mixed blessing in the current Republican gubernatorial primary race against incumbent Rick Perry and conservative insurgent Debra Medina.
Perry is trying to turn Hutchison's 17 years of delivering billions of dollars in spending projects to Texas into a political albatross in a volatile election year that already has seen anti-Washington sentiment propel a Republican outsider to an upset Senate victory in Massachusetts.
"People are so angry and scared for our country's future that they're just saying Washington is bad and everybody there is bad," says Hutchison, a former Houston state representative and state treasurer. "People are not saying, 'She's gone to Washington to fight for us.'"
In past years, Hutchison's endorsements by prominent national Republicans, such as former President George H.W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, all of whom boast deep Texas ties, would have been an unalloyed political plus. But this time around, Hutchison's backing by longtime Washington insiders only underscores her links to the nation's capital.
Fresh scrutiny of Hutchison's legislative priorities has thrown the 66-year-old lawmaker on the defensive as she courts the conservative Republican voters who will decide the outcome of the March 2 GOP primary.
"If you're explaining your record, you're losing -- and she's explaining," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University.
Perry repeatedly has tweaked Hutchison for backing the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street firms in the fall of 2008. She said she did it as an act of loyalty to then-President George W. Bush, who asked her to help prevent a national economic meltdown. And her campaign is quick to point out that Perry co-authored a bipartisan letter backing Bush's call for a financial industry rescue.
But rather than simply playing defense on spending issues, Hutchison points with pride to the $2.3 billion in Texas earmarks she has obtained over the last two years.
Among the projects delivered by the senator are highway construction, NASA funding and expansion of Fort Hood and other military installations .
Her inside-the-Beltway maneuvering has paid off for Houston, as well, said Hutchison. She ticks off a long list of area projects, including federal support for Houston Metro, the Port of Houston, the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas and Tier One medical centers.
But Hutchison's Texas track record -- a plus in her 2000 and 2006 re-election races -- suddenly has become a liability .
"Politicians usually benefit from claiming credit for federal spending in their states," said Rice University political scientist Robert Stein. "But federal spending does not help you with Republican primary voters who don't want you spending their money."
On most issues, Hutchison has been a conventional conservative, voting with the majority of Republican colleagues 89 percent of the time. She has been a fervent backer of Pentagon spending and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She consistently has supported tax cuts and opposes government regulation and expansion of federal powers. Last year, she resisted President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package and the auto industry bailout.
Hutchison's anti-Obama push has led her to vote against some of her pet Texas causes, including NASA. Last year, she opposed a $448 billion spending bill that included $18.7 billion for the space agency.
It is Hutchison's detours from GOP orthodoxy, mostly on social issues, that have earned her the "moderate" moniker -- a label she flatly rejects.
Perry has blasted her support for the 1973 Supreme Court ruling upholding a woman's right to abortion, her support for some embryonic stem cell research, her vote to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program and her support for a law giving sex-discrimination victims more time to file employment discrimination claims.
Asked why she wants to be governor, Hutchison sounds like a policy wonk. She said she wants to move to Austin to combat a 30 percent high school drop out rate that imperils Texas' ability to attract next-generation jobs. She promised to revamp the transportation department, clear urban traffic congestion and kill the Trans-Texas Corridor.
She also says she wants to end the long tenure of Perry, promising to end alleged "cronyism and mismanagement" that Perry has used to "treat Texas like his personal kingdom."
Allies say Hutchison sees her long-planned race for governor -- postponed for four years to allow Perry to run unopposed in the 2006 primary -- as the culmination of a distinguished political career.
Instead, amid a national anti-Washington frenzy, the senator so skilled at bringing home the bacon has become mired in a tit-for-tat among three conservative Republicans in a contentious primary.
"She thought she would come home to build coalitions of Republicans and Democrats to achieve big solutions for big problems," said one long-time supporter. "But she's had to throw away that game plan to run the race she has to run to win."
Posted by stewartpowell at 06:00 AM in Congress (Delegation Watch)
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News links: Palin gets rock-star treatment in Texas
Welcome to the Texas on the Potomac news links. We will offer Texas links, "Potomac" links for Washington stories and a sampling of the best Texas political blogs. Please feel free to e-mail us with link suggestions.
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Texas Links
Palin gets rock-star treatment in Cypress. The Houston Chronicle>>>
A fall from Scottish nobility to Texas prison inmate. The Austin American-Statesman>>>
Even GOP conservative Ron Paul draws Tea Party opposition. The Dallas Morning News>>>
Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls to debate. The San Antonio Express-News>>>
Wife of jailed missionary breaks silence. The Amarillo Globe-News>>>
Potomac Links
Obama invites GOP to health-care summit. The Washington Post>>>
Palin Responds to 'Run, Sarah, Run'. The New York Times>>>
Greenspan: Recession 'over'. Politico>>>
Indian Americans' rising political clout. The Los Angeles Times>>>
Texas Blogs
Sarah Palin, on eve of Perry rally, lauds contested primaries. The Dallas Morning News>>>
Labor Sticks with Democrats. The Texas Tribune>>>
The effect of the "Citizens United" decision on judicial elections. Off The Kuff>>>
Win One for the Ricker. The Texas Tribune>>>
Posted by Katie Brandenburg at 05:00 AM in News links
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Today in Texas History: Davy Crockett reaches the Alamo
On this date in 1836 frontiersman David Crockett arrived at the Alamo leading a group of 14 men known as the Tennessee Mounted Rifles.
Crockett was born in Greene County, Tenn., on Aug. 17, 1786. He was an explorer, a military man and later an elected official. He served first as a Tennessee legislator and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1827. He was known for his opposition to President Andrew Jackson and considered running against him for the presidency. That idea ended when he lost his congressional seat to the candidate supported by Jackson and the Tennessee governor.
It was after this loss that Crockett left for Texas. After the defeat he reportedly said, "Since you have chosen to elect a man with a timber toe to succeed me, you may all go to hell and I will go to Texas."
Crockett's successor, Adam Huntsman, was a peg-legged lawyer.
Crockett left for Texas in November of 1835. When he arrived he enlisted as a volunteer and made his way down to San Antonio and the Alamo.
He died on March 6, 1836 in the battle of the Alamo. He was one of the first to fall, according to the diary of a Mexican soldier in the battle.
For more on David Crockett see The Handbook of Texas.
Posted by Katie Brandenburg at 04:00 AM in Today in Texas History
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February 07, 2010
The Week Ahead: Scant hopes for Hill bipartisanship
Welcome to Texas on the Potomac's "The Week Ahead," a preview of events to come on Capitol Hill and at the White House this week.
This week's report was written by William K. Moore of ViaNovo.
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If the key for Democrats in 2010 is to create bipartisan accomplishments, last week was a loss. The outlook for this week is not hopeful, either.
The anvil on which Democrats hope to forge the first of many bipartisan accomplishments is a bill to boost employment, scheduled for the Senate floor this week. House Democrats approved a jobs bill last December without Republican support.
The Senate Democrats' proposal includes a jobs creation tax credit and extension of expiring programs, including highway construction, Build America Bonds, and assistance for the unemployed. The gap between the two parties has grown more distant as the Senate atmosphere has become more poisonous.
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Bipartisan negotiations on financial services regulatory legislation broke down last week as negotiators Democrat Chris Dodd and Republican Richard Shelby hit an impasse over creating a new regulator to write and enforce rules to protect consumers of mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.
Shelby elevated the partisan torment by seeking federal contracts for Alabama by putting filibuster holds on every Obama nomination pending Senate confirmation. Meanwhile, the House cleared legislation to increase the debt ceiling and reinstating statutory pay-as-you-go budget restraints on pure partisan votes.
Democrats have been unable to shove health care reform into the background as they continue to fret publicly about last year's bill. Liberal House Democrats want to re-debate the public insurance option and Mary Landrieu took the Senate floor to defend the bill's $300 million in Medicare money for Louisiana. President Barack Obama set February 25 for a half-day bipartisan negotiating session, to be broadcast live.
If the real key for Democrats is to focus voters on a choice between a nascent economic recovery fostered by Democratic policies and going back to a Republican agenda that fostered the recession, that narrative is yet to take shape.
Posted by Richard Dunham at 09:49 PM in The Week Ahead
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Should it be a crime for Dick Cheney--or you--to carry a weapon while intoxicated?
Texas on the Potomac is pleased to share the best work of the best columnists of Hearst Newspapers. Today, we offer you an analysis written by Casey Seiler of the Albany Times Union.
In February 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney sat down with Brit Hume of Fox News to discuss the notorious incident in which Cheney accidentally shot his friend Harry Whittington in the face during a Texas hunting trip. Had Cheney or anyone else on the outing been drinking?
 AP photo Dick Cheney, on a recent non-hunting trip to Houston, endorsed Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor. |
"No," Cheney said. "You don't hunt with people who drink."
The vice president immediately amended that answer to note that, come to think of it, he and a few other hunters had been drinking — but that was long before Whittington went down.
"We'd taken a break at lunch ... under an old, ancient oak tree there on the place," said Cheney, who allowed that he'd had a beer.
My brother, Cotten, loved the detail of the old oak tree, which Cheney mentioned with a tone of wistfulness — as if he thought it might have been the same tree that Sam Houston or Jim Bowie might have sat under before shooting someone. Cotten decided then and there that if he ever gets in trouble with the law for anything alcohol-related, he'll be sure to include mention of a venerable nearby oak tree in any statement to the arresting officers.
On Thursday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference to tout legislation that would make it a crime to carry a gun while intoxicated — CWI instead of DWI — regardless of your proximity to any sort of tree. Under the proposed law, possession of a weapon by anyone with a blood alcohol higher than .08 would be a class A misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Bloomberg is likely more concerned with what happens on the streets of New York than on a ranch in Texas. But Tom King, president of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, called it a "grandstand move" that would do precisely nothing to prevent bloodshed on the street or on ranches.
King noted that every one of the sportsmen's organizations he belongs to will blackball any member who mixes hunting and boozing. "I've never, ever seen anyone go into the woods with any kind of alcohol," he said.
As a former resident of Wyoming, I told King his observation didn't square with my knowledge of hunting customs, or the experiences of friends who have taken the occasional flask or case of beer into the wilderness.
King said changes to state law shouldn't be based on anecdotal evidence, and he's surely right.
By coincidence, Bloomberg unveiled the legislation just a few days after the 78-year-old actor Rip Torn was arrested after breaking into a bank near his home in Salisbury, Conn. When police arrived, they found that Torn, who specializes in playing steely-eyed alpha males, had removed his boots and was under the impression that the bank was actually his house. They also discovered that he was carrying a .22 pistol, which Torn probably wasn't intending to use on any errant 10-point buck that happened to wander down the streets of Salisbury.
Torn's blood-alcohol content was two and half times the legal limit. The actor has a long and checkered history of alcohol-related behavior.
Would a CWI law have kept the gun out of Torn's pocket? Unlikely. But would it keep weapons out of the pockets, purses and holsters of other people who have had too many?
The next time you're in a bar, take a look around and imagine that everyone's packing. And then, to paraphrase Dirty Harry, ask yourself one question: Do you feel safer?
Posted by Richard Dunham at 01:43 PM in Guest Blog
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