June
15, 2006
Political Picks and
Pans
By Jack D. McNamara
Texas Democrats
met
last weekend in Fort Worth for their state convention.
They made very little news. In the San Antonio Express-News (online) of
June 12 for example, it was “Demos defeat impeachment resolution.”
Impeach President Bush? Republicans may be down in the polls but they
still occupy the offices of the President, a majority of the U.S.
Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the Texas governorship, the
Texas Legislature and the courts. One delegate, Pat Blankenship of
Travis County, was quoted “Let’s think pragmatically and get someone
elected before we start throwing people out.” The impeachment
resolution was defeated.
The conventioneers endorsed a slate of “newcomers” who will face
well-known Republican incumbents with plenty of cash in what appears to
be a lost cause. Nevertheless we heard some good one-liners. Attorney
General candidate Davis Van Os said “Fight them (presumably
Republicans) till hell freezes over, and then fight them on the ice.”
Unknown candidates and no money … the party did strike a different
posture on what is increasingly a national issue as well as a state
issue — illegal immigration. Sunday’s Houston Chronicle headline was
“Democrats mock border wall — Platform takes a swipe at GOP support for
plan to stop illegal immigration.”
The rather desperate plight of Texas Democrats was illustrated by the
Sunday editorial in the Austin American-Statesman. The Statesman is a
traditionally Democratic newspaper published by a historically
Democratic family, Cox Enterprises, in a Democratic stronghold of
Texas’s former Democratic President Lyndon Baines Johnson. So the
editorial by Rich Oppel? “Perry (Texas Governor Rick Perry) allays
reservations about his ability to govern.”
We do not intend to mock the Texas Democrats. We nevertheless marvel
constantly at how far the party has fallen from their historical
monopoly. A republic needs an alternate political choice. Plenty of
small Democratic enclaves remain in Texas counties, including Presidio
County. There are other counties in which most officeholders are
nominally Democrats but, in fact, act like Republicans, like Brewster
County.
Perhaps we should take Kinky Friedman more seriously?
Lawyers
at Work
Life goes on here on the Last Frontier, however and several of our
residents are prominently and gainfully employed. Bob Campbell of the
Midland Reporter-Telegram tells us of an appeal of a 2004 conviction.
Twenty-nine people associated with a methamphetamine gang called the
Aryan Circle were indicted. Ten were tried and convicted before U.S.
District Judge Robert Junell and now are headed for the U.S. 5th
Circuit Court of Appeals on September 4th.
The Aryans will be represented by several area attorneys, including
Steve Spurgin, Rod Ponton, and Kirk Meade. Read all about it at
mywesttexas.com, “Aryan Circle defendants’ appeals set in fed court,”
6/11.
La
Hideous
John MacCormack of the San Antonio Express (online) 6/12 writes, “Is
the Lajitas Resort in Trouble?” — another rendition of difficulties for
the millionaire developer, Steve Smith. Startling numbers appear in the
article, including a difference of opinion between Smith’s lawyers and
the Internal Revenue Service of “$140 million in contested tax
shelters.”
Last week, according to the article, “Brewster County’s $295,00 tax
bill was paid.”
The resort’s president, Daniel Hostettler, says they have just secured
a $12.5 million loan from Prime Asset Funding of Greenwich, Connecticut.
Billed as the “Ultimate Hideout,” Smith has invested $100 million in
the resort since buying it in 2000, according to the news story.
These are very large numbers. None of the money, however, seems to be
from public entities. This remains newsworthy, perhaps unique here in
the Big Bend for that reason.
Lajitas has come a long way from the beer-drinking goat, Mayor Clay
Henry. Some south county residents have coined the name “La Hideous.”
Art Eatman is quoted concerning the developers in the MacCormack story,
“My view of them is arrogant ignorance.”
“Illegal
Aliens”
Last week we wrote of the use of the term in the ongoing political
imbroglio. Few days had passed before we saw an example.
Ann Coulter is an attractive, “tart-tongued,” right-wing polemicist who
frequently publishes columns and books attacking liberals. Last week
she was promoting her newest book among the talk shows by describing
the widows of men killed in the 9/11 as “witches” and saying “I’ve
never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much.”
Gong! Even her fellow right-wingers criticized Coulter; but of course
the controversy rewarded her with even more publicity on talk shows.
Hence last week she was on Lou Dobbs’ CNN show, luxuriating in the
attention. The discussion inevitably turned to the immigration debate.
Responding to a question from Dobbs, Coulter got a wicked gleam in her
eye, smiled, and referred to the matter as a debate on “illegal aliens.”
There’s a woman who knows how to drive a political wedge. Perhaps the
Texas Democrats should have invited her to Fort Worth. •
(Also
published by the Big Bend Sentinel of Marfa, Texas June 15,
2006.)
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