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March 20, 2004

Who's the Real Republican in TX-10?

By Byron LaMasters

In the new congressional district 10 where Austin is linked to Katy in a snake of a district, you might be confused (especially if you're seeing the ads in the Austin and Houston media markets) that there's two Democrats running in the Republican run-off for the open seat. Ben Streusand is attacking Michael McCaul of working for Democrats in the past, and McCaul is attacking Streusand for giving money to Democrats in the past. Personally, I don't care who wins. Despite the attack ads, both seem to be equally right-wing in their philosophy, and I'd be shocked if either would answer to anyone but Tom DeLay while in Congress (after all, he's the reason one of them will be my next congressman). The Austin American Statesman reports on the latest:

Streusand's new 15-second commercials are aimed at questioning McCaul's Republican credentials, despite the fact that McCaul is backed by Bush and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

"Mike McCaul worked for liberal Democrat, Attorney General Jim Mattox," one of the ads says.

McCaul, then a recent law school graduate, worked in the Texas attorney general's office as a nonpolitical hire from 1987 to 1990.

[...]

Streusand defended the commercial, saying, "I think when you've spent half your career working for Democrats, it's hard to escape a logical conclusion that the time you spend working for Democrats indicates an affiliation with the philosophy of the Democrat Party."

Another new Streusand ad, in a reference to McCaul's stint as a federal prosecutor, says, "McCaul worked for Bill Clinton and Janet Reno for six years, and Reno picked McCaul to defend her actions at Waco."

As a federal prosecutor, McCaul was a nonpolitical hire who worked under two Republican and one Democratic president.

[...]

A third new Streusand ad shows a photo of Johnny Chung, who pleaded guilty to making illegal contributions to Democrats, including the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1996.

The ad says, "This Chinese agent illegally funneled $30,000 to Clinton's campaign. McCaul got him off with just five years' probation."

Chung also pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

McCaul said the ad makes it look as if he was Chung's defense lawyer when he was the lead prosecutor in the case.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Chung faced 12 to 18 months in prison. McCaul said he made no sentencing recommendation in the case.

McCaul said Chung earned the reduced sentence because he provided crucial information linking top Chinese intelligence officials to contributions to Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.

[...]

A new McCaul commercial questions Streusand's GOP credentials by noting his contributions to former U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Houston, ($500) and former Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Krueger ($1,750), who was defeated in a 1993 special election by Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison.

The ad, which does not mention the more than $500,000 Streusand has given to Republicans, says Streusand gave money to "liberal Democrat Bob Krueger to help Ted Kennedy control the U.S. Senate."

Streusand said Friday that his donations to Bentsen and Krueger "were business-related at the time."


Sigh. At least Lloyd Doggett's district is only a block away. If I need anything from a congressman, I'll still send my letters his way.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at March 20, 2004 04:26 PM | TrackBack

Comments

At least McCaul is from Austin.

Posted by: blue at March 20, 2004 08:58 PM

Remember how the Dems complained that there would be zero representatives from the Austin area after redistricting?

Well, we already have two: Doggett and Carter (Round Rock). McCaul would be number three. So you lose your right to complain about your representative being from Houston if you don't vote in the runoff. (Granted that you can't if you already voted in the Dem primary.)

Struesand seems to be the nuttier of the two anyway.

TM

Posted by: TM at March 20, 2004 09:18 PM

Round Round is NOT Austin!

Posted by: blue at March 20, 2004 10:29 PM

TM-

If I were just a little more petty I'd want your IP address banned- calling Round Rock Austin is a crime beyond all understanding... Austin is hip, open minded, laid back, progressive, modern and full of life and excitement. Round Rock is a suburb- an expletive. Not only that, but the needs of urban residents in East Austin and the interests of urban constituencies are vastly different from those of upper income suburbs. John Carter doesn't represent our interests.

Having said that, I am totally kidding about the IP Address thing and if one of these gasbags has to end up in the House of Representatives I suppose I'd say McCall so that Austin can have another voice in Congress and because Streusand is a freak. Still, I feel bad for the Democrats in that district, at least one Dem should have stood up and ran. Hopefully we can field a legit write in candidate or maybe a Green will run.

Finally, Streusand's ads are hideously misleading and outright dishonest. When I waited tables in a restaurant in High School most of my bosses were hard core Republican. Would that give a political opponent the right to say "Andrew Dobbs spent over a year working night and day for conservative Republicans!" Of course not, and McCall's work in the Texas AG's office and the Justice Dept. seems to be about as political as jockeying food to tables in HS. This should be an interesting case study into the prevailing political philosophy of "it doesn't matter what you say because they'll never hear the response." McCall needs to come back not with "Streusand gave $2,000 to Democrats (and half a million bucks to the GOP)" but with "Ben Streusand's a liar." We'll see what happens.

Posted by: Andrew D at March 21, 2004 12:45 AM

RE: Andrew's post that "Austin is hip, open minded, laid back, progressive, modern and full of life and excitement. Round Rock is a suburb- an expletive."

REALLY??

When was the last time that the Round Rock PD arrested musicians doing a harmless little end-of-show congo at a major musical festival? I'll admit that John Carter isn't a real hip guy, but when he was district judge, we would have punished the cops and not the drummer!

Posted by: notgonnatell at March 21, 2004 11:02 AM

Funny, in that list of things I said about Austin, "perfect" didn't make it in the list. We have some issues to be worked out, but I think that taking one unfortunate incident and saying that that stains an otherwise great city (with a very effective and professional police force, btw) is absurd.

Posted by: Andrew D at March 21, 2004 08:36 PM

I've had enough!!!! First John the Undevine smears McCaul with this "worked for democrats" nonsense, now Streysand has taken up the torch. I've researched this issue, McCaul is about as close to a modern patriot as you're gonna find today. Imagine, you work as a federal prosecutor, and you push forward with a prosecution that results in sworn testimony that ties the President's party with money from the Chinese CIA. This actually occurred. I'm voting for the guy that had the guts to do the right thing despite the cost to his career.

Posted by: Greg Goodrum at March 23, 2004 09:49 PM

Do prosecutors make it a practice of having the defendant over to dinner and calling them a "hero". If you like this kind of character in your future Congressman, then McCaul's your man.

Posted by: John Freedman at March 24, 2004 11:06 AM

I'll bet Clinton and the Chinese CIA took a dim view of Chung's live sworn testimony. Gee, I wonder how Bob Krueger and Ken Bentsen felt. They were both the recipients of Mr. Streysand's generousity. How can Benjamin Streusand call himself a Republican after giving campaign contributions to the likes of those two? It's a wonder he didn't give money to Hilary (or did he?)

Posted by: Greg Goodrum at March 24, 2004 09:34 PM

Yes a sum total of $2000 and change to democrats. Over $500,000 contributed and raised for Republicans.

McCaul's total contributions $1000 to Bush (Wow that is large!!!) Yes Greg you have convinced me that McCaul is the Republican of the year!

Posted by: John Freedman at March 25, 2004 12:43 PM

Rumor has it that Clear Channel has cut a deal with Kay Bailey. KBH endorses son-in-law McCaul, CC backs KBH in her run against Perry.

CC buys themselves a Congressmen to deal with their FCC problems and maybe a Governor to boot.

Posted by: Jack Snow at March 26, 2004 09:08 PM

I'm amused that I cannot find a streusandforcongress.com to post my not so flattering comments about the unpleasant possiblity that Ben Streusand may be my representative. At least McCaul had one. I'm so thrilled that I will be represented by someone who expends their resources trying to convince me that their opponent is a Godless-Closet-Democrat, instead of trying to convince me why I should vote for them (as if I would).

Posted by: Andrew at March 26, 2004 09:27 PM

Yes Andrew if you were smart enough to do a simple search, you might find out that it is streusandforcongress.org. (.com websites are suppose to be reserved for companies.) Oh that's right mccaulforcongress is a subsidiary of Clear Channel, I forgot.

Posted by: John Freedman at March 29, 2004 12:42 PM

I can't believe McCaul keeps portraying himself as a victim here... he
hasn't exactly been shy about trying to tie Streusand to the Dems. I
also can't believe that people believe this nonsense about his work for
Reno being "non-political." If you were a committed Democrat (getting
ready to run for office), how would you like being picked by Ashcroft
to personally defend his cover-ups and mistakes? Reno was known to
clean house when she took office; many others quit while working for
her citing their uneasiness with the way she ran the place. It's not
like Mike couldn't afford to look for another job...

Posted by: mary elizabeth at March 31, 2004 10:52 AM
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