Cornyn Spokesman Lashes Out at Houston Chronicle Reporter

by: David Mauro

Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 06:44 PM CDT

Yesterday, I linked to the Clay Robison's story about how John Cornyn had politicized Hurricane Dolly.

Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin e-mailed Robison informing him that the press release in question had been issued by Cornyn's senate office, not his campaign.

McLaughlin seemed to think he was making a relevant point. In reality, however, the relevation seemed to further cement what Robison had written.

Clearly partisan messages should not be coming from tax-payer funded offices. John Cornyn's campaign team seems to disagree but I think the people of Texas are with us on this one.

Robison also includes in his post a quote from McLaughlin that seems to threaten the reporter with limited access to Cornyn if he continues with his ... well, fair and accurate reporting.

Here's part of Robison's post:

Fortunately, the levees held against the flood waters, but political anger was gushing from the Cornyn camp today. It seems the e-mail wasn't sent by the Republican senator's campaign, but by Cornyn's official, taxpayer-funded office in Washington.

"Your inability to tell the difference between the two is very disconcerting," sputtered Cornyn's campaign spokesman Kevin McLaughlin in an e-mail.

Disconcerting? Perhaps. But it often is difficult to tell the difference between Cornyn's campaign handouts and his official pronouncements, particularly since the official messages (the ones we taxpayers pay for) are headed by Cornyn's name in big letters against a background of those favorite campaign colors -- red, white and blue.

And the message had partisan overtones. By addressing the Senate's Democratic leader, Cornyn's office seemed to be trying to blame the Democrats for underfunding the levee system, when, in fact, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have failed to adequately protect thousands of Valley residents from disastrous flooding.

"Your mistakes have consequences," McLaughlin said.

So does congressional hand-sitting.

In the last 36 hours, John Cornyn and his employees have politicized a  dangerous hurricane and threatened a reporter.

What's next? 

Valley Escapes Tragedy Despite Fed Inaction

by: Glenn Smith

Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 08:56 AM CDT

The Texas Progress Council obtained copies of the formal levee decertification letters. Pdfs of the letters can be found here and here.

FireDogLake carried our summary of the government's callous inaction this morning. Hurricane Dolly's little jog to the northeast before landfall probably prevented a disaster for the 2 million people who live in the region.

Local Valley elected officials have been trying for months and years to get the federal and state governments to address the flooding dangers. Hidalgo County voters in 2006 approved $100 million in bonds to address the issue. They were finally forced to compromise with Homeland Security. They received $67.5 million to build the concrete wall on top of the levees. That, with their local money, might get the flood control repairs done.

Adding insult to injury, Homeland Security has also threatened to include almost all of the county in the flood zone, meaning that while there was no money to control floodwaters, the government would force residents and businesses to buy expensive flood insurance.

Gov. Rick Perry is quick to call out the Guard, and he poses well on T.V. But he's had a border disaster mitigation plan on his desk for more than a year. It's the work of 75 border communities, Texas A&M International University, the Rio Grande Institute, and H2O Partners. Until its approved, the communities aren't eligible for grants to address the dangers.

Can a disaster averted spur action? Local officials who have been trying for years to get their state and federal governments to help sure hope so.