The Republican Party of Texas is making it their mission for Republicans to hide from voters and refuse to debate. We know all about Rick Chicken Perry -- take a look at all the ads around BOR if you don't. But Republicans have decided to refuse to debate up and down the ticket now, only ensuring that their candidates will be seen as cowards who are unwilling to face the voters and talk about the issues.
Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Metereau are fighting back. From their press release earlier today:
"Republican nominees for SBOE Marsha Farney and Ken Mercer have a lot of questions to answer, and they should come out of hiding and answer them. Are they going to participate in a fair debate, moderated by a respected non-partisan journalist, or are they going to follow the orders of their partisan boss? Texans are tired of the State Board of Education being Republicans' political football, in which the school children of Texas get kicked around - this is supposed to be about quality public education, not political gamesmanship," Cook said.
Both the Democrats have notified the League of Women Voters that they will participate in the League's debate, and cautioned their opponents not to duck voters by failing to participate.
"I am honored to participate in the debate and to share my views with voters on how the State Board of Education can do much better for Texas school children. If my opponent respects the voters whose support she seeks, she will accept the offer to participate in this debate as well," said Judy Jennings.
[snip]
"I'm pleased to accept the opportunity to let voters know my priorities if they elect me to the SBOE, and I'm equally pleased about the chance to inform voters of what my opponent has already done as an SBOE member," said Rebecca Bell-Metereau. "I urge him to participate in the debate, because he has some explaining to do regarding his priorities while in office," she said.
The policy of the Republican Party of Texas to simply ignore voters and skip public forums speaks volumes of who they believe matters in this race -- and it's not you. It's not the parents, teachers, or children of Texas who care about public schools. It is themselves.
Up and down the ballot, whatever the race, Republicans are in it for themselves while Democrats are in it for Texas.
Debra Medina was not given a booth at the Republican Party of Texas state convention in Dallas last weekend. As Christy Hoppe with the Dallas Morning News reports, "Ex-Texas gubernatorial candidate an outlier at state GOP convention in Dallas":
Debra Medina, the tea party favorite who made an impressive stand in the primary for governor, is rousing the GOP rabble.
She's formed a group, called We Texans, to push her agenda on state sovereignty and private property rights. But the party establishment has been less than welcoming to her continued presence. She is a delegate to the state convention and a former GOP county leader, but her group was denied a booth inside the convention hall. [...]
"The party convention is like the cover of a beautiful book. The facade is lovely, it paints a very pretty picture, but look inside," Medina said. "It's all hot air and no substance."
Medina was the only Republican in Dallas to take on the most important issue of substance facing Texas: Rick Perry's $18 Billion Budget Deficit. From her "We Texans" event:
A Texas-size hole in the Lone Star state's budget is putting pressure on Gov. Rick Perry, who is running for re-election this year as a model fiscal conservative. [...]
But as the state's budget shortfall widens—to as much as $18 billion, or about 20% of the next two-year budget, according to the state legislature's latest analysis released earlier this month—critics are complaining that Mr. Perry's policies have left the state with little room to reduce spending.
Texas Democrats, who hold their own confab in Corpus Christi in two weeks, responded to Perry's convention appearance with a gathering four blocks away, using a plastic blow-up elephant as a prop to make their point.
They maintained that for all his Washington bashing, the governor neglected to remind delegates that he took $22 billion in federal stimulus money to help balance the state's budget.
Democrats did not think much of Perry's self-styled conservatism, either.
“This weekend, the largest elephant in the room at the Republican Party convention is Rick Perry's $18 billion budget deficit,” state Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Gray said.
And to drive the point home -- with a prop I had a little too much involvement in getting set up -- was, in fact, the largest elephant in the room:
Ben Philpott, who works for KUT and the Texas Tribune, has put together an excellent series on the state budget this week. I'm working on a series of posts unpacking what he's discussed, but something in today's report was too much:
Arlene Wohlgemeuth was one of Tom Craddick and Rick Perry's top lieutenants in 2003, when Republicans slashed the state budget and set Texas' social services back almost a decade. It was her work that led, directly, to 230,000 kids losing their CHIP coverage. And now she's laughing about it.
Wohlgemeuth laughed about her cuts in the interview w/ Philpott (transcribed below):
The budget just went through one hell of a scrub in 2003.
"Well we call that low-hanging fruit. (Chuckles). I think most of the low-hanging fruit has been picked. (Chuckles). I think thy're going to have to get the ladder and get way up in the tree to find that efficiency, and, uh, but they're going to have to do it."
Arlene Wohlgemeuth is Executive Director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative state policy think tank. She helped trim the budget in 2003 as Chair of the House Human Services Committee. Some people say she cut way too much back then. Others, she didn't cut enough. Wohlgemeuth says that session was simply about priorities.
"Getting the services to the people who needed it the most. And, so, in those judgment calls, you have to say, 'OK, who really, really needs the services?', and make sure those services are delivered."
Such prioritization led to elgibility changes to the state's children's health insurance program. Eye and dental services were cut, and more frequent checks were institututed to see if parents were making little enough money to qualify for CHIP. As a result, about 230,000 kids lost coverage, but the state was expected to save about $350 million over five years.
As the Bill White campaign has said, "There she goes again..." Let's be honest, Cathie Adams and the Texas Republican Party aren't using statistics to inflate bad arguments, they are just lying.
For nearly a month now, the Republican Party of Texas and Cathie Adams have been lying about Bill White. Why? Because they can't win an honest or open debate.
Texans are rejecting this Republican Party and have been for over 5 years. Republicans have lost control of Travis, Dallas, and Harris county. Not to mention the fact they never had control of Bexar, El Paso, or the valley counties.
It escalated this morning when the Texas Republican Party began a string of aggressive and dishonest tweets about Bill White. (It's probably good to note, Bill White has nearly double the followers of the RPT.) However, they have failed to respond to multiple requests for comments on how Rick Perry became a multi-millionaire serving in public office and have failed to comment on why they support the AG's baseless, expensive lawsuit against healthcare.
Bill White has not only commented on issues of importance, he has taken the time to go over and refute every lie the Republican Party of Texas is tweeting about.
While Rick Perry and his consultants are playing political games, are cynical, will say and do anything to get him re-elected. On the other hand, Bill White is talking about real mainstream issues.
Cathie Adams, the Chair of the Republican Party of Texas, has a pattern of lying about Bill White. This was documented by the independent truth testing website Politifact.com, which found Cathie's litany of attacks false. See this press release from last Monday.
This time Cathie filed a false, fabricated complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission. You'd think someone running a statewide party would know how to read financial disclosures. You'd also think someone running a statewide party would care about the truth.
So we are going to ask a few questions too. When will Rick Perry disclose how he became a millionaire while serving as a public official for 24 years? Why does Rick Perry refuse to stop wasteful spending in the Texas Attorney General's Office? Why won't Rick Perry tell the Texas State Board of Education to stop re-writing history and end political games in our schools?
There are fundamental differences between Bill White and Rick Perry and voters deserve a real debate and discussion. At the very least, they deserve an honest debate. Instead, Rick Perry and Cathie Adams are using Karl Rove's old tactics of fear and lies to hold on to their waning 39%.
Lies are all they have when 2/3 of primary voters voted for a new gov and in the last general, 61% voted against Rick Perry.
While the RPT has been attacking White with falsehoods for a few weeks, they have failed to answer any substantive question for 24 years about Perry. Instead, they will try and rely on lies, damn lies and statistics.
Dear Staff of the Texas Republican House Committee,
Your insurance company rally on Saturday was pretty pathetic.
That shouldn't be surprising -- you're rallying to maintain the status quo and let big insurance companies increase the premiums and unfairly deny people their health care based on pre-existing conditions, which is only one of the least popular ideas anywhere right now.
I was the only person (other than Glenn Smith) to attend both the BOR event last Thursday night and your crappy event on Saturday. Let's compare your rain-soaked event with the one BOR had:
Comparing the BOR & TRHC Events Last Week
Event Host
Day / Time
Rain?
# of Attendees
Candidates Present
Burnt Orange Report & Netroots Nation
Thursday night
Yes
180-200
Bill White, John Sharp, Tom Schieffer, Hank Gilbert, Jack McDonald, Marc Katz, Jeff Weems
Texas Republican House Committee & The Republican Party of Texas
Saturday afternoon
Yes
75-100
None
Key Point: When a volunteer-driven blog has more grassroots support than a professionally-staffed organization, then you know you're in trouble.
I have video from the event -- lots of it, in fact -- but I may hold off on posting that for a little bit. In the mean time, let me ask some basic questions about how you define a "success" -- I mean, even from a purely political perspective, it was an abject failure:
This was co-hosted by the Republican Party of Texas, with Tina Benkiser in attendance; you created a website, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and you only got 75-100 people there -- that's what you define as success?
You are the Texas Republican House Committee.....the supposed counter to the proven and successful House Democratic Camaign Committee.....and not a single House Republican shows up to speak at your rally -- that's what you define as success?
The purpose of the rally was to tell those in town for a meeting of the Democratic National Committee to, as Texas Republican Party Chairwoman Tina Benkiser put it, "crawl back to the left-wing socialist pit they came from and keep their hands off Texas."
That's it? I stood in the rain for two-and-a-half hours to hear several dozen supporters chant "Hands Off Texas" -- and the best speaker you had was former State Rep. (and certified Looney Tune) Suzanna Hupp??!?!! Come on. This isn't even a fair fight! You're the supposed answer to the House Democratic Campaign Committee, not the Student Council of Paint Creek High School.
We're not joking around here, y'all. Texas Democrats are going to take back the State House. We have a proven record of success. Each and every year, you convince people like Paul Burka that Republicans are going to have a good year, and each and every time -- in 2004, 2006, 2008, and the special elections in between -- Democrats keep winning. At some point, the press will remember that clear history of victory, and they'll look at how promising and effective the HDCC is and how pathetic and embarrassing you are, and they'll understand why Texas Democrats are going to take back the House in 2010.
For now, though, keep convincing yourself of your own success. Talk a great game. Talk about fascism and socialism. Rally against the President telling your kids to stay in school. Stand up and defend the status quo of big insurance companies denying health care to Texans based on pre-existing conditions.
Just next time, try to stay out of the rain -- and remember that using the excuse of rain and flash flood warnings is a good way to get out of a pathetic attempt at political organization.
One of the featured corporate sponsors of the Tea Party Express had to pay millions of dollars to settle lawsuits for its role in a bus fire that killed 23 elderly nursing home residents fleeing Hurricane Rita in 2005.
Investigators later found that the bus was: driven by an undocumented migrant without a valid U.S. driver's license, lacking adequate fire extinguishers, and not licensed to operate in Texas. When the bus had mechanical problems before the crash, the driver took it to an unqualified mechanic who failed to notice the critical fault--an unlubricated axle that eventually melted and burst into flame.
BusBank hired Global Limo, even though "the subcontractor had a long record of federal and state safety violations, had entered bankruptcy, and was being sued/" (Source)
Global Limo's owner Jim Mapleslisted Global Charters as his employer when he gave $5000 to the RNC in 2004. (Source)
23 nursing home residents died; jury says fleet poorly maintained
The company that owned a bus that exploded during last year’s Hurricane Rita evacuation, killing 23 nursing home residents, was found guilty Tuesday of conspiring to falsify logs and poorly maintaining its fleet.
The company’s owner, James Maples, was acquitted on the conspiracy charge but convicted of falsifying logs and poorly maintaining the fleet.
The trial stemmed from a federal investigation into a Global Limo Inc. bus that exploded and burned while stuck in traffic on Sept. 23, 2005, killing elderly patients too frail to escape. The patients’ oxygen tanks exploded as the flames engulfed the bus.
BusBank's legal troubles are far from over, according to one report, more lawsuits are getting underway this month. The firm filed for bankruptcy in Delaware in August.
And bringing it all back home, we go back to Beyerstein one more time:
BusBank is also arranging to ferry Tea Baggers to their 9/12 march on Washington to voice their demands for unfettered capitalism.
To recap:
Republicans are fanning the flames of fear and spreading lies for their Pro-Insurance-Company-Secession tour, in an effort to scare senior citizens into opposing Obama's health care plan -- while hiring a bus company that was so irresponsible it led to the death of twenty-three senior citizens.
Republican Party of Texas Executive Director Eric Opiela has his head buried so far in the sand that I don't know whether to criticize him or celebrate his ignorance -- after all, the more that Texas Republicans want to follow the lead of Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John Cornyn, and Pete Sessions, the better the chances that Texas Democrats will continue to win elections across the state.
We expected and prepared for anything at yesterday’s Senate hearing on Voter ID legislation. Let me tell you — the liberal Democrats in Austin did not disappoint on that front. Hundreds of concerned Texans showed up as early as 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning expecting to provide oral or written testimony on this important issue. Unfortunately, the response from Democrat senators was not very welcoming.
That’s right! Rather than taking time to listen to personal testimony on incidents of voter fraud in past elections, these Democrats chose delay with their childish rants ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT LONG!
Does it matter that Senate Republicans refused to split the testimony across different days? Nope.
Does it matter that Senate Republicans decided to make this the single most important issue of the session? Nope.
[Republican Senator Tommy Williams] even admitted as much. In today's debate, he said at the 1:20:50 mark of the Senate video:
Senator West: Is this more important than dealing with tuition deregulation?
Senator Williams: Senator West, I believe that it is.
In addition to that, Eric Opiela has picked up on the latest failed piece of Republican conventional wisdom -- that Obama is somehow failing, and the whole country will come flocking back to the Taliban-inspired obstructionism of the Republican Party in the 2010 elections. As he said in the comments on Burka Blog:
For those of you who think some blue revolution is brewing, take note, the RPT still picked up a net 41 seats this year and flipped seven courthouses despite the Obama-centric gains of Democrats nationwide. Guess what, he ain’t on the ballot in 2010 (though with the results thus far of his presidency, I almost wish he was…).
Let's take a look at those results:
As you can tell from the graph, Republicans and Democrats had almost the same low level of favorability two months ago. However, following the sensible policies of Congressional Democrats and the obstructionist practices of the GOP -- led by Texas Senator John Cornyn in the U.S. Senate and Congressman Pete Sessions in the U.S. House -- Democrats in Congress have seen their favorability increase, while Republicans in Congress have seen their favorability decrease.
The Republican Party must be desperate. In a press release from earlier this week, the Republican Party of Texas asked Ciro Rodriguez to announce who he supports for President and then proceeded to attack him for endorsing Barack Obama (something he hasn't declared).
The press release simply titled, 'Ciro Rodriguez Should Step Up to the Plate:
Time for Democratic Superdelegate to Say Whom He Supports" is one of the most libelous releases I have read in some time. That's right, libelous. Why?
Congressman Rodriguez (TX-23), a superdelegate who's been elusive in his support of Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee, has been called on to denounce Sen. Obama's statement...
After hours of searching this week and requests into multiple offices, it doesn't appear Ciro Rodriguez has expressed his presidential preference. How then can Congressman Rodriguez denounce a person he hasn't endorsed? Let's go one step further, why is the Republican Party inserting itself into our Democratic primary and demanding a Democratic incumbent to endorse either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama.
Hans Klingler continues to write press releases blindly attacking Democrats that simply don't make sense. Klingler and the Republican Party out of touch with the reality of the current political climate.
It already looks like Lyle Larson has no chance to defeat Congressman Rodriguez. Rodriguez has nearly $1 million cash on hand while Larson has about $150,000. Maybe that is the reason the Republican Party feels the need to insert themselves in the Democratic process.
Rodriguez has the support of his district, from Democrats and non-partisan groups across the country, earning a perfect score from the National Education Association, the Children's Defense Fund, National Association of Social Workers, and many more. Maybe, if the Republicans understood the needs of the people they wouldn't have to libel a sitting Congressmen. Maybe if they could field a legitimate challenger, they could get them to attack the Congressman. Maybe Hans Klingler is just a useless communications director who would rather accuse, attack and scare than debate the facts.
The addition of Talmadge Heflin to the Republican Party of Texas is a shock. He is a man twice rejected by the voters of his Harris County district. He was defeated in 2004 and again in 2006 largely because of his role as chairman of appropriations cutting funding for necessary social program and bending to the will of special interests.
Helfin’s hiring is a strong signal to the people of Texas, give big bucks or continue to be ignored by the Grand Old Party.
“The hiring of twice defeated Talmadge Heflin provides indisputable proof that the Republican Party is way out of step with Texas voters,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie.
“When Heflin had to choose between making the special interests pay their fair share or cutting the heart of the state budget, Heflin cut 200,000 children off of CHIP, forced students to use out of date textbooks in classrooms, and proposed a tax on groceries.” Richie recalled. “After Heflin’s failure as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in 2003, the voters who knew him best said ‘no’ to misplaced Republican priorities.”
Yesterday we alluded to the fact that Heflin was immediately tapped by good friend James Leininger to work at the conservative think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Since leaving the Texas House, Heflin has been an odd figure. In 2004, he took his defeat to the Texas House nearly instigating a bitter partisan battle. He then applied to become director of the Texas Lottery Comission (he hadn’t miss used state funds enough in is career as a state legislator) but withdrew the application to try and regain his House seat. After hundreds of thousands of dollars, the people of Houston went from barely electing Hubert Vo in 2004 (he won by just 16 votes) to re-electing Vo by nearly 2,000 votes in 2006.
What did the Republican Party do with this overwhelming mandate? This is the man that ended up becoming their executive director.
The best part of Heflin’s legacy is his literal attempt to steal a baby away from his loving parents.
Heflin also gained attention in 2004 for a custody battle over a then 20-month-old boy whose African immigrant mother once lived in Talmadge's home. Heflin and his wife contended the boy's mother took little interest in the child and often left him in their care. The woman disagreed, saying the Heflins simply watched the child while she found a job outside their home.
A district court judge ruled the Heflins had no standing in the case, dismissed their request to keep temporary custody of the child and ordered the boy returned to his mother.
Yesterday we joked around about Heflin’s appointment to the Republican Party, but Heflin could seriously harm Texans. He is known for taking babies from families, caving to special interest, refusing to allow people to vote, and ignoring sound public policy so he can implement strange ideology.
Heflin is a symbol for everything wrong with the Republican Party, and now he is directing its future.
The Republican Party of Texas is proud to announce that Talmadge Heflin is leaving the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation to take over as the Executive Director of the RPT.
“Talmadge Heflin has over twenty five years of conservative leadership and experience as both a leader in the Texas Legislature and a businessman. This background will be invaluable in helping lead the team of political professionals we have assembled who will lead Republicans to victory in 2008 at the Republican Party of Texas,” said Tina Benkiser, Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas.
This is a perfect fit for the Republican Party and we wanted to suggest a few other key offices they might want to fill:
Staff:
Arlene Wohlgemuth - Vice Chair
Gene Seaman - Ethics Adviser/Property Manager
Tom DeLay - Fundraiser/Finance director (with Jim Ellis, Warren Robold, and John Colyandor assisting him)
Tom Craddick - Rules Committee Director Debbie Riddle - Communications Director
George Antuna - Asst. Comm. Director
Mark Foley - Student Outreach/Campus Recruitment
George Allen - Minority Recruitment
Special Projects:
Mike Krusee - Toll Director
Warren Chisum - Marriage Protector Director
Ron Wilson - Convention Parliamentarian
Bill Zedler - Court Jester/Comedian
Al Edwards - RPT Cheerleader
