Of course there is not a civil war brewing in the Republican Party. Someone just made it up. But a leading conservative has recently called the non-civil non-war an impending bloodbath.
After the havoc the Republican Party and its newly formed teabagger faction have wreaked on this country from Ronald Reagan to George H.W. Bush and culminating with the horror of George W. Bush and his neocon policies, a bloodbath sounds just fine by me. Indeed, one is long overdue.
According to yesterday's Houston Chronicle, the teabaggers in Texas are fed up and want to throw all of the bums out. In Texas, the bums happen to be Republicans.
Even Rick Perry is a target of this group because he apparently is not conservative enough.
While it's too early to determine if the Tea Party movement will prove to be a durable political force, its candidates could prove a costly and unwanted distraction for establishment Republicans who would rather be aiming their fire at Democrats. Case in point: the GOP race for governor, where Tea Party ally Debra Medina of Wharton has announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination against incumbent Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, whom she dismisses derisively as "get-along-style politicians."
Recently, Houstonians for Health released it's latest video providing viewers their opinion of what's wrong with the health care system in Houston. Houstonian's' for Health is an unknown group, that I still can't identify. The very detailed video shows how Dan Wolterman, CEO of the powerful Memorial Hermann Health System, tried to "dump" one of their hospitals on tax payers. What's scary about it is the reason that Dan gave for trying to get the Harris County Hospital District to bail him out.
When asked by the Houston Chronicle reporter, Wolterman said he wanted to get rid of it because there was a "demographic decline" in the area. According to the video, the area is 31% Hispanic, 23% African American, and 12% Asian. I'm not sure what Dan doesn't like about those demographics, but he better get comfortable with them given the changing face of Texas.
After seeing the video, I spent some time calling around to learn more about this ground and Wolterman. The information people were willing to give about Wolterman was interesting.
Apparently Wolterman is facing two civil law suits alleging antitrust violations, he threw his doctor's under the bus during the sale, he upset most of the Harris County officials to the point he was compared to a "car salesman," and then had a "political pep rally" with Kay Bailey Hutchison opposing health reform--upsetting local Democrats, probably, Rick Perry as well. With that many powerful enemies.
What's scary about Mr. Wolterman's statement is that it creates the perception, rightly or wrongly, that he would rather serve patients living in the suburbs who are rich/insured patients, rather than underserved patients in the inner city.
You may remember the the first video from Houstonian's for Health Care. You can see Wolterman, front in center, celebrating Kay Bailey Hutchison and pleading for her and her party to slow down the process in reforming health care. Now we see the latest video and understand why.
Texas can't stand for this kind of reckless attitude and "leadership." The problem in health care is less about the system, and more about greedy guys like this who run our institutions. Perhaps it is time to create a system that limits the negative influence of men like Wolterman
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, a Republican, refused to rule out a run in any potential special election race should Kay "Will she or Won't she" Hutchison eventually resign.
It took three times for Brad Watson and Gromer Jeffer's with WFAA's Inside Politics to pull an answer from Leppert that didn't have your stomach queasy from all the political spin:
Opportunities and obstacles come up and if they come up I will deal with them. I am very happy with what I'm doing right now. We are making great progress in the City of Dallas and I think people recognize that. If the opportunity comes up then I'll look at it.
Clearly Leppert is making some of the same calculated assumptions that Mayor Bill White is making. Leppert is a popular Republican mayor of a major metropolitan county that has trended heavily Democratic since 2006. Leppert recently muscled through a sweeping Ethics reform package in the wake of former councilman Don Hill's corruption trial--the same corruption charges that now engulf State Representative Terri Hodge.
Leppert has momentum, and certainly has potential, to shave off quite a few votes in his favor in the North Texas region where his name identification is high. In a special election race with very low turnout numbers that could be just enough to pull him into a runoff. It is the same calculations the White campaign is making: a popular mayor from a major metropolitan area that has trended blue in the last few election cycles. Shave off enough votes in favor of Mayor White in a low turnout special election and it should be enough to catapult him into a runoff.
But again, all of these calculations are based on whether or not Kay "Will she or Won't she" Hutchison eventually resign her senate seat and the answer, as she indicated on Friday, is she will not. Based on this past week's Rasmussen poll showing KBH down 11 points to Perry less than four months away from a GOP primary election is a terrible spot to be in. However, it is indicative of the terrible campaign she has run for governor as well.
It may be intriguing for Leppert to consider a special election run, and I do believe he is giving it very serious thought, but he is a smart enough politician to know that I'm staying right where I am. Hutchison is the most deceptive, stick my finger in the air to figure out which way the political winds are blowing, type politician that we've ever seen. Leppert will position himself to launch a campaign should the opportunity arise, but ultimately it will be for nothing because Hutchison won't resign.
The AP's Jay Root first reported that Kay Bailey Hutchison will not resign until after the March primary.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is challenging Gov. Rick Perry in the Republican primary, plans to announce Saturday that she won't resign her Senate seat until after the March primaries are over.
Campaign officials provided The Associated Press a copy of her prepared speech to Republican women in Galveston on Saturday.
In it, Hutchison will say she is stepping down in 2010 regardless of who wins the Republican primary for govenor.
But she says there are too many important issues facing Congress for her to quit this fall as she had planned.
The senator says in the written speech that she "will be resigning this Senate seat" next year. "Make no mistake, this is going to happen," Hutchison plans to say.
Although this original report states that the announcement will come in Hutchison's speech tomorrow, the Texas Tribune reports that she already "began calling other Republicans Friday afternoon to tell them to make other plans."
This obviously changes the dynamics of the Gubernatorial race. It changes the way she will campaign, as it will be shrouded in a sort of cowardliness. There is also a very good chance it will push Bill White and/or John Sharp into the race for Governor, even if she plans on resigning no matter the outcome of the primary. I don't think her word on resignation can really be trusted anymore.
We will keep you updated as we get more info.
UPDATE: Both the Sharp camp and the White camp reiterate that they are still running for Senate.
John Sharp stated, "I said when I got into this process last December that I would be a candidate when the seat becomes available, whether that is in 2012 or anytime before then. I'm campaigning full time and will continue to."
White spokeswoman Katy Bacon gave me the blunt statement, "Bill is running for the U.S. Senate regardless of when this election takes place."
I prodded, and Katy insisted that yes, that even means 2012.
Also, according to the Statesman, Senator Hutchison will state in her speech that not only is she waiting for the Health Care fight to end but also for Cap and Trade to conclude.
UPDATE 2: Via an @TexasTribune tweet, we learn that a Hutchison campaign spokesperson said, "I never envision a situation where she would lose the GOP primary."
I responded by laughing, because this campaign surely has been quite jokey so far. If she does pull of a surprise to come back and beat Perry, though, she might face Hank Gilbert or Tom Schieffer.
Gilbert's website, The Scoop quickly had a comment on this news:
Naturally, Kay's Magic 8 Ball was predicting this (and many other things) weeks ago.
Hutchison wants to have it both ways. This will cause a lot of issues in the overall Republican field-and could create a lot more contested primaries up and down the ballot.
When asked, Tom Schieffer's campaign declined to comment.
UPDATE 3: For a direct quote from Hank Gilbert, here is his statement:
Anyone who says they are shocked by her announcement hasn't followed the lengthy trail of broken promises she's left in her wake, starting with her promise to serve only two terms. She is an unreliable and undependable public servant who dodges and weaves as it suits her political ambitions. Senator Hutchison has left her supporters and contributors holding the bag.
In his remarks, Rick Perry calls for doubling the size of tea parties. This is from last Friday's tea party, which took place (as you can tell) directly outside the Texas Capitol. Rick Perry's campaign was signing up people -- literally -- just outside of this shot:
Rick Perry's call to double the size of these violent crowds is far more dangerous than anything he may make up about what's going on in Washington today. Perry has no sense of self-respect -- for himself, or for the state of Texas -- when he makes these calls of action.
As a resource for those who may visit or pass along this post, I wanted to re-post something the Texas Democratic Party recently put out -- the "Top Ten Rick Perry Failures." Here they are -- with full resources, links, facts, and talking points on each page that is linked:
The American Spectator, one of the stalwart conservative publications in this country, gives us reason from the other side of the aisle to believe that Kay Bailey Hutchison would be an equally disappointing Governor in comparison to Rick Perry.
Just in case you still prefer Ms. Hutchison due to her "moderate" views, here is William Murchison (emphasis mine):
It all seems to me part and parcel of an argument going on around the country among Republicans: can we "play to the base" and succeed, or should we tweak a few things, rethink matters of policy and emphasis and tone? Kay says, to the latter question, you bet.
"I...want to build a Republican majority," the senator says. It's an unexceptionable objective from the Republican standpoint. So what policies get the job done? She enumerates them: better education, better transportation, healthier respect for property rights, opportunities for health care. We get there...how? Not through regulation. She isn't for that. Not through higher taxes. She wouldn't go there even if she wanted to, and I don't think she does, actually. A Hutchison administration, at the end of the day, probably wouldn't do things very differently than the Perry administration has been doing them. Maybe with kinder, gentler voice -- that's all I can think of, and it isn't a lot for purposes of differentiation from the man she would unseat. Nor am I sure by any means how many brownie points that would earn her with voters.
This being from a Republican. You want Kay Bailey Hutchison as the alternative to Perry? She's just a milder version. Rick Perry with less of a kick.
The Burnt Orange Report has been saying this for a while now, but a Conservative with no particular stake in this primary agrees with us. If Rick Perry loses in the primary, we get rid of a fire-breathing Conservative. But in Kay Bailey Hutchison, we have no moderate; we definitely still have a Conservative with a capital C.
This morning, I attended the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing. The hearing was called, largely, to hear testimony from the new Texas Forensic Science Commission Chairman, John Bradley.
Two things strike me as clear after attending the hearing:
The Democrats on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee -- Chairman John Whitmire, Senator Rodney Ellis, and Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa -- are going to do everything in their power to make sure that the Texas Forensic Science Commission begins to fulfill its role as an independent state agency that reviews mishandled and questionable forensic science in the Texas criminal justice system.
The new Texas Forensic Science Commission Chairman, John Bradley, is going to serve as Governor Rick Perry's puppet on the Commission, and work with Republicans like Senator Dan Patrick to deflect any of the public controversy brought to Rick Perry for his controversial mismanagement of the agency in the recent months and years.
From listening to Bradley's testimony in person today, here are the ways I think he will be nothing more than Perry's puppet:
Ignorance and Inexperience
John Bradley testified before the Committee that he knew nothing about the Commission before he was appointed by Governor Perry.
Blaming the Legislature - With No Proof
John Bradley accused the Legislature, on multiple occassions, of not having providing the Commission with the resources they needed to do their job. This was obviously a strong talking point that he had decided to pursue -- despite these obvious facts:
When pressed by State Representative Tommy Merritt about the specific budget issues the Commission was facing, he knew of none.
When pressed further about proving -- with a letter, or a phone call, or anything -- when the Legislature has denied the Commission more funding, he could offer no proof.
The Forensic Science Commission is only investigating three cases right now. When asked during the hearing and in a follow-up press conference he held outside the Committee room if the Commission had the necessary resources to fulfill its work on those three cases, Bradley answered, "Yes we do."
Continuing Perry's Political Cover-Up and Privacy
John Bradley believes the Commission should be allowed to meet privately. From the Texas Lawyer:
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, the new chairman of the Texas Forensic Science commission, says he will recommend, among other things at the Senate committee hearing, that during an ongoing investigation, the commission should be allowed to meet in private to discuss the matter being investigated and that reports to the commission on an investigation be withheld from public release until the commission concludes its deliberations.
“It’s not a good idea to conduct an investigation in a public forum,” Bradley says.
Bradley did not back away from that during the hearing, until he began to hedge his bets when Senators Whitmire and Hinojosa pushed him on why an investigation on a process needs to be protected. He admitted that that should be transparent, but then -- when Senator Dan Patrick asked his Perry-friendly questions -- went back to talking about holding the initial parts of the investigation in private.
Texas Democratic Party Chairman, Boyd Richie, himself a former prosecutor, issued this statement:
It’s obvious the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to Rick Perry’s political appointees. Perry’s politically motivated cancellation of an essential review of Texas’ forensic science methods threatened the ability of our criminal justice system to work properly for Texans.
Delays, Delays, Delays
John Bradley intends on taking the coming months to write rules and guidelines for the agency -- a task that should have occurred already, but under Rick Perry's watch never occurred. Of course, Bradley refused to acknowledge that Perry was at all responsible for any delays, choosing to act like the Commission was performing its duties in recent years without a net.
Until, that is, that Senator Ellis pointed out that the Texas Attorney General's office had a person in every one of the Commission's meeting, to ensure that they had the legal authority to carry out all their decisions. The excuse of delaying the Commission's work for months is no excuse at all, but another stall and delay tactic from Rick Perry's hand-picked appointee, John Bradley.
Eventually, the bigger picture left the hearing -- that going forward, the Texas Forensic Science Commission should be a place where the best forensic science can be determined, where mistakes can be evaluated, and where the work done by law enforcement across the state can be guaranteed to be the best work imaginable. But that's only going to happen because of the work of Senator John Whitmire, Senator Rodney Ellis, and Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa. Of the Senators attending the hearing, the three Democrats carried the lion's share of the work. Republican Senator Dan Patrick asked questions that would have made a Rick Perry criminal justice staff person proud, and Senator Glenn Hegar sounded like he wrote his remarks while taking a bus to school in the morning.
Ultimately, I have faith that our Democratic State Senators will be able to kick-start this Commission into moving in the right direction. I also believe that John Bradley actually wants to make that happen. But that's only his second job.
Bradley's first job, which was made clear during today's hearing, was that he is to work as Rick Perry's puppet and delay the Commission's work for as long as possible -- at least until it is no longer politically damaging to Governor Perry.
The answers the people of Texas and, indeed, across the country are looking for from Rick Perry's cover-up are well protected and hidden with John Bradley chairing the Texas Forensic Science Commission.
Despite the fact that Texas boasts the highest number of uninsured residents, all Texas Republicans in the U.S. Congress voted against health care reform that would guarantee coverage for the vast majority of Texans.
All Republicans continue to spin health care industry manufactured talking point garbage about HCR.
Showing their lack of honesty and the courage to cope with much needed change in this crucial area, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich, mired in the same ol' out-of-touch GOP talking point silly nonsense and everything disingenuous, actually had the nerve to co-author an editorial in the Washington Post that extolled the virtues of states taking charge of health care.
They used Texas, of all places, as a shining example of the finest state run health care industry with choices for all.
Surely Rick and Newt are kidding. Surely they know they are insulting the intelligence of every Texan who knows better.
But, Rick and Newt don't really know that they are insulting our intelligence because they are completely out of touch with any reality that resides outside of their air tight bubble.
Texas, for example, has adopted approaches to controlling health-care costs while improving choice, advancing quality of care and expanding coverage. Consider the successful 2003 tort reform. Fewer frivolous lawsuits have attracted record numbers of doctors to the state as medical malpractice insurance premiums dropped by half. Christus Health, a large Catholic nonprofit system with a significant presence in Texas, spent about $100 million on liability defense payments in 2003. Last year, Christus spent $2.3 million on such payments. Much of that savings has gone into expanding health-care services in low-income neighborhoods.
Choice? Really? I didn't get a choice to choose anything other than that which is offered to me by my employer.
As we can see, it always comes down to those evil doing trial lawyers in Texas who might actually hold a robbing cheater accountable for stealing life from patients by denying the care that they need, deserve and pay for.
You might think Washington would be curious about plans to provide more low-income Texans with insurance, reduce expensive emergency-room visits for basic care and make it easier to buy into employer-sponsored insurance. Unfortunately, Washington has failed for 18 months to give Texas permission to use Medicaid dollars for these policies.
Silly boys, many small businesses cannot offer health care insurance b/c it is far too expensive.
Perry, of course, wants to steal money from the poor who are entitled to Medicaid and give it to his buddies in small business. Do you think for a minute small businesses would use the Medicaid bucks to insure their poorer employees in these dire times when banks will not lend them the money to increase inventories or meet payrolls? I kind of don't think so. At least not under the present conditions in which health care insurance coverage is off of the affordability charts.
Knowing what we know about Rick Perry, meet his Republican soul mates who voted against health care reform. And meet the few brave and principled Democrats who stepped up to answer the cries from their constituents. The picture below is not pretty.
Just a day after Dick Cheney endorsed Kay Bailey Hutchison, her opponent Rick Perry answered with the endorsement of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the chair of the Republican Governors' Association. Barbour was in Texas earlier today, appearing in Fredericksburg and Dallas, to announce the endorsement, according to the Statesman.
When Hutchison's campaign announced the Cheney endorsement, Perry's camp shot back with an attack on Hutchison's time in Washington.
“It’s not surprising, since they both worked in Washington for so long. Washington insiders stick together," said Perry spokesman Mark Miner.
Haley Barbour has been a Washington insider for over two decades. One of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington in the 1990s, Barbour served as chair of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997.
When Perry was by the Statesman asked whether he would rather having Cheney or Sarah Palin endorsing him, Perry, who is expected to campaign alongside Palin in January, answered as you might expected: "I think I'd stick with Sarah." Whether a parade of unaccomplished conservative govenors (sound familiar?) will help convince Texans to stick with Perry for a third term remains to be seen.
The Cameron Todd Willingham story has reached a new level. No longer will there be only strong suspicions of a cover up, but the Houston Chronicle, in a strong journalistic move, seeks to make public the papers Rick Perry saw the day Cameron Todd Willingham would later be executed.
The Houston Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers LLC announced a lawsuit against Governor Rick Perry.
The Houston Chronicle and Hearst Newspapers LLC are suing Gov. Rick Perry in an effort to force the release of a clemency report Perry received before denying a stay of execution to Cameron Todd Willingham.
The report is a summary and status of the case against Willingham that was given to Perry at 11:30 a.m. on the day of Willingham's 2004 execution in the fire deaths of his three daughters. Anti-death penalty advocates say modern fire forensics show the blaze cannot be proven as arson.
Perry's office has refused to release the report, claiming it is a privileged document. The clemency document was used by Perry in the process of deciding whether to give Willingham a 30-day stay of execution.
"When it comes to human life, there is no place the governor should be more transparent in his decision-making," said Jonathan Donnellan, an attorney for Hearst and the Chronicle.
"It should raise eyebrows that the governor is seeking to shield communications with his advisers as 'legal advice,' when the very idea of executive clemency power is to make a policy decision after the legal process has run its course," Donnellan said.
I applaud the Chronicle's decision to pursue this worthy goal. If they win, we will see more insight into Rick Perry's worst act as Governor on a long list of bad acts. I wish the Chronicle luck with their suit.
