Yesterday Michael wrote that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was pushing Rick Noriega for Veterans Affairs Secretary.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is also pushing three other Texans, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
The Hispanic Caucus is promoting U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-Mercedes) for Education Secretary, former Laredo Mayor Saul Ramirez for Housing and Urban Development Secretary, and former ALF-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson for Labor Secretary.
Hinojosa is a senior member of the House Education Committee. If he was to be tapped by President-elect Obama, a special election would be called to fill his vacant congressional seat.
After serving as Laredo's mayor from 1990 to 1997, Ramirez was deputy HUD secretary under President Clinton.
Chavez-Thompson of San Antonio has been involved in organized labor and the Democratic Party for many years. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Democatic National Committee.
While there are a lot of Texas names floating around, it remains to be seen how many Texans will be selected for Obama's cabinet.
Sen. Hillary Clinton will give the keynote speech at the 6th Annual South Texas Regional Leaders Conference in Washington D.C, the Rio Grande Guardian reports.
Congressman Ruben Hinojosa, who made the announcement, said the event will be held next week and is designed to allow South Texas leaders to meet "federal agencies and network on Capitol Hill."
“Hillary Clinton is a formidable leader who has long been a friend to the people of South Texas,” Hinojosa told the Guardian. “I am honored that she will be participating in our conference and have an opportunity to share her vision for America's future with our community leaders.” In the March presidential primary, Clinton won 61,000 votes in Hidalgo County, or 72.5 percent of the vote, and 22,700 votes in Cameron County, or 67.65 percent of the vote. She is now campaigning to get U.S. Sen. Barack Obama elected president and is expected to visit South Texas on his behalf before the November election. Clinton will make her remarks to South Texas leaders at 12 noon on Tuesday, July 15, at a luncheon in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington. The next day, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will speak at the conference.
The Guardian seems to think that Clinton will be campaigning in South Texas for Obama. I sure hope so. As I've written before, I think that would be a great idea to help Obama solidify support in South Texas.
One of the most important developments in the effort by border residents to combat the national effort to secure the border using a wall or fence is gaining traction.
Developed in Texas, the concept of a border levee system is gaining significant traction with Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, approving the levee concept in Hidalgo County.
The border wall (as originally proposed) will have a severe negative impact on border communities in Texas without any promise of actually making the border more secure or reducing the influx of illegal immigrants.
The border levee concept enhances existing barriers along the border while minimizing the impact to counties, cities and private property holders.
The following U.S. House members endorsed Rep. Noriega in the U.S. Senate race: Reps. Al Green, Ruben Hinojosa, Silvestre Reyes, Chet Edwards, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Charlie Gonzalez, Nick Lampson, Ciro Rodriguez, Lloyd Doggett, Solomon P. Ortiz, Gene Green, and Eddie Bernice Johnson.
"Rick Noriega is the candidate in this race whose entire life represents his commitment to profound service to our nation ... military service and public service," said the members of the Texas Delegation. "From the halls of the University of Houston under an ROTC scholarship, to the halls of Harvard, to the Texas National Guard, to the halls of the State Capitol, to the mountains of Afghanistan after 9-11, and to the Texas border with Operation Jumpstart - we know that Rick Noriega is the candidate to best serve Texans in the United States Senate."
"On the defining issues of the day - national security, border security, health insurance for our children, and fiscal responsibility - Rick is uniquely positioned, by virtue of his life experience, to best serve Texas interests in the U.S. Senate," the members agreed. "U.S. military policy will long command the attention of future Congresses. Rick's understanding of on-the-ground logistics - as well as abilities and limitations - of our military will be a fresh and important voice in the Senate on military issues."
Charles Kuffner adds some insight as to why this is really pretty awesome and a success for Team Noriega.
Excellent. It may not seem like a big deal for a bunch of Democratic members of Congress to endorse a Democrat running for Senate, but 1) it's never a trivial thing to get a bunch of Democrats to agree on anything; 2) the more unified Noriega's support is here, the more likely he'll get support from the national folks; and 3) this is still a contested primary, however loosely that's being defined.
You may be wondering about that thirteenth member of Congress. That would be Rep. Henry Cuellar, and as usual, he's doing his own thing.
Various members of Congress also taped video statements of support which the campaign will be distributing over the coming days.
With every passing day, more information comes to light casting more and more doubt on the validity of the facts and conclusions presented by General Petraeus in his testimony before Congress.
With every passing day, more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians lose their lives in this unwinnable civil war. It is unconscionable and outrageous that instead of doing the people's work and ending this war, Congress chooses meaningless and distracting gestures.
With every passing day, America's frustration with politicians in Washington drops the approval ratings for this Congress to new lows. Congress is fiddling with an ad while Iraq burns.
We will continue our ad campaign to accuse the Republicans who are blocking an end to the war of a 'Betrayal of Trust.'
--MoveOn.org
MoveOn.org was started to get Congress and the press to do the people's business and stop focusing on the partisan bickering surrounding the Clinton impeachment. Ironically, less than a decade later, MoveOn.org is asking the Congress to move on and focus on ending the war in Iraq and do the people's business.
Sadly, the House and Senate took time out of their schedules to, "To express that General David H. Petraeus, Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, deserves the full support of the [Congress] and strongly condemn personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces."
I am not surprised that this vote came up. I am hardly surprised it passed the House and Senate. Most of the time, votes like this happen to help conservative Democrats get re-elected and appease moderate Republicans, but the list of people voting against free speech and the netroots is tragic.
It is hard to fault Democrats like Edwards and Lampson who have tough re-elections every year, but Eddie Bernice Johnson, Loyd Doggett, and Ciro Rodriguez???
Kos has the full list of our friends, and our real Texas allies seem to be Rep. Al Green and Shelia Jackson-Lee and Ruben Hinojosa at least abstained.
To the rest of the Texas delegation, thanks for focusing on issues that matter and showing how important our first amendment rights are. Now that you have the vote out of your system, can you bring our troops home? How about you start balancing the budget a little? At the very least, can we get a better tax system? I mean, bravo for expanding the State Children Health Insurance Program, but can you do more of that and spend less time voting on whether or not you approve of MoveOn.org?
