T. Boone's Power Play

by: Glenn Smith

Mon Jul 21, 2008 at 10:33 AM CDT

Equally disturbing are signs that Democrats in Congress and elsewhere appear willing to forget Pickens' attacks on them if he blows enough wind up their skirts.

Pickens will build a billion dollars worth of wind-driven generators in West Texas. The Texas Public Utility Commission has approved a plan calling for spending more than $4 billion in taxpayer money for transmission lines that will get the electricity from those windmills to consumers. Without government's extraordinary help, Pickens can't sell his electricity. He can't earn a profit.

Our governments should be investing in clean sources of energy. That is not the issue. And private investors who have awakened to the opportunities in alternative energy sources should also be encouraged.

The issue is hypocrisy. For too long the Right has bashed government as a destructive barrier to private enterprise and individual initiative. That broad-brush message has appealed to individualistic voters -- especially in the South where some voters have long resented such laws as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. The wealthy have long used the message to drive their anti-tax agenda.

McCain's Texas Money Men

by: David Mauro

Mon Apr 21, 2008 at 01:26 PM CDT

John McCain's presidential campaign has 33 Innovators (who raise $250,000 each) and 73 Trailblazers (who raise $100,000 each) nationwide.

There are three Texan "Innovators" and seven Texan "Trailblazers." Here's the list of McCain's "Texas Fat Cats" as reported by Wayne Slater:

Innovators ($250,000)
San Antonio lobbyist Tom Loeffler (McCain's national finance chairman)
former Bush 41 Commerce Secretary Bob Mosbacher of Houston   
San Antonio developer William Powell

Trailblazers ($100,000)
Houston lawyer Lawrence Finder
East Texas oilman Gaylord Hughey, Jr.
Fort Worth developer Ben McDavid
Fort Worth socialite Kit Moncrief
Laredo banker Dennis Nixon
Houston lobbyist David Walde

First of all, only a Republican would seriously list "socialite" as an occupation.

Second, what may be most notable about this list is who's not on it: Houston builder Bob Perry.  Perry, who helped finance the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry in 2004, had supported and raised money for Mitt Romney. 

Although Perry had contributed to McCain in the past, when his support for Romney became public, the Washington Post said the "decision [was] a slap in the face of Sen. John McCain."

Big money Texans for Giuliani like T. Boone Pickens and Tom Hicks who helped Rudy raise an obscene amount of money from Texas last year do not seem to be on board fundraising for McCain (yet) either.