Live video will stream this Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 8:30 AM CST from the Armed Services Committee website and the C-SPAN viewing schedule will be announced later this week.
For BOR readers in the D.C. area who would like to attend, the hearing is open to the public, and will take place in Room SD-106, Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Former State Representative Juan Garcia just moved forward with the next big step of his confirmation to be the next Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. The Corpus Christi Caller Times is reporting that The White House has just officially sent his name to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.
As was notedearlier, there will now be a hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
CCCT: Twenty-six senators, including ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., make up the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Carl Levin, D-Mich. A confirmation hearing has not been scheduled.
If the committee votes in favor of Garcia, the full Senate votes on the matter. A majority vote by the Senate would confirm his appointment.
Given the importance of that position in the Dept. of Defense (DoD), I expect the hearing to happen sooner rather than later.
As KT noted earlier, former State Representative and Commander in U.S. Navy Juan Garcia has been tapped by President Barack Obama to become the next Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
Since Garcia will be the second Texan to be nominated for a Senate confirmable position (Ron Kirk was the first), there should some dissemination what this position involves, and how Garcia fits.
This is a position rich in history. Previous individuals who have served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy include Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and more recently the current U.S. Senator for Virginia, James Webb. On a bit of side note, famous Texans who have held Presidential Pentagon appointments include former governors John Connally, who served as Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), and Bill Clements, who served as US Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Pres. Obama has 487 Senate approved positions to fill. So far, the average age of Obama’s appointees is 52. Garcia is only 42 years old. The Washington Post has a great appointees tracking page. Juan is a graduate of UCLA, Harvard Law School (where he met Barack Obama), John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and served as a White House Fellow. Garcia has accomplished a lot in his young life and I know we expect a great deal more from this rising Texas star.
The Navy Department has approximately 330,000 naval personnel, 202,000 Marines, and a civilian workforce as well. If confirmed, Garcia will oversee the office responsible for recruiting, developing, and retaining Navy and Marine Corps personnel to ensure that the country has a naval force capable of supporting the U.S.'s overall military global operations.
There had been rumorsthat Garcia was going to be selected for SECNAV (former Mississippi Governor and Clinton Ambassador Ray Mabus has been nominated) but federal law prevents an appointment to Secretary of the Navy for any one who has been off active duty less than five years. Garcia left the active-duty Navy in October of 2004 and continues to fly as an instructor pilot in the Naval Reserve. He is currently the Commanding Officer of Naval Reserve Training Squadron 28 at NAS Corpus Christi. His father, Captain Juan Garcia, a native of Robstown, Texas, is a retired naval aviator, and his younger brother, Lieutenant Junior Grade Mike Garcia, is a naval aviator currently serving oversea.
This a gross oversimplification of the process but these are the following hoops you have to jump through be confirmed: initial vetting by the White House, POTUS announces an intent to nominate, the U.S. Senate receives an official communication from the White House of the nomination, the U.S. Senate conducts confirmation hearings and approves the nomination and then the nominee gets sworn in. For this position, Garcia’s appointment goes before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee chaired by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), with ranking members Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA).
I think this is great for Texas. I am happy to see one our best and brightest nominated to serve in Obama’s administration. I look forward to watching his career in Washington D.C. but I know his home is always going to be here in Texas.
(Last cycle Garcia beat Gene Seaman because he was horrid candidate who made every mistake possible. This cycle, Garcia is in a must win race against Todd Hunter who is a horrid candidate who makes every mistake possible. - promoted by Matt Glazer)
A few weeks ago during a forum in Corpus Christi for House District 32 candidates, an attendee asked State Rep. Juan Garcia and lobbyist Todd Hunter if they would release their tax records. Rep. Garcia immediately said he would release his tax records as well as his wife’s records. Hunter responds by first dodging the question (see video) then stating that he would only give his tax records but not his wife’s if and only if Garcia released his military record (Rep. Garcia continues to serve as a Flight Instructor in the Navy Reserve and is scheduled to take command of a unit in October).
Rep. Garcia fulfilled his promise and released his family’s tax records. The release notes both of their salaries (Denise Garcia is the General Counsel for Driscoll Children's Hospital). Records show an upper middle class income commensurate with two working professionals with four small children. While higher than the average area salary, it is relatively low for two Harvard Law graduates. The Garcias always said that they consciously chose to come back to the Coastal Bend to raise their young family.
To date, the silence from Hunter is deafening.
I think I know why Hunter won’t give up his or his wife's tax records or his wife’s. Todd Hunter has made millions of dollars lobbying for special interests. A large bulk of those millions were made from working for the insurance companies (see spreadsheet) keeping rates high. This is going to be a tough sell in the Coastal Bend, where homeowners pay the highest windstorm rates in the country. Even if for some miracle he releases his records, I am willing to bet that Hunter won’t release his wife’s records because that is where he is hiding his money. Just like Gene Seaman, I expect Hunter to use his wife to funnel and hide money.
I am still quite appalled that Hunter would dare ask for Garcia’s military record when Hunter has never served. I don't know what type of attempt of swiftboating Hunter was thinking but it won't work against Garcia. In a humorous follow up at the debate, Garcia said he would be happy to release his military records and asked if Hunter would release his as well. Hunter snarled back, “you know I don’t have one” (i.e. a military record to release).
Todd Hunter, it is time to release your and your wife’s tax records to see how you have profited off making it harder and more expensive to own a home in Texas.
Can't get enough of chubby 60-something men making painfully off-color anecdotes at legislative events? Been awhile since you've watched the iconic footage of Gene Seaman's now-legendary floor speech on Viagra?
This week House challenger Todd Hunter managed to forge the bonds of creepiness with Seaman in an appearance at a candidate’s forum in Corpus Christi.
Asked about the relative value of seniority in the Texas Lege, Hunter thought the appropriate response would be "size matters." As the footage from the event shows, the audience of Leadership Corpus Christi alumni react with a stunned and deafening silence.
It gets even better.
After the Corpus Christi Caller-Times wrote a Sunday piece describing the bizarre awkwardness of the moment, the Hunter campaign's nimble response was to release an 843-word press advisory desperately trying to spin the concept that this had nothing to do with sexual innuendo. They pathetically try to point out the term "size matters" could have meant all kinds of things, and as examples, they refer to the use of the term "in title of a Playstation 2 video game; it’s the name of a clothing store for big and tall men in Philadelphia; it is a album title by the band Helmet"
Well here's album cover from Helmut (it has no sexual innuendo at all, right?):
As local political scientist Bob Bezdek told the Caller-Times in yet another story on this bizarre incident, "My God, why would you put that much effort into it? If I had said something I didn't mean to say, I'd apologize."
What's with these creepy old guys and their obsession with their junk? Shouldn't Hunter, who endorsed Seaman last cycle, raised money for him, hosted events for him, and took part in his TV ads, shift his focus to thinking about how he's going to defend taking nearly $4 million dollars as a windstorm lobbyist when the Coastal Bend is paying the highest windstorm rates in the nation?
We aren't trying to write about HD-32 every day, but man Todd Hunter is bad guy and horrid candidate. In three days, he has made at least three major errors-- lying to voters, attacking a decorated veteran, and concealing important documents from voters.
In the same week that Nueces County GOP Chair Mike Bertuzzi questioned the "worthiness" of State Rep. Juan Garcia's donation to the Center for the Intrepid (the nation's premiere rehabilitation facility for our most seriously injured, burned and maimed service personnel) because, get this, the facility is not in Rep. Garcia's District (not joking, see the Caller Times), challenger Todd Hunter showed how little regard he holds for military service.
During their first head-to-head debate, the two were asked by an audience member whether they would make their tax records available to the media. Garcia immediately committed to unconditionally releasing the tax records. In a bizarre answer captured on video, an indignant Hunter snarled "you won't get my wife's" (reminiscent of Garcia’s last opponent and Hunter’s supporter Gene Seaman and his hiding of a luxury Town Lake condo kept in his wife's name but paid for with campaign contributions), and then made the release of his own tax returns conditional on Rep. Garcia releasing his military records.
Hunter never served in the military, but has no shame in apparently searching for ways to turn someone else's service against them. Ironically, Garcia, a decorated naval aviator who spent 13 years on active duty and continues to serve as a naval instructor pilot in the reserves at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, will be promoted to the rank of Commander in June, and was just selected to take command of the VT-28 Squadron Augment Unit in October.
District 32 contains NAS Corpus Christi, Naval Station Ingleside, the Corpus Christi Army Depot, and many residents who commute to nearby Naval Air Station Kingsville. They honor military service. A big part of Garcia's 2006 victory was due to the reality that the bonds of sacrifice and service run deeper than partisan affiliation. Chickenhawks like Bertuzzi and Hunter are further proof that this GOP has lost touch with voters and that Garcia is going to win again.
Sour grapes are funny things. After the amazing victory by Juan Garcia over Republican Gene Seaman in the Coastal Bend in 2006, local republican officials just cannot come to grips with reality. Repeatedly, the Nueces County GOP apparatus continues to swing wildly into the air, hitting nothing and looking like fools.
First, since his win, four frivolous ethics complaints againt Rep. Garcia filed by local GOP officials have been dismissed by the Ethics Commission.
Second, former Nueces County Republican Chair Joel Yowell filed a massive public information request of Rep. Garcia’s State Representative office, including every email, phone call and employee document ever generated by the office. After Garcia's staff was forced to burn dozens of taxpayer-paid man-hours complying with his request, Yowell sent the records back unopened, simply changing his mind. Yowell gave no reason for his sudden change of heart. I suspect he is afraid of what happens if we peer into his house.
Third, in an even more bizarre episode, Republican staffer and campaign consultant, Todd Gallaher, got caught using state computers for campaign work, created an email account designed to look like it was from Rep. Garcia and tried to blackmail a sitting Coastal Bend Sheriff. Later, he lied to an ethics watchdog group who filed a complaint against his boss by claiming to be Dallas Morning New reporter.
This week, Mike Bertuzzi, current Nueces County Republican Chair, sent out 20,000 mailers attacking Rep. Juan Garcia for not returning campaign contributions given by Corpus Christi businessman Mauricio Celis. Not surprisingly, Bertuzzi, the ring leader of this bumbling "gang that couldn't shoot straight", didn't bother to check his facts.
Last January, Garcia donated the Celis money to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which serves severly injured American service personnel from South Texas.
The “Center for the Intrepid” serves military personnel who have been catastrophically disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and veterans severely injured in other operations and in the normal performance of their duties.
Here is clip of Rep. Garcia addressing the local media on the false mailers:
Sen. Bob Deuell's Chief of Staff, Todd Gallaher, was caught redhanded doing some really stupid and potentially illegal things this week. It is being reported that Gallaher used state computers for campaign work, impersonated a state representative via email, tried to blackmail a sitting Sheriff and lied to an ethics watchdog group who filed a complaint against his boss by claiming to be Dallas Morning New reporter.
Todd Gallaher had been on leave from Republican state Sen. Bob Deuell's office since last month, when he used an e-mail address that looked like it belonged to a Democratic lawmaker to send out embarrassing photos of a South Texas sheriff up for re-election.
As recently as Thursday night, however, he was back in Dr. Deuell's Capitol office, apparently identifying himself as a Dallas Morning News reporter in a phone call with a California ethics watchdog.
I am curious whether being "on leave" from the Senator's office was because he did something wrong or it is just code for taking time off to work on the Sheriff election.
1. Don't use state computers for state work - it's not what the taxpayers would want and it's illegal.
2. If you are going to impersonate someone, don't have a lame excuse when you are caught.
Dr. Deuell of Greenville said Mr. Gallaher told him he wasn't impersonating [State Representative] Garcia when he sent out the photos, which Sheriff Gilliam says were taken at a raucous New Year's Eve police party in 1989. Dr. Deuell, who has apologized profusely for his staffer's actions, said Mr. Gallaher told him the personal e-mail address stands for "Republican Jaun Garcia," a super hero-like caricature Mr. Gallaher created long before Mr. Garcia ever took office.
I don' t know what is worse: the sorry excuse for an excuse or that Sen. Deuell seems to believes him. And it continues:
If the e-mail address on the South Texas sheriff photos was truly just a coincidence, Rep. Garcia said, it's one that's "beyond comprehension." His office has asked for evidence that Mr. Gallaher has used the alter ego before – a request that Dr. Deuell said has produced cartoon sketches from the 1990s. In those sketches, Mr. Gallaher points out, "Juan" is spelled "Jaun," a sign that the character is in no way linked to Mr. Garcia. In the e-mail address, however, it was spelled "juan."
Also, it appears that Gallaher was on the payroll of the Sheriff's opponent who won the race. That candidate "has paid $11,000 since July 2007 to an Austin-based consultant – one that lists Mr. Gallaher's post office box as its address."
The outgoing Sheriff, Gilliam, is asking the Attorney General to open an investigation on Gallaher. "He says before the photos were released, he received two e-mails from a different address, telling him to "back off" of his opponent or risk public embarrassment. Those e-mails both traced back to the Dr. Deuell's office, Sheriff Gilliam said."
Of course, this isn't the first of Gallaher's indiscretions. "He was deeply involved in a messy state tug-of-war over privatizing the state's specialty license plate business in 2006 – drawing allegations of meddling from transportation department officials."
I wonder who is going to be dumb enough to hire this kid. Free advice to Republicans: stay away from him.
(Art Hall is a BOR endorsed candidate. - promoted by Burnt Orange Report)
BOR endorsed Railroad Commissioner candidate Art Hall has now recieved the endorsements of four Texas State Senators. They are Sen. Rodney Ellis, Sen. Royce West, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, and Sen. Carlos Uresti.
Much has been said over the value of endorsements but I do know that these four Senators represent a large portion of our state. If they get out and help stump for Art Hall, it could make a big difference. At the very least, I hope more people will pay attention to who sits in this very important position.
I met Art Hall when he headed up the Academic Excellence office at St. Mary's School of Law. I believe him to be a thoughtful and intelligent person that will be getting my vote.
