Rick Perry vs World

28 January 2008

Conjunction junction

Is John Edwards just staying in the race to give Obama a chance against Hillary?

He might be hoping to become Attorney General, I guess.

Posted by Evan @ 01/28/08 05:49 PM | Comments (0)

24 January 2008

Boo

It is frustrating to me when our elected officials do things solely for political reasons. Given that a fiscal stimulus is almost never a good idea -- monetary policy is the more efficient, timely, and effective method -- news that we're getting stuck with a fiscal stimulus package is not welcome. If they were going to stimulate, they should worry about the credit crunch. Sigh.

Posted by Evan @ 01/24/08 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

The man can write

Do you ever read something and think, "wow, they captured almost exactly what I was thinking."

Jay Cost does that twice today. First, on whether McCain can survive the Anybody-But-McCain crowd. It's amusing to me that if McCain hadn't spent 3 years as a Democrat, he'd be the nominee right now.

Cost also writes up Fred's presidential run post-mortem. Not quite as close to my thoughts as his McCain piece, but quite good.

Posted by Evan @ 01/24/08 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

23 January 2008

Hrbacek photoshop flap makes Politico

This is not the national news you want to make. The Politico:

This is from the "too weird to believe" files. The Houston Chronicle has a story today (hat tip to talkingpointsmemo.com) about Dean Hrbacek, a Republican hopeful in Texas 22nd District to take on Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) that you just have to read.

The Chronicle reports that Hrbacek "appears slimmer than usual in a new campaign brochure because a photo of his head was affixed to the image of a different body."

It seems that Hrbacek was too busy to take an official photo so his campaign committee attached his head on another guy's body and used that new image for a campaign mailer. A slimmer, trimmer guy. For real.

I note that the folks over at CD22Watcher don't think this will affect Hrbacek much. I wonder whether they really believe that or whether it's something they want to believe.

Posted by Evan @ 01/23/08 05:36 PM | Comments (0)

21 January 2008

Romney hucksters

One of the amusing things of this campaign has been to watch some of the movement conservative establishment shill relentlessly for a guy who has claimed a very recent conversion on almost every issue they care about. To wit, Rich Lowry:

McCain has the advantage of, as a couple of people have noted, having some de facto wingmen in this race. First, there's Fred, whose lackluster showing in South Carolina was just enough to help McCain win there. As Ryan Sager writes, "Fred Thompson surely has a claim on the vice presidential nod should McCain go all the way, given the votes he took from Mike Huckabee on the Arizona senator's behalf." Then, there's Huckabee in Florida. As Martin and Ruffini point out, he's a great asset to McCain, drawing votes from Romney. Not only that, Huckabee has verged into man-crush territory with McCain and can be counted on to call any attack on him unfortunate and unfair.

Wait, wait. Fred Thompson, who has spoken repeatedly and at length about how he doesn't lust for the presidency, is lusting for the vice presidency? And what would Thompson bring to a McCain ticket? No homestate electoral college considerations, no balancing. At most, McCain might decide to make Thompson his pick for VP because Thompson has been candidly telling the truth, moreso than even McCain has.

What Lowry misses is that if there's one thing that Republican candidates agree on, it is that -- no, it's not policy -- they all detest Mitt Romney. Perhaps because he's attacked them all disingenously. And it makes it awfully hard for Romney to be the nominee in an elongated, splintered race.

Posted by Evan @ 01/21/08 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

Today

Link:

Sleep tonight
And may your dreams
Be realized
If the thunder cloud
Passes rain
So let it rain
Rain down on me

Posted by Evan @ 01/21/08 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

18 January 2008

The Runaway Grand Jury

In case you haven't been following the story, Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina's house in suburban Houston burned down in late June. Medina's house had been in foreclosure in late 2006, so prosecutors were understandably suspicious. Yesterday, a grand jury indicted Justice Medina. Immediately thereafter, highly embattled DA Chuck Rosenthal stated that he would move to dismiss the indictment.

Today, the indictment was dismissed by a judge, per the AP wire:

"There was not enough evidence at this time to go forward," Harris County assistant district attorney Vic Wisner said. "It shouldn't be construed as in any way absolving anybody of any crime or any indication that they will not ultimately be brought to account for these offenses."

State District Judge Brian Rains dismissed all the charges on motions from the prosecutor's office at a brief hearing.

Wisner said the investigation was continuing.

"Our office, my colleagues, my supervisors, as well as the investigators in the Harris County Arson Bureau all feel that the case is best handled at this point in time in an investigatory stage rather than a prosecution stage," Wisner said. "Nothing more, nothing less."

Like Tom Kirkendall, I'm confused by why the DA took the case to a grand jury. Tom K:

If the DA's office knew going into the grand jury that they did not have sufficient evidence to make a case against Justice Medina, then why on earth did they bring the case before the grand jury at this time? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm tempted not to speculate, but this is a blog, so why hold back? A possible explanation seems to be that the DA's office wanted to indict someone who wasn't Justice Medina, probably to pressure a bigger fish, and the grand jury jumped the gun. [Two grand jurors suggested politics as a reason for the indictment's dismissal, which appears likely to earn them a contempt of court citation.] The DA's office seems to signal that they intend to go after Medina, but that they don't have enough evidence yet:

[Assistant District Attorney Vic] Wisner said the office would continue to investigate David Medina and his wife Fran in connection with the fire that destroyed their home last summer.

"We're six months into a 10 year statute of limitations," Wisner said. "It's like being three minutes into the Super Bowl."

People's assumptions that politics may have played a role in the indictment's dismissal is an unfortunate drawback of having an elected DA. But presumably Rosenthal -- while he's showed surprisingly poor judgment in emails -- hasn't completely lost his marbles. Prosecutorial discretion is one of the most important principles of our government, so it seems a little early to criticize Rosenthal for this...there's plenty to criticize him about for other stuff anyway. Making sure a case meets the "reasonable doubt" burden is one of the most important jobs of a prosecutor.

One might also note that, according to his lawyer, Medina had allowed his homeowners insurance policy to lapse, which seems an odd thing for someone committing an arson.

So Texas politics is always entertaining. And I haven't even mentioned the salacious rumors angle to the story, which I've now heard from several people in the last day.

Posted by Evan @ 01/18/08 02:23 PM | Comments (3)

The one in which I sound like BlogHouston

I'm sure the governor's staff doesn't like this Channel 2 Houston news piece about Perry's replacement for the Governor's Mansion.

Local 2 Investigates the Texas governor's posh new home you're paying for. Did you know Governor Perry moved?

The change of address came as a surprise to many state representatives and senators, too, because it happened after the Legislature let out for the year.

Investigative reporter Amy Davis uncovers the tab you're picking up for Perry's new place.

Seriously, am I watching KPRC news or Hard Copy? That's embarrassing.

Plenty of people think the tab was a little over the top; perhaps so. But do I really have to feel like I'm watching Hard Copy? Also, making it out to be a serious "investigative reporting" piece is shameless. This story is months old and was revealed by press release. Please.

Posted by Evan @ 01/18/08 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Some 'Truth Squad'

I didn't mind this piece by Alan Bernstein in the Chronicle, but I hope he didn't expect the headline writers to call it "The Truth Squad: Examining the claims of GOP hopefuls in the 22nd District." When you call something a truth squad, you are implying that the candidates are lying. Bernstein didn't even come close to establishing that, perhaps because he wasn't trying to. For example:

CANDIDATE: Former Pasadena Mayor John Manlove.

STATEMENT: "I am the only candidate with a proven record in business and in government ... (and) I abolished the tax department."

INFORMATION: Manlove founded an advertising agency. Candidate Shelley Sekula Gibbs, a dermatologist, was a Houston councilwoman; candidate Dean Hrbacek was mayor of Sugar Land and works as a tax lawyer and certified public accountant; candidate Robert Talton has served in the state House and is a lawyer. As mayor, Manlove voted with the majority on the city council to contract with Harris County to collect taxes for Pasadena rather than have it done by city personnel.

I'm pretty sure I won't be supporting Manlove, but his statement seems entirely reasonable to me. A lie? Hardly. Reasonable information for a reporter to include? Yes, definitely, but not under an article headlined "Truth Squad."

The only thing even close to a 'lie' was Shelley:

CANDIDATE: Former councilwoman and interim congresswoman Shelley Sekula Gibbs

STATEMENT: She served on the Houston council for six years and "during that period of time I rolled back taxes three times and ... helped to cap a tort reform initiative."

INFORMATION: Tax rate reductions came on votes by the mayor and the 14-member council. The council has no jurisdiction over tort reform. While she was a councilwoman, Texas voters in 2003 approved a referendum capping financial awards in many lawsuits. She advocated for the proposition, according to a spokesman. The referendum was supported by the Texas Medical Association's political arm, to which Sekula Gibbs contributed money a year after the passage, according to state records.

Unfortunately, Shelley has an Al Gore-like habit of repeatedly inflating her accomplishments.

Though I understand the headline writer's desire to sensationalize, an editor really should've re-worded...

Also, I eagerly await the Chronicle article where Nick Lampson's current rhetoric is contrasted with his voting record back when he held a solidly Democratic district. Somehow, I think I'll be waiting a long, long time for that one.

Posted by Evan @ 01/18/08 01:38 PM | Comments (2)

Photoshopping? Bad. Photoshopping badly? Really bad.

That's embarrassing:

The brochure that U.S. House candidate and former Sugar Land mayor Dean Hrbacek mailed to voters this week says, "Dean's record speaks for itself."

But his physique does not. In a photo next to the words of praise, Hrbacek's body is spoken for by the torso of an appreciably slimmer man.

The picture, presented as a true image of the candidate, is actually a computerized composite of Hrbacek's face and someone else's figure, in suit and tie, from neck to knee caps. The give-away is a flawed fit of head and collar.

Hrbacek, a tax lawyer and accountant, did not return calls about the campaign literature Thursday. He is among 10 Republicans seeking the nomination to run against U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford.

But campaign manager Scott Broschart admitted the image is a fake.

Hrbacek has been so busy meeting voters in the 22nd Congressional District that he had no time for a photo session that would have produced a full-length, genuine photo for the political mailing, Broschart said.

So Hrbacek's campaign consultants at the Patriot Group in Austin � whose clients have included congressmen, elected state officials and politically influential homebuilder Bob Perry � put the headless body with the candidate's disembodied head.

You can go look at a small photo of the image in question at the Chron article. Even with a bad resolution, it doesn't look real. If you're going to photoshop, at least make it look good! Sheesh.

I'm pretty baffled as to why Hrbacek's campaign issued a statement saying that he has no time for a photo session. Really? That's pretty standard. This may seem silly and non-substantive, but this is the basic tackling-and-blocking of political campaigns. When you can't do that, it calls everything else into question. And the response is equally bizarre: what do you pay your political consultants for, if they won't even fall on their sword for you?

Also, my favorite take on this was from Evan Smith: "Can't They Photo Shop a Vowel Into His Name?"

Posted by Evan @ 01/18/08 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

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