Monthly Archives: October 2013

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Justice takes reader on wild ride

Just as I was thinking I had read all I needed to read about Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s view of the foul political climate in Washington, D.C., I happened across the interview he gave to New York Magazine.

It’s strange, to say the least.

http://nymag.com/news/features/antonin-scalia-2013-10/

I’m beginning to have some doubts about the justice, who’s been known to say some odd things from the bench and in his written opinions.

I’ve seen him interviewed before, such as on C-SPAN. He comes off as an engaging fellow. He’s not particularly stuffy and can dish out the sarcasm when the need arises. One interviewer asked him once about his opinion of a lower-court judge’s ruling that criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling on a particular subject. Scalia’s answer went something like this: “Just to be clear, our court reviews rulings handed down by his court … and not the other way around. Is that correct?”

Well, the interview is attached to this blog post. It’s lengthy. You’ll need some time to slog through it all. I won’t categorize his views as crazy. Just strange for someone who holds a lifetime job interpreting the U.S. Constitution.

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Who you calling ‘diverse’?

I have to agree with George Will on this one: Liberals dislike diversity in thought and conservatives now appear to be embracing it.

Will, one of the more noted conservative commentators and columnists in America, made the assertion on the Fox News Channel Sunday.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/10/06/george_will_liberals_dont_want_diversity_in_thought_and_thats_what_the_republicans_now_have.html

It’s an interesting twist.

Republicans are eating their young, as the late GOP state Sen. Teel Bivins of Amarillo used to say.

The party is waging war within itself, which Will says is not knew among the Grand Old Party. He cited the 1912 Teddy Roosevelt-William Howard Taft fight and the 1964 feud between the Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller wings of the party. He didn’t mention the 1968 and 1972 fights among Democrats.

But Will’s point about the Republican battle is that it’s becoming the more interesting party these days, as Democrats seem to be singing off the same page.

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Justice Scalia knows ‘nasty’

When Antonin Scalia says the tone in Washington has gotten “nasty,” you know it’s bad.

As in really, really bad.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/326835-scalia-bemoans-the-nasty-time-in-washington

The U.S. Supreme Court justice, who’s been on the high court bench since 1986, has carved out a reputation for being one of the court’s surliest members. Decorum during oral arguments at times goes out the window when Justice Scalia gets going. As for the opinions he writes — whether for the majority or in dissent — Scalia unsheathes the poison pen on occasion.

“It’s a nasty time,” Scalia told The Hill, a newspaper covering Capitol Hill. “It’s a nasty time. When I was first in Washington, and even in my early years on this Court, I used to go to a lot of dinner parties at which there were people from both sides. Democrats, Republicans.”

Yes, it’s gotten nasty. Democrats are saying it, as are Republicans. They say they liked it better when everyone got along once they were off the clock. The old-timers in Washington remember a more collegial time.

It’s just interesting to me to hear Justice Scalia now call attention to the poisonous climate in Washington.

He spoke as the court begins its new term. I’ll be anxious to see what this new term brings from the outspoken and occasionally cantankerous justice. Maybe he’ll tone it down a bit himself.

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Davis talking to Texans … about education

Wendy Davis’s campaign for Texas governor is just now getting started.

I’ll be waiting with bated breath to hear what she thinks about a lot of issues not related to abortion — the issue that catapulted her to national fame.

The Fort Worth Democratic state senator declared her gubernatorial candidacy this past week, spilling the beans on one of the worst-kept secrets in recent state political history. Seems as if everyone in Texas knew she would run before she announced it.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/05/wendy-davis-tiptoes-around-government-shutdown/

I’ll go out on a limb here and say she’ll be the Democratic nominee next spring when they count all the primary ballots. Attorney General Greg Abbott appears headed for the Republican nomination, unless underdog GOP firebrand Tom Pauken pulls a rabbit out of his hat.

Davis is beginning to sound like the “education candidate” for governor. She pledges to restore some of the money cut from public education under Gov. Rick Perry’s watch. Seems as though Perry sought budget cuts to help balance the budget and the Legislature obliged by cutting public education. That was a curious decision, given the need for the state to boost public education in an increasingly competitive environment with other states.

Wendy Davis is talking now about restoring those cuts.

Remember the filibuster this past summer she launched against an anti-abortion bill? Well, she said this week she also filibustered a proposal to cut public education in 2011. That one didn’t get nearly the attention the 2013 filibuster did.

I am betting Davis will choose to highlight the earlier gabfest in support of education as she travels the state in search of votes.

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GOP ‘playing with fire’ over debt limit

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is the latest Washington, D.C. official to turn himself into a Sunday news show hologram, making five appearances today on broadcast and cable TV to deliver a stern message.

Failure to increase the nation’s debt limit would be catastrophic to the economy, Lew said.

Is anyone listening on the Republican side of the aisle?

http://thehill.com/video/sunday-shows/326799-lew-congress-is-playing-with-fire

The debt limit stands at $16.7 trillion. If Congress doesn’t approve a measure to boost it by Oct. 17, the nation’s ability to pay its debts runs out. The United States would default on its obligations.

The Republican-led House of Representatives, though, is digging in on that one. The GOP wants to defund the Affordable Care Act so badly it has produced a partial government shutdown. GOP showboats like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas say they’ll do “whatever it takes to defund Obamacare.”

Does that mean destroying people’s retirement accounts, downgrading the nation’s worldwide credit rating, forcing a stock market collapse? Is that what they mean by “whatever it takes”?

Lew’s message is stark. I happen to believe his prognosis. Does anyone in power in D.C. care about those of us out here who are going to pay the price for their foolishness?

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Ethics group takes aim at Neugebauer

You have to love an ethics watchdog group that challenges a blowhard politician for chastising a public service employee who simply was doing her job — as ordered by the very same blowhard politician.

At least I do.

http://www.ibtimes.com/randy-neugebauer-crew-wants-investigation-texas-gop-congressman-verbal-attack-us-park-ranger-video

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed an ethics complaint against West Texas Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock who earlier this week scolded a national park ranger for keeping folks out of the World War II Veterans Memorial in Washington. She was acting on orders because of the partial government shutdown that Neugebauer voted to enact.

He confronted the ranger and told her she should be “ashamed” for refusing to let people into the memorial. Neugebauer was trying to score points because Honor Flight attendees were coming from Texas to tour the WWII memorial.

“My beef wasn’t with the park ranger,” the congressman told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal on Friday. “My beef is with the Park Service and with the administration.”

OK, fine. Why, then, did he believe it was necessary to scold the park ranger in public, have it recorded on video and then distributed around the world?

“Obviously, the Park Police employee had no role whatsoever in the decision to shut down the federal government,” CREW executive director Melanie Sloan wrote in her complaint letter. “Instead, as is well recognized, the shutdown was forced by members of the House of Representatives, including Rep. Neugebauer, who have refused to vote for a resolution to fund government operations unless the president acquiesces to an ever-changing series of demands, the most recent of which was a delay in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.”

Go get ‘im, CREW.

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Boehner’s backside is on the line

Poor John Boehner.

He wanted more than anything to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He got his wish when Nancy Pelosi handed the gavel to him as the 112th Congress convened in 2011. But now he’s like the dog who kept chasing the car … but didn’t know what to do when he caught it.

The Republican speaker is being whipsawed by factions within his own party.

Does he “cave” to demand to end the government shutdown by agreeing to put a Democratic measure to fund the government to a vote? Doing so would anger the tea party clique that is calling the shots in the GOP caucus.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/03/20804176-john-boehners-legacy-on-the-line-in-shutdown?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1

Does he want to remain speaker or — as he insists — does he want to do what’s best for the country and get the government, all of it, back in action?

Therein lies his dilemma. He must appease the raucous minority within his own caucus or he must do what most of the rest of us want, which is to end this ridiculous stalemate.

He is the speaker of the House, which defines him as a very powerful politician. He’s second in line to the presidency, after the vice president. He can make the speaker’s office as weak or as strong as he wants.

My sense is that Boehner wants to be seen as a strong speaker in the mold of, say, Texas Democrat Sam Rayburn. He’s wired to cut deal with the other side, just as Rayburn was during his many years as speaker.

However, he’s got that faction within his own party that thinks it knows best. It doesn’t know anything. Its members have no institutional knowledge of what happened to their caucus the last time they orchestrated a government shutdown in 1995. They had their heads handed to them at the next election.

Another speaker, Newt Gingrich, knows what happened. He’s been trying to counsel his tea party pals about the folly of their mission. It’s been to no avail.

Meanwhile, the current Man of the House is being flummoxed. Poor guy. Maybe he shouldn’t have wanted to be speaker quite so badly.

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‘Civil war’ not a new thing in U.S. politics

Intraparty warfare has engulfed the Republican Party.

It’s the tea party vs. the establishment wing. Not sure yet who’s winning. To be honest, I don’t really care who wins this one. Rest assured, the GOP will emerge from it eventually. I’m not sure it will be any stronger as a result. Then again, I don’t really care about that, either.

It fascinates me, though, to see the GOP entangled in this imbroglio, this struggle for what’s left of its soul. Why? Because I thought I’d seen the worst of the worst political party civil wars. It happened to the Democrats back in the 1960s and early 1970s.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/republican-civil-war

Some of us remember those times. The Vietnam War was raging. It was hawks vs. doves back then.

The hawks were led by some stalwart Democrats. I can think of the late Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington and the late Vice President (and later Sen.) Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota — who, by the way, served in the Senate before being elected VP in 1964. The doves were led by equally stalwart Democrats, such as the late Sens. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, George McGovern of South Dakota and (my first real political hero) Robert F. Kennedy of New York.

They fought equally hard for the soul of the Democratic Party. They all were patriots. They loved their country in equal measure, just as Republicans love their country today. They fought with each other back then over the terms of how we should prosecute and eventually end the Vietnam War.

One interesting similarity emerges between then and now. The Democratic hawks accused the doves of being not quite patriotic enough. Today, we hear the “tea party patriots” accusing establishment Republicans and even those dreaded Democrats of, um, being somewhat impure and tainted, that they aren’t the true believers.

The Democrats’ civil war ended eventually. It took a constitutional crisis, Watergate, to coalesce Democrats behind a winning candidate, Jimmy Carter in 1976. They hit a major bump four years later when the economy tanked and Iranian militants took Americans hostage on President Carter’s watch. Republican Ronald Reagan took the White House back in 1980. Bill Clinton recaptured it for the Democrats in 1992.

How will the current GOP battle end is anyone’s guess. The tea party is calling the cadence within the party, which still comprises some smart folks who know how to make government work.

I’m going to sit back and watch this one play out.

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TxDOT ends D/FW nightmare

The Texas Department of Transportation has brought an end to the nightmare of trying to get into Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport by automobile.

I read today that TxDOT has completed signage that’s supposed to make it clear — and not clear as mud — for motorists trying to find long- and short-term parking into the immense air terminal.

I know about these things, having been caught trying to blunder my way into a terminal to catch a flight from D/FW home to Amarillo.

Actually, my son was at the wheel at the time; my wife and I were passengers in his car. We circled the terminal seemingly forever before we accidentally found the off-ramp that led us to our destination, which we could see from the car; we just couldn’t find our way to it.

But I’m glad to know TxDOT has finished this job.

TxDOT is full of some smart civil engineers who I’m sure know how to make our travel lives easier while they construct, reconstruct and re-do our state’s roads and highways.

Some adequate construction signage would be a good start.

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‘Politicization’ of vets memorials continues

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is right when he urges all parties to avoid politicizing veterans memorials while part of the federal government remains shut down.

He talks a good game, but he and his colleagues play something quite different.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-on-the-potomac/2013/10/john-cornyn-dont-politicize-veterans-memorials/

Cornyn made his statements in front of the World War II Memorial. Then came Sen. Ted Cruz, Cornyn’s fellow Texas Republican, to welcome Honor Flight veterans from Texas to the memorial. What did Cruz do? He blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for the mess that has engulfed Washington.

Members of the House and Senate, by their presence at these memorials, in effect politicize their very existence and make pawns out of the veterans who come to visit them.

The National Park Service that runs these memorials has been forced to shut down because Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on a simple spending measure to fund their operation. Just the other day a West Texas congressional Republican, Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock, put on a disgraceful display of grandstanding by upbraiding a park ranger for doing her job, which was to keep people from entering one of these veterans memorials.

Was he politicizing the memorial? Ummm, yes.

I believe Sen. Cornyn and other members of both congressional chambers — from both political parties — should concentrate on settling this issue and avoid public displays that, by definition, lead to the politicization of solemn memorials meant to honor brave Americans who fought and died in defense of this country.