Monthly Archives: December 2013

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Shaking hands with a foe? Stop the presses!

I can hear it now from the conservative media.

There he goes again, shaking hands with our enemies.

President Obama today took a moment at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service to shake hands with Cuban president Raul Castro, who was among the 100 or so heads of state and government who traveled to South Africa to honor the life of one of history’s greatest liberators.

Obama took his seat among the dignitaries and shook hands with a number of them. One of them happened to be Castro, the brother of Fidel Castro, the communist dictator who outlasted 10 U.S. presidents — all of whom sought to remove him from power in Cuba. The United States still has a trade embargo in place against Cuba, a nation we still regard as some kind of geopolitical threat — even though the Cold War ended more than two decades ago.

Then the commentators made an important point about Obama’s fleeting gesture of good will toward Castro: It is totally in keeping with the life of the man they all were gathered to honor.

I’ve said it here already, but it bears repeating. Nelson Mandela emerged from imprisonment in February 1990 with his head held high and his hand held out to those who held him captive. He could have fomented violence. He could have returned to freedom an angry man bent on revenge.

Instead, he reached out to his foes and said, in effect, “Let’s build a new nation together. I need you and you need me.”

No one on Earth — except Barack Obama and Raul Castro — know what they said to each other for all of about two seconds. It doesn’t matter. The nations still are at odds over a whole host of issues. The two men weren’t present in that massive Soweto stadium to argue with each other. They were there to honor a great man’s memory and his glorious life of reconciliation.

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Finding common bond with a stranger

Let’s steer away for a moment from the usual rants about public policy.

I’ll share with you a moment I had at work today. Maybe you can relate to it.

I work part time for an Amarillo automobile dealer, Street Toyota and Scion. My job is as a customer service concierge, meaning I get to greet folks who bring their vehicles in for service, or perhaps they’re in the middle of purchasing a vehicle. They come to our service area and I get to welcome them and offer refreshments, arrange for transportation, whatever it takes to make them comfortable.

Well, a couple walked into our department today. The husband walked off. I struck up a conversation with his wife.

“You here to get your car serviced?” I asked. She said yes and then told me it was her third or fourth visit to the dealership since she moved here. “Oh, and where did you live before?” I asked. She said Pampa. “What brought you to Amarillo?” I inquired.

“My son got married and he lives here with his wife,” she said. Then she added, “And we’re going to have a grandchild … next June.”

I congratulated her and asked if it was her first. “It’s our first biological grandchild,” she answered.

I couldn’t help myself. I let out a quiet whoop and high-fived her. “Well, I feel your joy,” I said with quite a bit of excitement.

I then launched into my familiar refrain about our own first biological grandchild, our precious Emma Nicole, who just turned 9 months old this past week.

The lady then told me her daughter-in-law brought her 12-year-old daughter into the family. “Well, how about that?” I said, explaining that we received a precious gift of our own when our son married a beautiful girl more than a year ago. I then joked how we inherited two “half-grown, house-broken grandsons” who are now 16 and 11. We shared our joy in having these children in our lives.

It occurred to me quite suddenly as we continued our conversation how amazingly similar our emotions were at that moment. We were sharing almost identical joys, she with the impending birth of her first grandchild and me with our own still-infant first granddaughter moving quickly toward toddlerhood.

This is one of the joys of the job I acquired some four months ago. I get to connect with total strangers in unexpected ways.

It also reminds me in spades of how connected we all can be.

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Yep, another federal budget deadline looms

Happy Monday, everyone. Welcome to the latest Week When All Hell Might Break Loose.

Here’s the good news: The work week ends on Friday the 13th, which is the day U.S. House and Senate budget negotiators are supposed to produce a budget deal that forestalls another government shutdown.

Any takers on whether they get it done?

Well, here we are yet again. We’ve been through one of these government shutdowns already. It lasted 16 days and Republicans took the big hickey on that deal. The “crisis” ended when all the parties agreed to convene a conference committee chaired by two serious lawmakers — Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin — to hammer out a new budget deal.

The stakes are big. Absent a budget deal, the government could shut down once more. We hear now about a major sticking point: whether to extend unemployment insurance for long-term jobless Americans. President Obama wants to extend the benefit; his “friends” on the Republican side in Congress, naturally, oppose it.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20131207/DAAHG0F83.html

House Speaker John Boehner is actually making sense, suggesting Republicans could support an extension.

My guess is that the GOP has another — more pragmatic — reason to avoid a shutdown. It involves the Affordable Care Act.

You see, Democrats have lost their political edge over the ACA rollout. All that advantage they had over Republicans because of the shutdown dissipated when the ACA debut crashed and burned because of that faulty website. It gave Republicans loads of fresh meat to gnaw on. They’re still chewing on it and inflicting as much damage as possible on Democrats.

Do Republicans want to surrender that advantage? I don’t think so.

Therefore, I’m almost ready to suggest that the Murray- and Ryan-led committee just might cobble together a budget deal that heads off a government shutdown.

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Thornberry gets a challenge … from the right!

An acquaintance of mine read a blog I posted about state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, drawing an opponent in next March’s GOP primary.

She wants to know what I think of another race involving a Republican officeholder: U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry of Clarendon.

Well, here goes.

There can be no doubt that Elaine Hays, an Amarillo financial planner, thinks that Thornberry isn’t conservative enough. For the life of me I cannot understand that one.

Here is Hays’s “issues” page taken from her campaign website:

http://www.elainehaysforcongress.com/#!issues/cdbv

Hays is seeking to bounce Thornberry out of the office he’s held since 1995. I looked at the issues summaries posted and I am having trouble finding anything substantively different from what Thornberry has supported during his umpteen terms in Congress.

I must stipulate that I do not know Elaine Hays. She calls herself a “dedicated conservative,” a wife and mother. I am quite sure Thornberry sees himself as just as conservative as Hays and he’s a dedicated husband and father to boot.

Of the issues Hays has cited, I cannot fathom how her voting record would differ from the incumbent’s. Thornberry has voted for pro-life legislation; he’s opposed spending measures proposed by Democrats; he supports gun-owners rights; he’s called for more exploration of fossil fuels to achieve “energy independence”; he’s given the cold shoulder to immigration reform efforts and has spoken in favor of strengthening our borders.

These all are things Hays is saying.

What makes her different? I’m guessing she’s going to be even more forceful than Thornberry in pushing them. That’s about all I can figure.

That spells “tea party Republican” to me.

I didn’t think it was possible to run to the right of Mac Thornberry. I’m guessing Elaine Hays is going to prove me — and a lot of other observers — so very wrong.

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Smithee for House speaker? Don’t think so

Paul Burka, the estimable Texas Monthly editor and blogger, is one of the smarter Texas political analysts around.

I like his analyses — most of the time. I have to disagree with his view that Republican state Rep. John Smithee of Amarillo may be angling for a shot at becoming the next speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/does-john-smithee-want-be-speaker

He’s posted a couple of blog items wondering out loud about Smithee’s aspirations in the wake of his emceeing an event in Tyler involving some tea part Republicans.

Burka notes that Smithee voted against the House budget this past session. It’s a big deal, Burka said, because Smithee chairs the House Insurance Committee, thanks to Speaker Joe Straus’s appointment powers.

Burka asserts further that Smithee appears to have a following among members of the tea party wing of the Republican Party, who don’t like Straus’s coziness with House Democrats.

Here’s my take: John Smithee is a comfortable as a back-bench member of the House, where he has served quietly since 1985.

He’s been mentioned in recent times as a possible speaker candidate. I have asked him directly about the earlier reports of his alleged interest in becoming the Man of the House. I’ve always thought Smithee to be a pretty direct guy; he answers direct questions with direct answers. His response to the query was that he didn’t like the “political” nature of the speakership. And political it is. It involves a lot of deal-making, cajoling, hand-holding, bullying … all of it and more.

Smithee just doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’s comfortable assuming all those responsibilities.

Would he make a good speaker? He has a lot of friends in both legislative chambers — in both parties.

My sense is that he values those relationships more than he values being speaker.

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Lawsuit names alcohol vendors

This could get interesting if it goes to trial, which is far from a sure thing.

A Canyon resident is suing a man she says caused a wreck that killed her husband. What’s more, she’s suing two business establishments that served the co-defendant in the suit alcohol the day of the fatal wreck.

The plaintiff is Kristi Powell, whose husband — Kendrick — died in a Jan. 19, 2012 accident on Interstate 40. The defendants are Christopher Easterday, the driver of the other vehicle, Buffalo Wild Wings franchise owner Kendall Howard and The Jungle owner Chandra Brown. Powell filed suit in 181st District Court.

http://amarillo.com/news/latest-news/2013-12-07/wife-man-killed-drunken-driving-wreck-sues-jungle-buffalo-wild-wings

You hear about lawsuits such as this from time to time. States have laws that establish liability for business establishments that serve alcohol. Is it their responsibility to ensure that patrons are alert enough to drive? Does the lion’s share of responsibility rest with the customer who is consuming the alcohol? Should the customer realize when he or she has had too much to drive safely? Does the bartender have a responsibility if he or she believes the customer has had enough?

I’m not going to pass judgment. I’m only going to suggest that this case could be worth our attention if it goes to trial.

I won’t bet that it will. Indeed, a pre-trial settlement is likely to reveal plenty about whether the business owners believe they had a hand in this tragic death.

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Seliger draws GOP challenger; good deal

Incumbents have hated for years my mantra that none of them deserves to be sent back to office without a challenge.

Former state Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, would get particularly agitated with me as I extolled the virtue of forcing incumbents to explain themselves, their votes, their policies — why they do what they do on our behalf.

My answer: Too bad, David. That’s why we have elections.

Well, another legislative incumbent, state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, has drawn a primary challenger. He is former Midland mayor Mike Canon, who told the Texas Tribune he intends to file his candidacy papers.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/12/07/former-midland-mayor-challenging-seliger-sd-31/

The Tribune’s Ross Ramsey notes that Canon’s candidacy could fuel a rivalry between the northern and southern ends of the massive Senate District 31, one of the largest geographically in the state. Given that the state’s population growth has occurred in regions east of here — and given that the law requires each Senate district to have roughly equal populations — that means West Texas districts’ borders keep getting expanded.

There’s long been a bit of tension between north and south in District 31. Before Seliger was elected in 2004, the district was represented by the late Teel Bivins, another stalwart Amarillo Republican; Bivins went on to be appointed ambassador to Sweden. Seliger defeated another ex-Midland mayor in that year’s primary. His most recent GOP challenge came in 2012 from a one-term school trustee from Odessa, whom Seliger trounced in the primary.

On one hand, it’s good for Seliger to be tested by someone within his own party. Primary challenges, indeed contested general elections, serve to keep incumbents on their game and enable them to explain to their constituents why they vote the way they do.

But there might some trouble brewing in this challenge. I don’t know Canon, but I’m going to make a broad presumption that he might be running to Seliger’s right, meaning he comes from the tea party wing of his party. This is the party wing that favors confrontation instead of compromise. Many tea party loyalists in Congress and in state legislators have been known to frown upon Republicans getting too chummy with those dreaded Democrats. Seliger over the years has told me of the friendships he’s developed with legislative Democrats; state Sen. Chuy Hinojosa comes to mind, as he and Seliger apparently are pretty good pals.

As Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst learned the hard way when he lost the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate to Ted Cruz, there’s danger in getting outflanked on the right. Dewhurst tried to tack to the right but it was too late. Cruz inflicted politically mortal wounds on Dewhurst.

Would a challenge from the right, were it to develop, push Seliger farther to at extreme end of the spectrum?

I’m hoping for Seliger’s sake — and for Senate District 31 voters — he stays the course.

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Santorum defames Mandela’s struggle

I’ll admit I didn’t see this one coming.

On the heels of Nelson Mandela’s death this week in South Africa, we hear from a two-bit American politician who equates the great Mandela’s struggle against injustice and tyranny with Republicans’ effort to rid the United States of the Affordable Care Act.

Yep, according to former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., the two battles stand as moral equals. That’s what he told Bill O’Reilly. Have a listen.

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2013/12/07/santorum-mandelas-fight-for-freedom-like-the-fight-against-obamacare/

I don’t know which offends more: Santorum’s equating the two fights or O’Reilly’s failure to call him out on his ridiculous comparison.

I’ll stick with the original offense, which would be Santorum’s asinine assertion.

Say whatever you wish about the ACA or about its chief benefactor, President Barack Obama, what is going on now in the United States bears no resemblance, none, to what Nelson Mandela endured as he led the movement to rid South Africa of its apartheid policy.

You remember apartheid, yes? It was the policy that required separate societies within South Africa, one for the white minority that governed the country and the other for black residents who comprised the overwhelming majority of the country’s population. The black residents, though, didn’t have the right to vote or to have any voice at all in the policies that suppressed them.

This was the battle Mandela fought and which cost him 27 years of imprisonment on Robben Island.

For a one-time U.S. senator who may run for president yet again to compare his party’s struggle against the Affordable Care Act with what Nelson Mandela endured is offensive beyond all measure.

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Biden or Clinton in ’16? Obama stays mum

President Obama faced a number of pointed questions this week in an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

The most pointed query was one he wouldn’t dare answer. Who’d make the better president: Joe Biden or Hillary Rodham Clinton?

Obama begged off.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/192274-biden-or-clinton-not-a-chance-i-am-going-there-says-obama

You’d better get used to it, Mr. President. The media are going to try to get you to answer a question you say you won’t touch with mile-long pole.

The president surely anticipated the question from Matthews. He seemed ready.

They both would bring strength to the White House, Obama said. He said Vice President Biden has been at his side for every key decision. The president said Clinton has earned her place among the top secretaries of state in the nation’s history.

Yes, the president has some hurdles to clear before he starts planning his exit and deliberates over how — or whether — he should campaign for his successor.

I’m not expecting the national media to let up, though, in pursuing angles looking for clues on whom the president prefers: Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton.

The constant hectoring over that issue might drive the president even nuttier than his dealings with congressional Republicans.

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North Koreans prove again their PR insanity

Merrill Newman is on his way home after being held captive in North Korea.

In a bizarre tale — as if anything involving North Korea is ever not bizarre — Newman, an 85-year-old Korean War veteran, admitted to committing dastardly acts while fighting that war. The North Koreans, out of the goodness of their hearts, accepted his “apology” and let him go.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/07/world/asia/north-korea-american-newman/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

And what did this man do, according to the North Koreans? He committed “hostile acts” against them.

OK, let me see if I have this straight.

The North Koreans invaded South Korea in 1950, igniting a ferocious conflict that would last three years. United Nations forces, led by the United States, intervened on the South’s behalf. They fought bloody battles against the North Korean army, which later was aided by a massive force from the People’s Republic of China.

Is there anything non-hostile about any of this?

Newman had been recorded making some kind of apology for his actions while serving in the Korean War. He read the script. His reading of it sounded for all the world like one of those bogus “confessions” we heard during the Vietnam War by captured U.S. service personnel.

Well, now the North Koreans have “deported” Newman.

They can call it whatever they want. I prefer to call it a ridiculous public relations stunt gone bad.