Monthly Archives: November 2019

local news, State news

Price is right for Texas House speaker?

Now that the speakership of the Texas House of Representatives is certain to be an open spot when the Texas Legislature convenes in January 2021, I want to offer a suggestion for who could become the new Man of the House.

State Rep. Four Price of Amarillo might be right for the job.

Why this guy? Well, for starters he sought the speakership in advance of the 2019 Legislature, then bowed out when it became clear that Rep. Dennis Bonnen would get the job.

Bonnen, though, blew it all apart when he turned on 10 of his fellow Republican lawmakers in that infamous conversation he had with right-wing fanatic/zealot Michael Quinn Sullivan, the founder of Empower Texans. Bonnen gave Sullivan the names of 10 legislators that Empower Texans could target in the 2020 election. Bonnen at first denied doing it, but then Sullivan provided proof that he did with a recording he made of the conversation.

Well, as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once said famously: Oops!

Bonnen was toast. He won’t seek re-election to the House in 2020.

Four Price also is a friend of mine, but that’s not the reason I think he would be a fine speaker of the House … presuming that Republicans maintain control of the chamber, which isn’t necessarily a guaranteed event, given the shame that the current GOP speaker has brought on himself and his party.

One reason, though, to recommend Price is that he is no friend or fan of Sullivan, who funded a GOP challenger to Price in the 2018 GOP primary. Price thumped his foe. So, it would scramble my brain beyond recovery to think Rep. Price would align himself with Sullivan in any meaningful fashion. He also has endeared himself to Legislature-watchers with his work on mental health reform in Texas.

Now, the question is this: Will Price decide to make another run for the speakership? I haven’t spoken to him. He has reached out to me, either. I don’t expect him to seek my guidance or counsel. He knows how I feel about him.

So I am going to use this forum to speak out in favor of Four Price seeking the Texas House speakership.

I just did.

national news

Trump’s hypocrisy on full display … imagine it!

Donald Trump now is insisting that “the whistleblower” whose comments have helped trigger the move toward presidential impeachment must testify in public. He or she must sit in front of Congress and answer questions out loud.

Written testimony “is not acceptable,” according to the latest version of Trump’s doctrine.

Really? He said that?

Why do you suppose he refused to answer questions posed to him directly by former special counsel Robert Mueller III during the investigation into alleged Russian collusion during the 2016 presidential campaign? Why, the president only responded in writing to Mueller’s team of investigators.

Hypocrisy, anyone?

national news

How would The Gipper fare in today’s GOP?

A social media post commemorating the election 39 years ago today of Ronald Reagan as our nation’s 40th president prompted me to wonder: How would President Reagan fare in what passes today as the Republican Party?

My hunch? Not well.

I will stipulate that I did not vote for Reagan in 1980 or in 1984. He won both elections in historic landslide proportions.

However, I acknowledge readily that Ronald Reagan was authentic. He adhered to what I believe are traditional GOP principles and policies. He sought to reduce government spending. He sought to reduce taxes. He believed in a strong national defense.

Most of all, though, he detested communism and the governments that promote what he considered to be an “evil” philosophy.

That brings me to the point of this blog: President Reagan would be aghast and appalled at Donald Trump’s flirtation with the direct descendants of the Evil Empire, aka the Soviet Union.

I get that Reagan met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and forged a partnership of sorts with him. However, the president never took his eye off the threat that the USSR posed to us militarily.

I also am trying to picture a moment where Ronald Reagan would declare in public that he trusted the word of a Soviet leader over the word of our nation’s intelligence experts. Suppose the CIA had determined that the Soviets had attacked our election in an effort to influence its outcome … and that the intelligence network had blamed the Soviets for its all-out attack on our electoral system. Who do you think Reagan would believe, our spooks or the commies?

You know the answer. Thus, for Donald Trump to pretend to be a Republican who endorses traditional Republican policies regarding our nation’s adversaries is, well, laughable on its face.

Except that no one should be laughing.

Today’s Republican Party bears no resemblance to The Gipper’s GOP. It has been hijacked by a flim-flam artist, a charlatan and a fraud. To that extent, Donald Trump makes me actually miss President Reagan.

Imagine that. I know. It’s weird.

national news

A man of deep faith is ‘at peace’ with death

Jimmy Carter’s abiding faith in God is well-known and has been chronicled extensively since the moment he burst onto the national political scene more than four decades ago.

So, when he tells a Sunday school audience that he is “at peace” with the prospect of death, should the rest of us be surprised? Of course not! Those are the words of a man committed to his deep Christian faith.

Christianity tells us that faith and belief in Jesus’s teaching and his existence as the son of God means we pass from worldly life to eternal life. That has been President Carter’s credo. It has sustained him through an amazing life of service to his country and then, through his faith, to his fellow humans.

This former president has set at least three remarkable records.

  • President Carter is the oldest living man who has held the nation’s highest office.
  • He has lived longer in his post-presidency than any other former president.
  • Oh, and his marriage of 73 years to his beloved Rosalynn is the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history.

Jimmy Carter, the nation’s 39th president, has lived an exemplary life. He has committed himself to others, choosing to forgo a life of personal enrichment.

It is totally in keeping with this man’s good life that he would be “at peace” with knowing that his time on Earth will end.

You may count me as one American who wants him to remain among us for as long as is humanly possible.

Thank you, Mr. President, for your glorious service to the nation — and to the world.

Sports news

Coach’s firing is an attention-getter

Photo by Chris Seward/AP/REX/Shutterstock 

Under normal circumstances, I don’t usually get worked up when a college football head coach gets fired. I am not “worked up” over this one, but it did get my attention when I read about it.

Florida State University kicked head coach Willie Taggart out of his job today. The Seminoles lost to Miami this weekend. Taggart was 9-12 during his season and a half at FSU.

Why the interest in this one? Well, Taggart was head coach for all of a single season at the University of Oregon. He went to Eugene after coaching at the University of South Florida. The Ducks had collapsed after reaching the near-zenith of college football greatness. So they hired Taggart looking for a return of gridiron magic.

Taggart bailed on the Ducks. He went back “home” to Florida to coach at FSU. It didn’t work out.

I am not going to gloat over this. I am sad that Taggart couldn’t turn the corner in Tallahassee. He seems like a good man.

However, he angered his players at Oregon when he bailed on them. The fans got angry, too. I happen to one of the fans.

Oh, the good news for the Ducks? They are playing great football again under head coach Mario Cristobal, who joined the Ducks coaching staff when UO hired Taggart in 2017.

There’s a chance the Ducks could play once again for the national championship. They have to win the rest of their games and something has to happen to one or more of the top four teams in the national college football poll.

So … karma ain’t so bad after all.

national news

Does the Trump ‘infrastructure’ plan include this new highway?

EN ROUTE TO LAKE LIVINGSTON STATE PARK, Texas — Donald J. Trump has a few ambitious goals on the table for Americans to ponder. One of them involves what is called “infrastructure.” In other words, the rebuilding, rehabilitating, construction of highways, bridges and the like.

On our way south along U.S. 59, I was struck by signs we saw posted along the highway: “Future I-69 Corridor Project.”

Yep, the plan is to build a new spur in the massive interstate highway network created in the 1950s by another Republican president, Dwight David Eisenhower.

Ike dreamed of the interstate highway system long after he traveled from the West Coast to the East Coast as a young Army officer. It took several weeks to get from coast to coast. That was long before the interstate highway system was built. Eisenhower pushed Congress after being elected president to build the interstate system because he did not want Americans to spend so much time traveling along antiquated roads and highways.

The highway system arguably is Ike’s most profound presidential legacy.

Now there are plans afoot to add to that system through much of East Texas. I would be amazed and impressed beyond all measure if the government is able to pull this off.

U.S. 59 is a nice highway as it is at this moment. We had a wonderful drive south from Northeast Texas through the Piney Woods to Lake Livingston. It is divided by a median along some stretches; even where the medians don’t exist, the highway is well-maintained with smooth pavement.

The plan, if it comes to fruition, is going to result in enormous disruption of people’s lives in communities that sit astride U.S. 59. Cities such as Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Livingston will be torn apart by heavy construction as federal, state and local crews create a limited-access highway through the Piney Woods.

I favor infrastructure improvement. I am not sure that Donald Trump will be able to preside over this massive project. It doesn’t matter to me which president takes credit for its completion.

If such a project is to include the I-69 Interstate Corridor, then the folks along the current highway right-of-way — from Texarkana to the Rio Grande Valley — need to prepare themselves for a serious disruption of their lives.

State news

Still a need to revamp the Texas Constitution

I am no fan of the Texas Constitution. I don’t like having to vote on amendments every other year. I don’t believe the Constitution works as well as it would work if it were modeled more like the U.S. Constitution.

I’ll give you an example of what I mean.

On Tuesday, those few Texans who bother to vote will get to decide on a constitutional amendment that has no real meaning. It would make it more difficult to enact a personal income tax in Texas. Here’s the deal: We already have an amendment to the Texas Constitution that requires voters to approve a state income tax. The proposed amendment on the Tuesday ballot makes it more difficult for the Legislature to refer a state income tax to voters for their approval or likely rejection.

What’s more, the amendment already on the books was enacted after an earlier Legislature approved a law requiring a statewide vote to approve a state income tax.

Texans will decide the fate of 10 Texas constitutional amendments all told.

This is an absurd way to govern a state as huge, diverse, modern, cosmopolitan and sophisticated as Texas.

The 1876 Texas Constitution has been saddled with roughly 700 amendments. They all have gone to the voters for their approval. Except that constitutional amendment elections — which occur every odd-numbered year after the Legislature adjourns in May — usually draw paltry voter turnouts. By “paltry” I mean, well, dismal, abysmal, minuscule. These elections usually do not reflect rank-and-file Texans’ view of the proposed amendments. We need to do a much better job of boosting voter turnout … but that’s another story for another day.

The state came close to changing the Texas governing document. There was a serious move toward convening a constitutional convention in 1974. It collapsed.

The federal Constitution has been amended just 27 times. Congress refers amendments to the states, which then charge their legislative assemblies with the task of ratifying the amendment. If three-fourths of the states’ legislatures ratify the amendment, it gets added to the U.S. Constitution.

We have the federal court system to interpret whether laws are constitutional. The U.S. Constitution can get rickety at times. It is facing a serious test of its durability and strength now with the pending impeachment of the president of the United States. I am certain the U.S. Constitution will survive.

The Texas Constitution was the product of a government principle that didn’t trust the Legislature to enact certain laws without an endorsement of voters. It’s a creaky document that seems beyond antique as we prepare to commence the third decade of the 21st century.

Will the Legislature ever find the will to tackle serious reform of the Texas Constitution? Oh, probably not in my lifetime. I just want to put it on the record that I believe a major Texas governmental makeover is long overdue.

national news

Trump to California: Don’t count on me to help you out

Donald J. Trump appears to be laying down a clearly defined marker to residents of states that voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016 or are governed by politicians of the party other than Trump’s Republican Party.

It is this: Don’t count on the president of the United States to offer words of empathy or support in the event of monumental natural disasters, let alone statements of unqualified federal assistance to help you fight those disasters.

You see, Trump is in a war of Twitter words with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The president is excoriating Newsom over the state’s forest management policy, which Trump says is the reason that wildfires have exploded across the state.

Trump and Newsom are political foes. They might even be called “enemies.” Newsom’s state happened, I should say, to vote for Clinton by a huge margin in her losing bid to Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

The rhetoric Trump is leveling at California’s elected leadership is not the kind of thing he says to those in, say, Texas or Louisiana or Mississippi, Alabama or Florida. Hurricanes have savaged those states since Trump took office. They all voted for Trump in 2016.

Trump, though, seems to get a bur under his saddle when tragedy strikes California.

I guess I should point out that Donald Trump has emerged as the Climate Change Denier in Chief, calling the issue a “hoax,” despite scientific evidence that suggests that climate change is responsible for the huge fires that are erupting with more frequency and ferocity than ever.

Yes, Trump did say in one of his weekend tweets that the firefighters are doing a “great” job. Then he tees it up against Newsom, saying he should insist on clearing forest floors more frequently and should make sure the state has plenty of water to pour on the fires.

I just find this back-and-forth between the president and the governor of one our states — whose residents are fleeing for their lives ahead of devastating fire — to be unbecoming in the extreme.

There once was a time when the federal government stepped up to lend a much-needed hand to American citizens in distress. Please tell me those days are not gone forever.

local news

Time of My Life, Part 41: Learning about police work

I spent a lot of years in journalism working with police officers. I reported on their activities and duties and I commented on them as well. I am proud to say I got it mostly right and that my relationship with police was mostly cordial.

However, I received two extraordinary opportunities while working in Amarillo that gave me a glimpse — and that’s all it was, a glimpse — of police work that gave me a better understanding of what our men and women do when they suit up to “protect and serve” the community.

Some years ago, I wrote a column for the Amarillo Globe-News that was mildly critical of the local police department. I don’t recall the issue at this moment. I do recall a phone call I received from a source — who also was a friend — at the Amarillo Police Department.

Jeff Lester was a captain on the force. He called me to challenge me to attend the Citizens Police Academy the APD puts on annually to acquaint civilians with some of the nuts and bolts of police work. I took up Lester’s invitation. I applied for the academy. The APD accepted me as a “cadet.” I attended meetings for a night each week; the course lasted 11 weeks. I learned about how the cops go about their duties.

I learned about drug interdiction, surveillance, hostage negotiation, crime scene forensics, the K-9 force, I got to participate in a ride-along with a beat officer, and got to shoot weapons at the firing range. We shot .38-caliber revolvers, 9-mm Glock semi-auto pistols, AR-15 rifles. To be honest, I had a blast shooting the weapons. I was able to shoot pretty good groupings with the revolver and with the AR-15. Indeed, the AR-15 felt much like the M-16 I was issued in the Army back in the day, so shooting that weapon triggered a form of “flashback” … no pun intended there.

All told, the Citizens Police Academy was an eye-opening experience I welcomed at the time. It filled me with a keen appreciation for the work that our officers do. And I damn sure learned first hand that there is no such thing as a “routine traffic stop.”

The second experience occurred years later. The APD was staging a series of simulated police encounters. The police invited several media representatives to take part. I was one of them.

We were armed with pistols loaded with paint-ball pellets. We would fire them in situations as they developed. We were given scenarios and given the options we could employ. Do we shoot? Do we hold our fire?

There was one situation involving a hostage-taking. The “bad guy” would take off and run in the opposite direction. I entered the room. My heart was racing. Adrenaline was racing through my body. When the moment arrived for me to decide what to do — to shoot or not shoot — I chose the former and shot the “bad guy” in the back as he was running away!

The police officers who were managing the scene told me — with smiles on their faces — that I, um, made the wrong decision.

These situations were intended to mirror real-life situations. I knew they weren’t. They are tightly managed. However, I learned in real time about the mental toughness and discipline required for good police officers to do their job while protecting you and me.

I will never take these men and women for granted.

national news

Beto’s presidential ‘splash’ wasn’t what he hoped to make

Beto O’Rourke hoped to make a huge impact on the 2020 presidential contest.

The former El Paso congressman had that spectacular run for the U.S. Senate in 2018, falling just a bit short of making history by becoming the first Democrat to win a statewide office in Texas since The Flood.

Then he decided to go for the bigger prize, parlaying the excitement he generated in Texas into a national craze.

It, um, the excitement didn’t translate.

Now he is known for perhaps the most spectacular presidential campaign collapse in recent memory. The one that seems to measure up to O’Rourke’s cratering occurred in 1972 when Democratic frontrunner Edmund Muskie seemingly cried in public in reaction to an unkind editorial in a New Hampshire newspaper.

O’Rourke now becomes a political footnote. He has saddened a lot of my Texas acquaintances and a few actual friends by declaring an end to his presidential bid.

O’Rourke forged a number of political alliances in the Texas Panhandle, a famously Republican-leaning region of Texas, during his Senate campaign. Many of his allies there hoped he could stampede to the front of the pack during a presidential run.

Well, he started at the front, but then faded as the rest of the large herd of candidates overtook him.

Look, to be honest I am among those who is disappointed Beto O’Rourke’s presidential candidacy failed to ignite. The field that remains is still full of considerable talent, along with a whack job or two, or maybe three.

They all have the same goal. They want to defeat Donald Trump in November 2020. So do I … want him defeated. If lightning strikes, hell freezes over and Earth spins off its axis Trump might be removed before then.

I do wish Beto O’Rourke would have been in that mix. He won’t.

Unless … the presidential nominee — who is not a white male — believes Beto O’Rourke can regain his wings as a VPOTUS nominee. It can’t happen? Here’s two words: Joe Biden.