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Senate moves ahead; House stumbles and bumbles

Can this actually be happening? The U.S. Senate is close to a deal that would forestall a default on our nation’s obligations while the House of Representatives cannot even reel in all the members of the party that runs the lower chamber?

And is the result going to be that the United States actually defaults and sends investment accounts into some abyss?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/15/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

What in the world is happening to our legislative branch of government?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said late Tuesday that “we’re in good shape,” meaning that he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have been talking to each other, along with their parties’ leadership teams. They’re trying to reach a deal that is acceptable to all members of the Senate.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Capitol Building, Boehner is trying to fend off the insurgents within his own party. So far, he’s failing badly.

If this whole thing explodes, I am thinking the clock will start ticking down the time Boehner will remain as speaker. Either his own party will throw him over, or the voters will do so in November 2014 when they hand control of the House over to the Democrats.

Senators, who believe bipartisanship still seems to matter, need to persuade their House colleagues of the disaster that awaits them all if they cannot get a deal done … now.

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Redskins least of DC worries

I’m loving all the jokes about whether Washington, D.C.’s professional football team should change its name from Redskins.

Native American groups are demanding that the team change its name, claiming it is insulting to Native Americans. You’ll recall those old Western films in which the cowboys would refer to “them Redskins” in derisive, even angry inflections in their voices.

Well, it seems the team nickname has now become the latest target of those who seek some form of political correctness.

The jokes go something like this: Washington wants to change the name of the NFL Redskins because the name conjures up negative images of the city. So the team will be known as the “D.C. Redskins.”

Or the name would change to merely “The Redskins.”

The point is that the name of the professional football team is the least of Washington’s worries at the moment. The Redskins have existed since 1932. For 71 years the team name has endured. Now it has become a target of those who think the name is insulting.

If I were of Native American descent — a term, by the way, I consider a bit curious, given that I, too, the grandson of Greek immigrants also am a “native American” — maybe I’d feel differently about it.

Many ethnic and racial groups have reason to be offended. I am still trying to understand why “Redskins” is so offensive.

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Senate Loudmouth Caucus about to expand

I’ve taken great pleasure the past several months savaging the boorish behavior of rookie U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

His “crime” has been an inability to keep his trap shut while learning the ropes of the institution to which he was just elected in November 2012. He jumped right into the thick of the fray — and right in front of every TV camera in sight — to tell the world what he thinks about everything under the sun.

I’m sick of the sound of his voice — and he’s only been a senator for nine months.

Cruz is a member of what we ought to call the Loudmouth Caucus in the Senate.

His ranks are likely to expand early next month. The beauty of the Loudmouth Caucus is that it’s a bipartisan organization. Anyone can join. Cruz is about to be joined, no doubt, by a Democratic colleague from New Jersey.

Ladies and gents, let’s welcome Sen. Cory Booker.

Booker is the mayor of Newark, N.J. He won a Democratic primary a few weeks ago and is set to be elected to the unexpired term of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Yes, Booker has a Republican opponent, but it doesn’t matter. Booker’s going to win the election. Then he’ll run for re-election to a full term later and he’s likely to be re-elected.

Why is this man’s pending entrance into the Senate worth noting? It’s because he’s going to battle Cruz tooth-and-nail for face time on every TV news camera one can find on Capitol Hill. I’d put money on that.

Booker is as uninhibited as Cruz. He loves the sound of his voice. He loves seeing his face on TV. He talks and talks and talks — and at times it’s nearly impossible to follow the man’s train of thought.

Booker has made a name for himself as Newark mayor by doing some unconventional things, such as rescuing a resident from a burning building. He’s also picked up a shovel and cleaned out storm drains. He’s a working mayor, or so he would have us believe.

Booker is likely to set out proving he’s a working senator, too — although I’m not sure we’re going to see him performing manual tasks the way he has done as mayor. He’s likely just to talk a lot about all the hard work he will do.

I’ll make this prediction: Booker will anger his Democratic colleagues as much as Cruz has angered his fellow Republican senators. Given the anger that permeates the capital these days across party lines, it’s a given Booker is going to have enemies on the other side — just as Ted Cruz did — the moment he takes the oath of office.

Get ready for a lot more noise coming from the World’s Oldest Deliberative Body.

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FNGs making their mark on D.C.

The new breed of congressmen and women who have taken over the Republican caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives intended to change Washington for the better.

Their obstructionism has done the reverse. It has created a poisonous atmosphere in the nation’s capital.

I want to introduce a time-honored term to describe these folks, comprising mostly the tea party wing of their party.

Let’s call them FNGs.

Vietnam War veterans known the term well. It was used — often disparagingly — to describe the “new guys” who cycled “in-country.” They would walk off their plane wearing dark green jungle fatigues and shiny new boots. You could spot an FNG a mile away. The “NG” stands for “new guy.” The “F”? Well, it stands for arguably the most functionally descriptive term in the English language. I’ll leave it at that.

The FNGs who now populate a segment of the GOP have accomplished one important goal of their overall mission. They have made their mark. They’ve changed the debate in Washington. They have made their presence felt, just as they promised they would when they campaigned for their congressional offices in 2010 and 2012.

Perhaps the most well-known FNG has been Texas’s own Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican pistol who blabbed for 21 hours in a faux filibuster to protest the Affordable Care Act and who has scolded his colleagues publicly for failing to demonstrate the proper commitment to bringing change. He’s been scolded in return by his party elders, such as Sen. John McCain, for impugning the character of current and former senators — such as Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The FNGs now have taken us to the brink of default on our national fiscal obligations. It would be the first time in history that the nation has failed to pay its bills. The gray eminences of both parties know what’s at stake. The FNGs don’t have a clue. They’re about to find out if they stand in the way of a compromise reportedly being hammered out by two senior senators — Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Mitch McConnell.

Here’s some good news. They won’t be FNGs forever. It’ll take some time for them to get some seasoning. They’ll have to learn how to compromise and understand that other public officials represent constituencies with different points of view. Not everyone shares the FNGs’ world view.

I just hope they don’t contribute to the destruction of our government before they wise up.

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Support for unborn?

OK, I’m going to need some help with this one.

State Rep. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, wants to become Texas bean counter in chief, aka, the comptroller of public accounts. He’s running in a crowded Republican field to succeed outgoing GOP Comptroller Susan Combs, who decided against seeking re-election in 2014.

Hegar has a TV ad running in which he promotes “Texas’s business climate and our unwavering support for the unborn.”

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/14/hegar-touts-support-for-unborn-in-comptroller-ad/

Where can I use the help? I need help understanding why a Texas comptroller candidate’s views on abortion should matter.

I get that Hegar opposes abortion. I get that it is his right to declare that view for voters to consider. I also get that abortion is an undeniably controversial matter in Texas; the mere mention of the word “abortion” stirs passion on both sides of the great divide.

However, the Texas Constitution gives the comptroller power to advise the Legislature on the state’s fiscal standing every biennium. The comptroller is tasked by the Constitution to report to the governor and lieutenant governor the amount of money the state is going to take in, which in turn gives lawmakers guidance on how the state can balance its budget, which also is required by the Texas Constitution.

I am unaware of any statutory requirement for the office that requires the comptroller to decide whether abortion should be legal in Texas.

I’ll admit I haven’t read every word of the Texas Constitution, which has been amended about a zillion times. However, what am I missing here? Does it matter one bit whether Rep. Hegar favors or opposes a woman’s right to end a pregnancy?

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Will House of Reps take Senate deal?

Here’s my gazillion-dollar question: Suppose Sens. Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell strike a deal that the entire Senate can endorse to reopen the federal government and extend the nation’s debt ceiling a few months, will the House of Representatives follow suit, or will the tea party — aka wacko — wing of the party sink it?

The Senate has taken the lead on negotiating a deal to end this madness — at least for now. The House leadership tried and failed to reach an agreement with the White House.

House Speaker John Boehner is being held captive by the insurgents within his own Republican Party. He cannot control about 30 of them, the so-called tea party wing. They’ve been able to stall just about everything in the House.

If the Senate approves a deal and sends it to the House, will the House then dig in its heels simply because it can, and then risk the economic futures of millions of Americans — a majority of whom blame Congress for this mess in the first place?

The House comprises 435 members, most of whom are Republicans. Of those Republicans, most of them comprise the so-called “establishment wing” of the party. The tea party cabal consists of a small minority. However, they’re calling the cadence in the people’s chamber.

It’s past time for the speaker to exert the authority he has to get a deal done. Now. Before it’s too late.

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Why are we dickering and bickering over debt ceiling?

I’m still scratching my head.

President Obama makes sense when he says that the White House and Congress shouldn’t be negotiating over whether to increase the nation’s debt limit.

Still, here we are. Three days until our borrowing limit hits its maximum. We’re on the verge of defaulting on our national debt obligations. The implications of defaulting for the first time in our nation’s history are cataclysmic, if you believe the hundreds of non-partisan economists around the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Do those cranky members of Congress fail to grasp how angry they’re going to make millions of Americans — including yours truly — if they allow our retirement accounts to get flushed down the toilet?

Do they not read the papers — and other “mainstream media” outlets, for that matter — that tell them their standing among the public is at an all-time low? An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll puts Congress’s standing at 5 percent.

Ladies and gentlemen of Congress, listen up: You work for us. We are your bosses. We can fire you whenever the opportunity presents itself. That opportunity is coming up in about, oh, a year from now when we the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate is up for election.

Why, indeed, are you negotiating over this matter?

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Hance leaving Tech chancellor’s office

Kent Hance’s announced retirement shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

The former Texas state senator, congressman, railroad commissioner and now university administrator has been in the public eye since The Flood, or so it seems. He’s outgoing, gregarious, funny as the dickens, homespun yet sophisticated and he carries himself with a West Texas aplomb that is impossible to duplicate.

Texas Tech University’s chancellor is retiring next year and will assume the role as “chancellor emeritus,” whatever that means.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/11/kent-hance-to-step-down-as-texas-tech-chancellor/

A university chancellor’s main role is to raise money. Hance surely could do that.

The native of Dimmitt has a unique place in Texas political history: He is the only politician ever to defeat George W. Bush for elective office, doing so in 1978 when both men were running for the West Texas congressional seat being vacated by the legendary U.S. Rep. George Mahon. Hance was a Democrat back then, but he would switch to the Republican Party years later.

My association with Hance goes back to my first year in Texas. In 1984, I arrived at my post in Beaumont to work on the editorial page of the Beaumont Enterprise. Hance was running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the late Sen. John Tower.

In that year’s Democratic primary for the Senate seat, Hance finished second in a three-way near dead heat with state Sen. Lloyd Doggett and former U.S. Rep. Bob Krueger. Doggett would beat Hance in a runoff a few weeks later. Hance came to Beaumont to try to persuade the newspaper to endorse his candidacy and I was blown away by the man’s wit and charm.

I had heard the stories about his campaign in 1978 when he put on his good ol’ boy charm to beat Bush for the West Texas seat in Congress. He brought it with him to Beaumont in 1984 as well. Indeed, he has kept it all through his public life.

His time at Tech’s helm was marked with plenty of success. The school is setting student enrollment records seemingly every year. He came to Amarillo a couple of years ago to declare that, in his view, Texas Tech ought to consider expanding its medical center complex in Amarillo to a full four-year medical school.

An expansion, he said, would require Amarillo to demonstrate it can support such a move.

I don’t yet know where that will go. My hope is that as chancellor emeritus, Hance will be able to keep that flame burning.

Thank you for your service, Kent.

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Term limits for all … but not for himself?

I recently chided members of Congress who have kept getting paid while other federal employees are having to take unpaid leave — all because Congress’s actions have resulted in a partial shutdown of the federal government.

I included my own member of Congress, Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon, as a target of chiding. He’s still getting paid.

My criticism drew some response from blogosphere friends, a couple of whom took the argument a bit farther, suggesting that Thornberry shouldn’t even be in office at this moment, given that he ran for the House of Representatives the first time in 1994 while supporting the Contract With America, which included — among many other items — term limits for members of Congress.

I feel the need to respond to that criticism on Thornberry’s behalf.

To be clear, I am not a huge fan politically of my congressman — although I like him personally and consider him to be smart and an articulate advocate for his philosophical view of government.

Thornberry never took the pledge to limit himself to the amount of time he would serve in Congress. He espoused his support for the Contract With America, which was the brainchild of the leader of the 1994 GOP revolution, Rep. Newt Gingrich, who parlayed his party’s capturing of Congress into the House speakership. Thornberry has voted every time in favor of the term limits measure every time it’s come to the floor of the House. But because the legislation comes in the form of a constitutional amendment, it requires two-thirds of the House to approve it; the measure has fallen short every time.

Still, Thornberry is on the record as supporting it.

One of my blogosphere pals questioned my giving Thornberry a pass, suggesting that he should be more faithful to the CWA simply by taking the pledge to step aside after three terms, which the term-limits plank in the CWA provided.

This issue has dogged Thornberry ever since he took office, although the size of his re-election victories in every contested election — and there haven’t been that many of them — suggests that most voters are giving him a pass on it, too.

I have continued to maintain that Thornberry played the issue smartly when he ran the first time. Yes, he might have split a few hairs by supporting the CWA while declining to limit himself to three terms in office. Others in that congressional class of ’94 took the pledge, only to renege on it years later. Thornberry saved himself the embarrassment of trying to explain why he might have second thoughts.

As for lawmakers — including Thornberry — getting paid while fed staffers are being denied their income, well, that’s another matter. That should provide enough of an embarrassment all by itself.

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Amarillo seeks to build an ARC

Something has gotten into Amarillo’s leadership.

It’s gotten a bit bolder of late. Timidity no longer seems to be an option.

Consider the Amarillo Recreation Center bond issue on the ballot next month. The city wants to build a massive sports complex in the southeast section of town. It’ll cost $38 million or so to construct. A citizens group is pledging to raise $6 million of it from private donations and say it’s about halfway there.

http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=956835#.UldHwkoo6t8

I was a bit slow to catch up to this story, but the plan as I understand it looks sound.

William Ware and Trevor Caviness, two young men whose families have extensive business backgrounds in Amarillo, visited the Rotary Club of Amarillo this past week and made their pitch.

My favorite line came from Caviness, who said the bond issue would tack on 25 cents per $100 valuation to homes in Amarillo, meaning that the owner of a $100,000 home would pay an additional $25 annually in property taxes. “That’s about the cost of two large pizzas,” Caviness said.

I’m always intrigued at the metaphors people come up with to make large expenses seem so affordable.

In reality, though, the ARC seems like a good deal for the city.

Ware said Amarillo is losing a lot of tournament business to other cities with athletic complexes comparable to what’s being pitched for Amarillo. The ARC will contain fast-pitch softball fields, soccer fields, an indoor swimming complex, dressing rooms … all of it.

Plus, it will be next to two municipal golf courses, meaning that if your kids and/or your spouse want to use the ARC, you can take your clubs to the first tee and play a round of golf.

Ware noted that the ARC will be good for business. It will bring people here from elsewhere; they’ll spend money in Amarillo, generating sales tax revenue that helps fuel City Hall’s maintenance and operations budget — and presumably helps keep Amarillo’s municipal property tax among the lowest in the state.

I am persuaded that the ARC is worth building.

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