{"id":12075,"date":"2015-12-20T01:51:05","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T01:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=12075"},"modified":"2015-12-20T01:51:05","modified_gmt":"2015-12-20T01:51:05","slug":"lt-gov-patrick-makes-celebrity-pick-for-sunset-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=12075","title":{"rendered":"Lt. Gov. Patrick makes celebrity pick for Sunset panel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"Allen_West_jpg_312x1000_q100\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Allen West is a brand-new resident of Texas.<\/p>\n

But by golly, he’s gotten himself a high-powered political job, thanks to an appointment by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.<\/p>\n

West is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, a former one-term Florida congressman, and a contributor to the Fox News Channel. He’s now a member of the Texas Sunset Commission, the panel that decides which state agencies live and which ones should die.<\/p>\n

West’s statement upon the appointment is quite fascinating, too. According to the Texas Tribune:<\/a>\u00a0“There is no mission more important than working towards a more efficient and effective state government,” West said in a statement. “As a graduate of the University of Tennessee and a former member of Congress, it is a blessing to follow in the footsteps of Davy Crockett who came to Texas to fight for liberty and freedom.”<\/p>\n

He’s a Republican, as is Patrick.<\/p>\n

I believe West is a smart man, although I happen to disagree with just every utterance that has come out of his mouth since I first heard of him. He’s a fiery conservative who has said some rather remarkable things over the years, such as, oh, that most Democrats in Congress are communist sympathizers.<\/p>\n

West’s combat duty during the Iraq War suffered a serious blemish. He was serving as a battalion commander, but then was stripped of his command after he admitted that he\u00a0assaulted an Iraqi detainee during an interrogation. That’s not how officers behave, you know?<\/p>\n

So, does this brand new Texan — he moved to Dallas about a year ago — know enough about Texas government agencies to be a serious contributor to the Sunset Commission?<\/p>\n

I’m just wondering … out loud.<\/p>\n

He’s a smart guy and perhaps he’ll get up to speed. I hope he does.<\/p>\n

It’s just that from my perch, it seems that Lt. Gov. Patrick has picked someone as much for his notoriety as for his expertise.<\/p>\n

Good luck, Col. West.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allen West is a brand-new resident of Texas. But by golly, he’s gotten himself a high-powered political job, thanks to an appointment by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. West is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, a former one-term Florida congressman, and a contributor to the Fox News Channel. He’s now a member of the Texas Sunset … Continue reading Lt. Gov. Patrick makes celebrity pick for Sunset panel<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,18],"tags":[264,1255,1790,5784,5783,4728],"class_list":["post-12075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-news","category-state-news","tag-allen-west","tag-dan-patrick","tag-fox-news-channel","tag-texas-government","tag-texas-sunset-commission","tag-texas-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12077,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12075\/revisions\/12077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}