{"id":3272,"date":"2013-08-17T13:05:29","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T13:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2013-08-17T13:05:29","modified_gmt":"2013-08-17T13:05:29","slug":"airline-merger-equals-campaign-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=3272","title":{"rendered":"Airline merger equals campaign issue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If I understand Tom Pauken correctly, the fact that the state’s attorney general actually supports the federal government’s decision to fight a proposed airline merger makes the AG’s position a non-starter.<\/p>\n

Why? Because the AG has been fighting the feds for years and the state simply cannot possibly be on the same side as the enemy — no matter the merits of the case.<\/p>\n

Ah … Texas politics. Nothing like it.<\/p>\n

Pauken is running for the Republican nomination for Texas governor against AG Greg Abbott, who says he fears a proposed merger between American Airlines and US Airways would result in fare increases and reduced service to rural areas. <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/08\/15\/pauken-attacks-abbott-opposing-airline-merger\/<\/p>\n

The feds say the same thing about the proposed merger. Thus, Abbott and the U.S. Justice Department are on the same page on this very specific issue. Abbott and\/or his staff of lawyers presumably have analyzed the specifics of the case and determined that, by golly, maybe the feds have a point.<\/p>\n

Isn’t that what lawyers do? Pauken, himself a lawyer as well as a former Texas Republican Party chairman, ought to understand that principle.<\/p>\n

Instead, he seems to be suggesting that Abbott — who is fighting on behalf those who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act — simply must remain opposed to President Obama, Eric Holder and the federal government because they’re just so darn unpopular in Texas.<\/p>\n

This is where every single policy statement becomes a campaign issue.<\/p>\n

Ain’t Texas politics grand?<\/p>\n\n

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If I understand Tom Pauken correctly, the fact that the state’s attorney general actually supports the federal government’s decision to fight a proposed airline merger makes the AG’s position a non-starter. Why? Because the AG has been fighting the feds for years and the state simply cannot possibly be on the same side as the … Continue reading Airline merger equals campaign issue<\/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":[1],"tags":[164,210,353,1617,2006,3376,3708,4675,4849,4968,5039],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-affordable-care-act","tag-airline-mergers","tag-american-airlines","tag-eric-holder","tag-greg-abbott","tag-obamacare","tag-president-obama","tag-texas-politics","tag-tom-pauken","tag-u-s-justice-department","tag-us-airways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","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=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}