{"id":3335,"date":"2013-08-22T19:24:39","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T19:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=3335"},"modified":"2013-08-22T19:24:39","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T19:24:39","slug":"dewhurst-throws-weight-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=3335","title":{"rendered":"Dewhurst throws weight around"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

If you’re a police officer and someone calls you and then declares he’s the lieutenant governor of the state, then you’re going to give that person a little extra attention.<\/p>\n

Such was the case recently when Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst placed a call to the Allen Police Department on behalf of a member of his family who had gotten into a little scrape with the law.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com\/2013\/08\/bad-call-lt-gov-dewhurst.html\/<\/p>\n

The family member was a step-sister’s daughter-in-law who had been accused of shoplighting from a local Kroger grocery store.<\/p>\n

Really bad call, Gov. Dewhurst.<\/p>\n

There’s an intimidation factor that needs to considered here. When you’re a police sergeant and the lieutenant governor calls and then introduces himself as the state’s second-highest-ranking elected official, you’re going to be rendered a bit skittish. You won’t necessarily act with all the cool and detached professionalism we should expect from law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n

Dewhurst demanded to speak to the sergeant’s supervisor and then sought the cellphone number of the Collin County judge. The call, by the way, was made at 10:30 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

Dewhurst’s opponents in next year’s lieutenant governor’s race — Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples and state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston — all have pounced on Dewhurst for this apparent abuse of authority.<\/p>\n

Dallas Morning News blogger Ralph De La Cruz said it well. The call showed bad judgment “because a high-profile politician should never make that call. For one, it\u2019s recorded. But more importantly, any self-respecting pol knows: you call a supporter or agency appointee, and have THEM call Allen PD.”<\/p>\n\n

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

If you’re a police officer and someone calls you and then declares he’s the lieutenant governor of the state, then you’re going to give that person a little extra attention. Such was the case recently when Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst placed a call to the Allen Police Department on behalf of a member of … Continue reading Dewhurst throws weight around<\/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":[1255,1275,2449,2786,4676,4833],"class_list":["post-3335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dan-patrick","tag-david-dewhurst","tag-jerry-patterson","tag-lieutenant-governor","tag-texas-politics-2014-texas-campaign","tag-todd-staples"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3335","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=3335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}