{"id":43241,"date":"2020-06-19T23:07:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T23:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=43241"},"modified":"2020-06-19T23:07:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T23:07:33","slug":"damage-is-done-empower-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=43241","title":{"rendered":"Damage is done, Empower Texans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=EmpowerTexans%20%23GregAbbott%20%23pandemic&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;ve gone from despising Empower Texans to <em>hating<\/em> the ultra right-wing political action committee with what my dear Mom used to call a &#8220;purple passion.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An audio recording has surfaced in which two Empower Texans operatives are making fun of the fact that Gov. Greg Abbott is confined to a wheelchair. The recording is profanity-laced. It is tasteless in the extreme.<\/p>\n<p>Now, to be fair, Empower Texans boss Michael Quinn Sullivan has apologized to Abbott. He has condemned the remarks. I don&#8217;t know if he has dismissed the yahoos who made the comments. <em>He damn sure should.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I want to be clear about my feelings about Empower Texans. This right-wing PAC has become involved in Republican Party primary politics, It targets GOP incumbents who ET believes aren&#8217;t &#8220;conservative enough.&#8221; In 2018, ET went after state Sen. Kel Seliger and state Rep. Four Price, two Amarillo Republicans I happen to know quite well. Seliger and Price survived the challenge.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/politics\/2020\/06\/19\/profane-tape-surfaces-of-2-empower-texans-operatives-joking-about-gov-greg-abbott-being-in-wheelchair\/?fbclid=IwAR1N61IQUz3zIlu1VSkTuRWJZ1WPMm-suuDf0XqPcHiwg3tLmUOFbptC6X8\">Now we hear from Empower Texans&#8217;<\/a> operatives Tony McDonald and Cary Cheshire talking trash. Indeed, to poke fun of a public official&#8217;s disability is pure trash.<\/p>\n<p>State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican, said this via Twitter: <em>Abbott has more strength in his spine &amp; integrity in his pinkie than these fools. Silver lining: now the masses get to see what many of us have known for a long time: A once reputable &amp; respected policy organization, ET has turned in to nothing more than a sanctimonious sewer.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Am I a fan of Greg Abbott&#8217;s politics and his world view? No, I am not. That&#8217;s beside the point. The point I want to make is that Empower Texans has shown that two members of its high command behave despicably beyond measure.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I <em>hate<\/em> Empower Texans.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=EmpowerTexans%20%23GregAbbott%20%23pandemic&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve gone from despising Empower Texans to hating the ultra right-wing political action committee with what my dear Mom used to call a &#8220;purple passion.&#8221; An audio recording has surfaced in which two Empower Texans operatives are making fun of the fact that Gov. Greg Abbott is confined to a wheelchair. The recording is profanity-laced. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=43241\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Damage is done, Empower Texans<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[18],"tags":[9257,1582,2006,9261],"class_list":["post-43241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-covid-19","tag-empower-texans","tag-greg-abbott","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43241","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=43241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43242,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43241\/revisions\/43242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}