{"id":48817,"date":"2021-08-04T14:17:56","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=48817"},"modified":"2021-08-04T14:21:39","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:21:39","slug":"partisan-petulance-is-alive-in-dallas-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=48817","title":{"rendered":"Partisan petulance is alive in Dallas County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pandemic-clipart-h1n1-pandemic-concept-11580262.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-43342\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pandemic-clipart-h1n1-pandemic-concept-11580262-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pandemic-clipart-h1n1-pandemic-concept-11580262-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pandemic-clipart-h1n1-pandemic-concept-11580262-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pandemic-clipart-h1n1-pandemic-concept-11580262.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By John Kanelis<\/strong> \/ <a href=\"mailto:johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com\">johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you want a crystal-clear example of just how petulant partisan politicians can get, you need look no further than than the Dallas County Courthouse.<\/p>\n<p>That was where County Judge Clay Jenkins ordered a fellow county commissioner on Tuesday to leave a meeting because the commissioner wouldn&#8217;t follow the rules laid down by the county board&#8217;s presiding officer. <em>That would be Jenkins.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The county judge, who happens to be a Democrat (that&#8217;s important in this context; I&#8217;ll explain in a second) said all persons attending the commissioners court meeting needed to wear a mask to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which is spiking in Dallas County. Commissioner J.J. Koch &#8212; a Republican &#8212; refused to wear a mask. He said Jenkins doesn&#8217;t have the authority to overrule a mandate by Gov. Greg Abbott (another Republican), who says local jurisdictions cannot enforce mandates that are not spelled out by the state.<\/p>\n<p>Koch resisted requests from Jenkins repeatedly. Jenkins finally had Koch removed from the meeting under escort by a sheriff&#8217;s deputy. Koch, meanwhile, says he is going to sue Jenkins.<\/p>\n<p><em>Good grief!<\/em> I cannot believe this is happening!<\/p>\n<p>The courthouse snit illustrates quite clearly the partisan divide that is driving this discussion. Republicans by and large are refusing to heed government orders to take care against the virus; Democrats are heeding those orders. Thus, the divide widens.<\/p>\n<p>The county judge is seeking to protect his fellow public officials, not to mention the public, from getting infected by a virus that is still making people sick. I just have to wonder whether Koch is resisting the order because it is coming from a colleague who happens to be a member of the opposing political party.<\/p>\n<p>Koch is picking a fight he need not pick, for God&#8217;s sake!<\/p>\n<p>From my vantage point in the next county over from Dallas County, J.J. Koch is making an unnecessary spectacle of himself and highlighting &#8212; or <em>lowlighting<\/em>, if you prefer &#8212; the partisan divide that has infected (no pun intended) a matter involving <em>public well-being<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Kanelis \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com If you want a crystal-clear example of just how petulant partisan politicians can get, you need look no further than than the Dallas County Courthouse. That was where County Judge Clay Jenkins ordered a fellow county commissioner on Tuesday to leave a meeting because the commissioner wouldn&#8217;t follow the rules &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=48817\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Partisan petulance is alive in Dallas County<\/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":[9],"tags":[9423,7802,9743,9261],"class_list":["post-48817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-covid","tag-dallas-county","tag-delta-variant","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48817","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=48817"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48820,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48817\/revisions\/48820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}