Dick Armey is a former Texas Congressman turned lobbyist and FreedomWorks leader who has been called a "master scaremonger" for his lead role in organizing the protests at congressional town halls across the nation.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has seen her plans to stroll into the Governor's office complicated in part because of Gov. Perry's harsh attacks on her "Washington ties" and initial support for bailouts, happily touted Armey's endorsement of her in a campaign email earlier today.
What is interesting about the timing of Armey's e-mail from the Hutchison campaign is that in the past week Armey has received absolutely horrible press. And for good reason.
Politico reported that Armey was demanding conservative groups pay as much as $10,000 to participate in the so-called "grassroots" Tea Party March in Washington.
Michael B. Laskoff wrote that Armey's latest antics were the mark of "just a politician, turned lobbyist, who misses the limelight."
Finally, Armey was forced to leave his firm DLA Piper because of conflicts of interest between his lobbying and the aims of FreedomWorks.
So how did Dick Armey end what has been an absolutely horrible week for his public image?
By sending an e-mail promoting Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign for governor.
Only a Republican who was a leader of the congressional town hall protests, probably the biggest example of astroturfing in recent history and politics at its very worst, could send an email entitled "Texas needs results, not politics" without even a hint of irony.
Dick Armey is one of the last people qualified to lecture about "results" over "politics" and his coziness to Hutchison, while it may be a help to her among hardcore conservative activists, is further evidence of just how out of touch Senator Hutchison really is with mainstream Texans.
Houston Mayor Bill White and State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh. Photo Credit: Bill White for Texas.
After leaving Netroots Nation, where Bill White spoke at a lunch with Texas and national bloggers and participated in a energy security panel, the Houston Mayor and U.S. Senate candidate was off to El Paso.
While in El Paso, White received the endorsements of Congressman Silvestre Reyes, State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, State Rep. Chente Quintanillla, State Rep. Joe Moody, State Rep. Marisa Marquez, Mayor John Cook, Commissioner Willie Gandara, Jr. and nearly half a dozen school board officials.
The only two Democratic membesr of El Paso's state legislative delegation not to have endorsed White are State Reps. Joe Pickett and Norma Chavez. Chavez has endorsed John Sharp and Pickett is currently neutral.
John Sharp speaks to El Paso Democrats. Photo Credit: Newspaper Tree, 7/21/09.
Both Democratic U.S. Senate candidates seem to be focused on El Paso. Sharp visited recently (and ate grasshopper tacos). The former Texas comptroller, who visited El Paso for a shorter time than White, held one public event organized by Chavez and city Rep. Eddie Houlgin and hosted by the Camino Real Mexican-American Democrats. The Newspaper Tree reported attendance of slightly more than 100 people.
White's trip included a Sunday night event with 250 people and a Monday event with a 150 person turnout. White's daughter, Elena is also working in El Paso for her father's campaign and she may deserve part of the credit for the large disparity in endorsements.
You can read more about each candidates's recent visit at their respective campaign websites (Bill White and John Sharp).
Without a public option--without every American having the choice to buy their own affordable health insurance--we won't succeed at truly reforming insurance in this country. While angry conservatives rail against giving regular Americans access to insurance, a group of progressive Congresspeople has been holding the line on progressive reform, refusing to vote for any plan that doesn't include a strong public option.
Today, Blue America PAC launched an ActBlue fundraising page for the progressives in Congress making sure that all Americans get real health care reform. Called They Took The Pledge, the page lists the members of Congress who are committed to preserving a public option.
Now, it's time to stand with them them, and encourage other Congresspeople to get on board as well. As the fundraising page states:
Democratic members of Congress need to understand that a healthcare reform bill with a Public Option is simply not an option--it's a requirement. The congressmembers on this list have said in no uncertain terms that they will not vote for a bill without a public option all the way through Conference. That takes courage, and we need to show them how much we appreciate them for doing so.
The efforts are already attracting attention from the national media, who are catching on to the fact that the Town-Hall Shriekers don't represent the vast majority of Americans who want and need health insurance reform. Money talks, and while progressive activists don't have the buying power of Blue Cross or United, we can show our support for the Congresspeople who hold strong to our values. The ActBlue page has already raised $47,000$49,000 $51,000 so far today (seriously, they raised over $4K while I wrote this post), and the higher it goes, the more the national media will listen to our calls for real insurance reform.
These are our progressive champions in the House, the Congresspeople who stand up for the little guy and gal as a matter of course. Now, it's time to stand with them.
Here in Texas, we're lucky to have three such Representatives on the list: Lloyd Doggett (TX-25), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), and Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30). It shouldn't escape your notice that these three represent the urban areas of Austin, Houston, and South Dallas, respectively. Their districts contain huge numbers of uninsured residents -- all higher than the national average of 15%.
Austin is 20% uninsured.
Houston is 28% uninsured.
Dallas is 24% uninsured.
Their residents so desperately need this reform, and we need to stand with them to make sure that all Texans have access to affordable health care.
The list is pretty broad, and contains folks from states like Florida and Kentucky, and Netroots candidates including Donna Edwards and Eric Massa. So, go drop some coin into the ActBlue page. You know, while some of folks may be safe in 2010, it's still important to put our dollars where our values are.
At yesterday's press conferencing announcing (for the 15th time) her candidacy for Governor, Kay Bailey Hutchison longed for the days of her old high school education -- back when her high school was segregated and only whites could attend.
"I want to help to create an education system like I had," said Hutchison, La Marque High School, class of 1961.
No thanks. I'll pass on that.
Yes, 1961 was a great time to be in Texas public schools — if you were white and didn't face learning disabilities. La Marque High School was segregated when Hutchison attended.
Ken Herman doesn't stop there:
Yes, education has become far more challenging these days. And it's for a positive reason. We've decided to challenge ourselves to educate everyone, not just the healthy white kids. So let's be wary of any graduate of a segregated school who wants to "create an education system like I had."
This comes on the heels of Senator Hutchison voting against Sonia Sotomayor -- despite the fact that Hutchison admitted she was a strong judicial candidate. Don't forget this video from the Texas Democratic Party:
Anyone who thinks Senator Hutchison is a "moderate" think again. She longs for the days of segregation and votes against qualified Hispanics. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is either completely ignorant or outright dismissive of the Texas minority communities. Any Democrat that still thinks she's not that bad needs a reality check. Fast.
Key Point: By ignoring some important disclosure portions of the Texas Elections Code, Senator Hutchison's campaign may have begun down a slippery slope where bad habits have grown from simply unprofessional to possibly illegal.
Hutchison, for her part, did not take questions from the Texas press on Monday except for a very brief avail with local TV in Houston that her staff quickly ended...
The first event got off to a rocky start Monday — it started almost an hour late, the crowd was small and the public-address announcer could not pronounce La Marque.
Yet, as much as we enjoy watching Senator Kay "Coward" Hutchison stumble and bumble through her campaign, she may have gone so far in her mistakes that she's actually begun to break the law -- or, at the very least, is treating the law with reckless disregard.
Sunday, Senator Hutchison launched a YouTube video announcing her campaign. At the end, the announcer says, "Kay Bailey Hutchison: Governor. For Texas" as this image appears on the screen:
Notice that the words "Kay for Governor" do not appear on the screen. (The same is true of the video she has hosted on the front-page of her website.)
(b) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly represents in a campaign communication that a candidate holds a public office that the candidate does not hold at the time the representation is made.
(c) For purposes of this section, a person represents that a candidate holds a public office that the candidate does not hold if:
(1) the candidate does not hold the office that the candidate seeks; and
(2) the political advertising or campaign communication states the public office sought but does not include the word "for" in a type size that is at least one-half the type size used for the name of the office to clarify that the candidate does not hold that office.
To make this perfectly clear, let's walk through this point-by-point:
The entire section of the code applies to campaign communications (which includes oral communications) and broadcasting.
Senator Hutchison does not hold the office of Governor.
Senator Hutchison does not include the word "for" anywhere on her advertising; therefore, she in no way clarifies that she does not hold the office she is seeking.
This section of the Texas Election Code applies to a candidate's committee, as stated earlier in this section of code, Sec. 255.001 (2).
Isn't that a violation of the Texas Election Code? Although the words "for" and "Governor" never appear on the screen, which may avoid the discussion of "type size" in the code, the announcer clearly says, "Kay Bailey Hutchison. Governor. For Texas," a phrasing that obviously violates the intent of the law by giving the impression she is Governor instead of saying "for Governor," so as to clarify that Hutchison does not hold the office of Governor.
My understanding is that, in the past, there have been sworn complaints against candidates up and down the ballot for not including these words in their campaign advertising and that fines have been levied against those candidates. I'm trying to do some research to find some examples, but it is definitely something I always expect to see in campaign materials.
Now, Senator Hutchison's campaign may get by on a technicality; perhaps they know some loophole I don't. But the intent of the law appears to be pretty clear: to keep non-incumbents from portraying themselves as incumbents, which she is clearly doing through the voice-over announcer.
At the very least, this is another example of Senator Hutchison's perpetual "rocky start" to this campaign. But it could be a lot more serious this time -- her campaign may have begun down a slippery slope where bad habits go from unprofessional to illegal.
The Governor's mansion is not a retirement home, and even though Senator Hutchison is one of the few career politicians to hold her current statewide office longer than Rick Perry, that doesn't mean she gets to pretend she's already Governor and ignore campaign laws. We'll be following up on this story as we learn more.
The debate over health care reform took a decidedly local turn last week with the publication of a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed by Austin-based Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey. Entitled "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare", the piece basically suggests that de-regulation and an end to Medicare will solve our health care problems. Mackey writes:
While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction-toward less government control and more individual empowerment.
Mackey opposes a public option for health care reform, which would empower any American to buy into a government-run program similar to Medicare. The program will provide an affordable alternative to private insurers, thus encouraging companies to lower costs and improve access, or lose customers. Instead, Mackey argues that the Free Markettm can solve our health care woes. Clearly it's doing a great job of that already for the 47 million Americans who lack insurance. For instance, he says if the government no longer requires insurance to cover certain procedures (say, mammograms, colonoscopies, cholesterol screenings), then the individual citizen will be able to "choose" a plan that does cover these procedures. Uh-huh.
This isn't a surprising argument from the very-Libertarian Mackey. However, it's fundamentally wrong. Increasing competition between insurance companies won't necessarily drive costs down unless there is a viable alternative, an affordable plan open to all Americans. Right now, there is no incentive for insurance companies to lower costs. A government-run plan will have the means to offer affordable insurance, thus providing that incentive.
Meanwhile, the people and economy of Texas are hurting from lack of insurance options.
Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents, at 25.2%. The national average is 15.3%.
Texas has the highest national rate of uninsured children, at 24%. The national number is 15%.
90% these children live in working families in which the household income cannot cover insurance costs.
According to the Center for American Progress, the lack of coverage-for-all forces insured families to spend $1,100 more in premiums a year to pay for costs incurred by the uninsured. Many uninsured folks end up in the emergency room when a condition has gone from easily treatable (minor UTI) to very serious (kidney infection), thanks to a lack of access to regular care. Even after that ER visit, people often need follow-up care that they can't pay for either. What does an uninsured family do when their kid needs to see a neurologist?
Mackey's argument is problematic, coming from the founder of a company whose stated motto is whole food, whole people, whole planet. After all, it's particularly difficult to be a "whole person" when you can't afford health insurance, and in some cases must choose between food on the table and pills in the prescription vial. Mackey wants the free market to empower the consumer with choice, and I'm taking him up on his offer. From now on, I'm shopping at another grocer headquartered in Texas that specializes in quality food and local ingredients, just like Whole Foods. I'm switching to Central Market.
The CEO of Central Market's parent company H-E-B, Charles Butt, hasn't made any strong public declarations on health care access that I can find. However, his campaign donation history is far more Blue than Red (save for a smattering of incumbent Texas Republicans). He also has a long history of supporting Texas Parents PAC, which fights school vouchers and supports increased school spending. I'm putting my money where my mouth is, and going with the Butt at Central Market instead of the ass at Whole Foods.
It's not really about hurting Whole Foods. John Mackey's Blog tries to draw a line between his statements and his company, which naturally has "no official position on the issue." But frankly, I don't want the "Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare." I want health insurance for all Americans. And while I advocate for real reform, I'll take my money to a business whose leaders share my values.
I'll be honest: I loved shopping at Whole Foods. For three years, my Sundays have started with a run around Lady Bird Lake and Whole Foods breakfast tacos. But in 14 days I lose my employer-provided health insurance, and paying the COBRA should put a pretty big dent in my Whole Foods budget. So instead of heading to 6th and Lamar every Sunday, I'll take the bus to 38th and Lamar and find something else. And as for groceries, I'll head to the newly-expanded Wheatsville Co-Op.
I don't need to give my money to someone who thinks that the failed policies of the past will help with the health-care problems of the present. What I do need--what millions of Americans need--is affordable health insurance.
What You Can Do:
If you're in Texas and you shop at Whole Foods, consider switching to Central Market, a local farmer's market, or grocery cooperative where possible.
Spread the truth about health insurance reform. The White House has put together a Reality Check website full of actual facts on health care reform.
Call your Congressperson and tell them to support real insurance reform that provides health care access for all Americans.
For 16 years, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has said one thing in Texas and done another in Washington. Visitors to the website www.WashingtonKay.com will learn of Senator Hutchison’s hypocrisy and the truth about her record, including insight on her broken promises and support of overwhelming debt, earmarks and bailouts.
In addition, www.WashingtonKay.com features a side-by-side comparison of Texas Kay vs. Washington Kay, videos of Texas Kay discussing the $700 Wall Street bailout in Texas one day before Washington Kay voted for it, as well as the “Top 10 Reasons to Record a KBH Interview.”
Visitors to www.WashingtonKay.com can download their own “Kay Bailout Bucks” and help keep Washington Kay accountable by reporting additional flip-flops.
As the “Kay Bailout Express” rolls through Texas on the trail of Washington Kay, Texans are also being asked to submit their own pictures to www.WashingtonKay.com and post them on Twitter with the hashtag #WashingtonKay.
Governor Rick Perry is going to drag Senator Hutchison into one of the nastiest, mud-throwing fights we've seen in Texas, and it all will be well documented online. Her negatives are going to grow, and she will become more and more conservative by the day.
As they race for the bottom, Texas families are only going to be left behind.
Question: What did one career politician say to the other career politician? Answer: You're not conservative enough, so I'm going to run against you.
No, that's not much of a joke. But that's because this is not funny. We now have two Republican cheerleaders running against each other to see who can get the right-wing of the Republican Party to shout the loudest.
U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison announced -- for, what, the twelfth time? -- her candidacy for Governor of Texas today. The two will now embark on a seven-month quest to try to hide the fact that, for the last 20 years in office, they have each put their own massive personal egos ahead of the principles and people of Texas.
The state’s unemployment rate normally runs at least 1 to 2 percentage points below the national figure. At this stage, double-digit unemployment appears unlikely in Texas, he said, but that scenario could change if the nation’s unemployment pushes into the 12 to 15 percent range.
Texas unemployment claims for individuals out of work for more than a week are nearly 170 percent higher than they were a year ago. Nearly 89,400 workers are unemployed in the Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan region that includes Tarrant, Johnson, Parker and Wise counties, according to commission statistics that were released last week.
In Washington and in Austin, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Perry have been part of the problem – playing politics instead of working to fix the economy, improve our schools, and deliver more health care to Texas families. One of the worst perpetrators of the cowardice has been none other than Senator Kay "Coward" Hutchison herself.
Is Hutchison really a moderate, or is she no different than Rick Perry and Sarah Palin? The Sotomayor vote was Senator Hutchison moving strong to the right -- then hoping she can pretend (as she did today) like she's moderate, and her non-existent efforts on the economy are definitive evidence that she's happy to talk a lot, but she doesn't want to actually do anything to solve the problem -- other than retire in the Governor's mansion.
That's not leadership. That's politics. The Texas Democratic Party took a strong stance against such politics already:
On Sotomayor, Hutchison was caught between a state GOP electorate mostly to her right and an overall Texas electorate trending from red to purple. As our former Washington bureau chief, Carl Leubsdorf, wrote in a recent Viewpoints column, Hutchison could be seen as playing to a largely white, male, conservative primary vote or a more Democratic and Latino general electorate.
If she pleased one side, she almost certainly would disappoint the other.
Texans deserve more than a Republican primary contest between two cheerleaders trying to see who can get the right wing to shout the loudest – we need leaders who can take the field and score a victory for Texas families.
The excitement and energy of my first Netroots Nation is still with me this morning, and I can't let it slip away without writing about it. So here it goes...
When I got off the plane in Pittsburgh, I just wanted to not waste my first Netroots Nation convention. Though I've written for Burnt Orange Report for over four years, this was my first time reaching out to the broader community in a personal way (I was backpacking in Glacier during last year's in my hometown of Austin). I didn't know how much more there was to desire from my experience.
But after my four days in Pittsburgh, I know how amazing the experience can be. As I stepped off my flight home on Sunday morning, and as I sit here now the day after, I find myself wanting so many things:
I want to go back to Pittsburgh. I want to wake up in our "Texas House" -- where most of the Burnt Orange Report staff and fellow friends were staying -- and take the 77D bus across town to the convention center. I want to have so much fun all day long that I feel sad when I finally have to get a cab back home. I want to stay in that space that held me the last four days, and never let go.
I want to go to a panel. I want to learn more about the work everyone is doing. I want to hear Charlie Cook and Nate Silver and the Pollster.com team talk about trend lines and context. I want to engage in a professional discussion about redistricting. I want to put a megaphone to the entire Momocrats panel and broadcast their message of parent-focused communication to the entire Democratic Party. I want to learn about field work, and ROI, and environmental policy, and the No On 1 campaign in Maine, and everything else. I want to embrace the knowledge and empowerment that comes from listening and learning to some of the most open, honest, and intelligent experts I've met.
I want to put faces to the names behind the screens, and let those faces become my friends. I want to feel inspired by two of our party's best communicators -- President Bill Clinton and Dr. Howard Dean -- and listen to them talk about the importance of framing the health care debate as a "people vs. insurance companies" conversation. I want to meet Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga and Chris Bowers again, even if it is just briefly and if I just feel like a fanboy while I talk to them. I want to meet the folks from DFA, and Media Matters, and Calitics, and Left in the West, and North Decoder, and e.politics, and Pandagon, and the Women's Campaign Forum, and EnviroKnow, and the dozens and dozens of new friends that I got to spend my weekend with. I want to fulfill the true promise of the internet -- strengthening nodes in our networks, to improve the openness of our democracy.
I want to hit baseballs at PNC park, and have drinks in the Warhol museum. I want to enjoy the wildness of Karaoke night and the Altar, and enjoy the quietness of texting with a new friend. I want to go where everybody knows my name...and if they don't, they want to smile and get to know me for who I am, and not how I can help them with their work. I'm terrible at schmoozing, but I never felt like I was schmoozing this weekend. Not once. I always felt like I was making friends, and to have that kind of environment around a large convention with people who (since it was my first one) were mostly online acquaintances is a special, special thing.
In the coming days, I hope to write about some of the major ideas that were discussed at the convention -- most importantly for us in Texas, about redistricting and what we need to achieve in order to maximize our electoral opportunities in 2010. Right now, though -- more than anything else -- I want to thank everyone that made Netroots Nation possible. I learned new things, made new friends, and had one of the best weekends of my life.
To all who made that happened -- my forever thanks. Now it's time to get back to putting all those ideas from Netroots Nation into action.
Much energy has been spent discussing Tom Schieffer's unapologetic stance towards his votes for George W. Bush and his work for that administration. But despite its attention, this is not Tom Schieffer's largest problem in his goal to be the first Democratic Governor since Ann Richards.
He can overcome the "Bush Problem," especially if the primary field stays stagnant. After our visit with him in July, we said, "we are confident that Schieffer will be a champion of core Democratic issues. His positions on education, health care, and transportation are strong, and he understands the need for Democrats to have a seat at the table before redistricting occurs in 2011."
But that, his vast experiences in the world, and a potential appeal to Republicans are almost all his positives in his quest to win the Governor's Mansion as a good Democrat. Yet there are people in this very community who have good experiences in the world and would champion core Democratic issues. He needs more.
In our post on the Schieffer meeting, we furthered that he needs "a better developed campaign infrastructure in place" just to get past March. The rate of current events convince me that the basics of a campaign infrastructure will materialize and improve. But I'm not convinced that this will happen with all of the campaign. I worry that a full-blown Schieffer campaign will not offer any true policy proposals to the people of Texas.
My worries started in earnest when I read Ken Herman's scorching column from the other day. True, Herman has written two scathing pieces on Schieffer, and one could even argue that he has, for whatever reason, something against Tom Schieffer. But the following sounded oddly familiar to me:
Karen Pavelka, who teaches library and archives conservation at the University of Texas, came away equally unimpressed with her party's leading gubernatorial candidate. She had asked Schieffer where he would find money for education improvements.
"My answer to your question is I don't know where we find the money," Schieffer said, after an initial answer in which he told Pavelka "I'm going to ask you." She had interrupted and said, "I'm not running for governor ..."
For me, it might not have been money for educational improvements. It might have been a transportation or broadband question, but I swear a very similar dialogue happened between one of my fellow Burnt Orange writers and Tom Schieffer back in the BOR offices.
We can trust that Tom Schieffer is a Democrat, and that he agrees with us in our issue-sentiments...But we have virtually no clue how this will translate to policy. The Governor's seat is best utilized to push a few good policies in a legislative session (and maybe to veto some bad ones), but good policies cannot effectively be pushed for if they do not exist. Perhaps this explains why his Bush connections continue to prevail as a major problem for Schieffer: he gives us little else to work with.
And until Democrats obtain a statewide office, innovative policy ideas might be the only solid message plan to beat a potentially strong Republican candidate in a Texas-wide race. Communications Director Clay Robison tells me, "Tom is spending a lot of time studying and thinking about a number of policy issues. More of these will be discussed as the campaign progresses. He already has posted some policy objectives on his web page."
Alas, TomforTexas.com tries to explain the complex issues of education, energy, health care, and the environment in less than 20 lines combined. I don't need his policy plans to come from his website, but that's the best he has offered in public. To beat someone from a 15-year incumbent party, we need more.
