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Home Front: Politix

POTUS nominates former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to be NATO ambassador

2017-07-04

[The Hill] President Trump on Thursday nominated former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, (R-Tx), to be America's next ambassador to NATO, according to Fox News reports. The White House made the announcement Thursday evening, which was first reported on Twitter by Fox News's John Roberts and Mike Emanuel.

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-Election 2012

Tea Party Candidate Wins Texas Runoff

2012-08-01

Tea party darling Ted Cruz convincingly defeated the Republican establishment favorite, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in Texas' runoff election Tuesday, capturing the GOP nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison as fiercely conservative voters shook one of America's reddest states to its political core.

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Home Front: Politix

DC Judges Grill Texas AG on Voter ID

2012-07-14

On Friday morning, Judge Robert L. Wilkins looked out across the packed courtroom at the lawyer for Texas and suggested that the state's voter ID law would force some people to travel more than 100 miles to get the documents required for a photo identification."How does that impact your argument?" asked Wilkins. "Isn't that unduly burdensome?" Have you already formed a conclusion, yerhonor? John Hughes, the state's attorney, said Texans in rural areas are used to driving long distances. "People who want to vote already have an ID or can easily get it," he said. It's 99 miles to the WallMart, yerhonor, it's not but another 10-12 miles to the Voter ID store. Just load up an extra six twelve-pack of roadies... Texas has a history of voter discrimination and a more recent history against conservatives, so the law signed last year by its Republican governor, Rick Perry, had to be cleared by the Justice Department. The department blocked the law, saying it would disproportionately affect Latino voters. Texas sued the department, leading to the week-long trial that ended Friday. For the Obama administration, the Texas law and similar legislation passed in other states threaten to disenfranchise millions of Latino and African American voters. But for supporters of the legislation, the requirements are common-sense solutions to voter fraud. In his closing argument, Justice lawyer Matthew Colangelo said that the Texas law will disenfranchise more than a million African American and Hispanic voters and "is exactly the type of law" that Congress had in mind when it passed the Voting Rights Act. If everyone is required to get an ID, and everyone is equally burdened, then no one is disenfranchised... Republican lawmakers have argued that the voter ID law is needed to clean up voter rolls, which they say are filled with the names of illegal immigrants, ineligible felons and the deceased. Texas, they argue, is asking for no more identification than people need to board an airplane, get a library card or enter many government buildings. On Thursday, Harvard University political science professor Stephen Ansolabehere, an elections and statistics expert, testified for the Justice Department that the Texas law was more likely to affect Hispanic and black voters than white ones. Texas lawyers countered that Ansolabehere's research methods were "hopelessly flawed," and said a list he produced of 1.5 million potential Texas voters without state-issued IDs was inaccurate. The lawyers showed that Ansolabehere's list included Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), former president George W. Bush and former senator Phil Gramm (R). All well-known Republicans, yerhonor! Do we hafta count them, too?

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Home Front: Politix

Retired Lt. Gen. Ric 'Dirty' Sanchez(D) Drops Out Of Texas Senate Race

2011-12-18

Retired Lt. Gen. Ric Sanchez, the sole major Democratic candidate in the race to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, said Friday he is dropping out of the Texas race because of "pressing personal challenges" and a lack of funds. He retired for the dual reason of the Abu Ghraib scandal, and the fact that he and J. Paul Bremer hated each other's guts.

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Home Front: Politix

Political Gambit: Dems Plan On Running LTG Sanchez (ret.) For Senate In Texas

2011-04-17

Democrats appear to have recruited retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez to run for the U.S. Senate in Texas, setting the stage for the party to field a well-known candidate in the 2012 race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, a Democrat, confirmed that Democratic Senate campaign chief Patty Murray, D-Wash., was referring to Sanchez on Thursday when she said Democrats were close to announcing a candidate in Texas. Sanchez, reached by phone at his San Antonio home, asked where the reports of a Senate run came from and then said, “I can neither confirm nor deny.” Sanchez, the former top military commander in Iraq who was left under a cloud from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, would not discuss the Senate race. Already, LTG Sanchez is emphasizing that he’s going to be more to the right than the average Democrat: “I would describe myself as during my military career as supporting the president and the Constitution,” Sanchez said. “After the military, I decided that socially, I’m a progressive, a fiscal conservative and a strong supporter, obviously, of national defense.” “Sanchez himself wrote and signed a 2003 memo that included specific interrogation tactics approved for use despite noting that they may violate the Geneva Conventions. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sanchez denied signing off on these interrogation methods.”

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Home Front: Politix

Sen. Kent Conrad (D) to retire

2011-01-18

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) announced his retirement today, leaving his seat up for grabs in 2012. Unlike Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s retirement announcement last week, Conrad’s announcement sets up a strong possibility of a flip from D to R. Republicans crushed Democrats in the state’s 2010 elections.

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Home Front: Politix

Michael Barone: Low-tax Texas beats big-government California

2010-03-09

"Stop messing with Texas!" That was the message Gov. Rick Perry bellowed on election night as he celebrated his victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor. In his reference to Texas' anti-littering slogan, Perry was making a point applicable to national as well as Texas politics and addressed to Democratic politicians as well as Republicans. His point was that the big-government policies of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders are resented and fiercely opposed not just because of their dire fiscal effects but also as an intrusion on voters' independence and ability to make decisions for themselves. No one would include Perry on a list of serious presidential candidates, including himself, even in the flush of victory. But in his 10 years as governor, the longest in the state's history, Texas has been teaching some lessons to which the rest of the nation should pay heed. They are lessons that are particularly vivid when you contrast Texas, the nation's second most populous state, with the most populous, California. Both were once Mexican territory, secured for the United States in the 1840s. Both have grown prodigiously over the past half-century. Both have populations that today are about one-third Hispanic. But they differ vividly in public policy and in their economic progress -- or lack of it -- over the last decade. California has gone in for big government in a big way. Democrats hold big margins in the legislature largely because affluent voters in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area favor their liberal positions on cultural issues. Those Democratic majorities have obediently done the bidding of public employee unions to the point that state government faces huge budget deficits. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to reduce the power of the Democratic-union combine with referenda was defeated in 2005 when public employee unions poured $100 million -- all originally extracted from taxpayers -- into effective TV ads. Californians have responded by leaving the state. From 2000 to 2009, the Census Bureau estimates, there has been a domestic outflow of 1,509,000 people from California -- almost as many as the number of immigrants coming in. Population growth has not been above the national average and, for the first time in history, it appears that California will gain no House seats or electoral votes from the reapportionment following the 2010 census. Texas is a different story. Texas has low taxes -- and no state income taxes -- and a much smaller government. Its legislature meets for only 90 days every two years, compared with California's year-round legislature. Its fiscal condition is sound. Public employee unions are weak or nonexistent. But Texas seems to be delivering superior services. Its teachers are paid less than California's. But its test scores -- and with a demographically similar school population -- are higher. California's once fabled freeways are crumbling and crowded. Texas has built gleaming new highways in metro Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. In the meantime, Texas' economy has been booming. Unemployment rates have been below the national average for more than a decade, as companies small and large generate new jobs. And Americans have been voting for Texas with their feet. From 2000 to 2009, some 848,000 people moved from other parts of the United States to Texas, about the same number as moved in from abroad. That inflow has continued in 2008-09, in which 143,000 Americans moved into Texas, more than double the number in any other state, at the same time as 98,000 were moving out of California. Texas is on the way to gain four additional House seats and electoral votes in the 2010 reapportionment. This was not always so. In the two decades after World War II California, with its pleasant weather, was the Golden State, a promised land, for most Americans, while Texas seemed a provincial rural backwater. Many saw postwar California's expansion of universities, freeways and water systems a model for the nation. Few experts praised Texas' low-tax, low-services government. Now it is California's ruinously expensive and increasingly incompetent government that seems dysfunctional, while Texas' approach has generated more creativity and opportunity. So it's not surprising that Texas voters preferred Perry over an opponent who has spent 16 years in Washington. What's surprising is that Democrats in Washington are still trying to impose policies like those that have ravaged California rather than those that have proved so successful in Texas.

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Perry takes Texas

2010-03-04

Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic former Houston Mayor Bill White clinched their parties' nominations for governor Tuesday, setting up a fight over whether the problems in Washington or Austin are more relevant to Texans' everyday lives. White told supporters in Houston he expects Perry to try to "perpetuate" himself with politics of division and distraction to avoid talking about Texas issues, such as high unemployment, state government growth and unfunded mandates for local governments. "Texans deserve a new governor," a leader who is "more interested in the jobs of Texans than in preserving his own job," White said. White said he believes Perry will continue trying to put voters' attention on political debates in Washington. "They'll point fingers at Washington and talk about the alarming growth in government in Washington so you won't notice the alarming growth in government in Austin," the Democratic nominee said. Perry, speaking to supporters at the Salt Lick barbecue restaurant in Driftwood, signaled that he fully intends to continue the anti-Washington rhetoric. "From Driftwood, Texas, to Washington, D.C., we are sending you a message tonight: Stop messing with Texas!" Perry said. Perry said his challenges are to tell the story of a successful Texas, "defend the conservative values that made them possible" and "remain attuned to the threat of a federal government that continues to overreach," as well as increasing its spending. "It is clear the Obama administration and their allies already have Texas in their cross hairs," Perry said, referring to his expectations that national Democrats will support White. Perry won the GOP nomination over U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and activist Debra Medina. Perry hammered on Hutchison's Washington ties in his anti-federal government campaign. Hutchison conceded the race to Perry and urged her supporters to unite behind Perry. With voters angry at both Republicans and Democrats in Washington, Hutchison had trouble getting traction in her race. Medina used the anti- government sentiment and solid debate performances to propel her into better-than-expected third-place results. Medina declined to concede. Her campaign claimed that if Perry fell below 50 percent in the final vote count that she would be in a runoff with him because Hutchison had conceded. Texas election law experts, however, said Medina could not make a runoff even if Perry drops below the 50 percent threshold. Because Hutchison's concession has no legal meaning, they said, she and Perry would be slated for a runoff. If Hutchison withdrew from such a runoff, Perry would be the winner. Perry, who turns 60 on Thursday, already is the longest-serving governor in Texas history, and he is seeking an unprecedented third full term. He begins the general election campaign with strong name identification, incumbent advantage and the likelihood that he can raise whatever money he needs. White is trying to become the first Democrat to win the governor's office since 1990. White captured the Democratic nomination by bettering six other candidates. White's only serious challenge came from Houston businessman Farouk Shami, who spent at least $8.5 million of his own money on the race. White also has shown an ability to raise money and ended the primaries with more than $5.4 million in the bank.

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Democratic candidate Tom Schieffer quits Texas governor's race

2009-11-25

Fort Worth Democrat Tom Schieffer announced today he is quitting his bid for governor, clearing the way for Houston Mayor Bill White to enter the race. Schieffer touted White as a Democrat who could appeal to "a broad spectrum of Texas voters" tired of "the pettiness and partisanship we've had over the last nine years" under Republican Rick Perry. "We have to get behind one candidate who can unite the Democratic Party and offer a credible candidate to voters next fall," Schieffer told a Capitol news conference. White is expected to abandon his campaign for U.S. Senate and jump into the gubernatorial contest by next week. Texas Democrats never warmed to Schieffer because of his longtime ties to George W. Bush. Schieffer was a partner with Bush in running the Texas Rangers baseball team and after Bush was elected president, Scheiffer was appointed ambassador to Australia and Japan. Further, Schieffer struggled to raise the money for a successful statewide campaign. His departure would leave humorist Kinky Friedman, hair-care magnate Farouk Shami, schoolteacher Felix Alvarado and rancher Hank Gilbert as announced gubernatorial candidates on the Democratic side. Democrats have not elected a statewide candidate in Texas since 1994. But as mayor of Houston, White has high name-identification in that metropolitan area, which constitutes a quarter of the electorate. Further, White's month's-long bid to replace Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Senate once she resigns has allowed him to cultivate Democratic voters. "I will tell you, there is an opportunity for a Democrat to be elected this time," said Schieffer. "And I hope the demo party will rally to the notion they can win. "They have too long accepted the thought that it's a lost cause. But I absolutely believe that someone of Mayor White's caliber can win. I also believe that if they do not offer someone of Mayor Whitee's caliber, they will lose and lose badly," he said. Hutchison has said she will remain in the Senate through the March GOP primary while running for governor against Perry. Family, friends and campaign workers gathered at the Capitol for Schieffer's announcement that he's qutting the race, eight months after he announced his bid. A lawyer and former state legislator from Fort Worth, he had strong credentials in private business and public life, but he had trouble in some Democratic circles shaking his association with Bush.

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Home Front: WoT

Fort Hood incident unrelated to Islam: Activist

2009-11-19

The shooting spree at Fort Hood where army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly killed 13 fellow soldiers and injured 29 others, has nothing to do with Islam, says Muslim activist. "What we saw right after the Fort Hood shooting was a statement by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas that essentially implied that the US military had been quote and quote infiltrated," said Ibrahim Ramey from the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Press TV's Washington correspondent reported. "We think that that was something that was a criminal act. It was clearly something that was done by a person who, we believe, had some very serious mental issues. But it had nothing to do with Islam. It had nothing to do with anything that was sanctioned by any responsible Muslim organization." Ramey maintained that prejudice against Muslims in the military is reflective of prejudice against Muslims in general in the United States. The Pew Research Center shows nearly six out of every ten Americans believe Muslims are more discriminated against than other religious groups including evangelical Christians, Mormons, Jews and even atheists. "The US military is involved in wars in both in Afghanistan and Iraq that would mean that Muslims, despite any of their credentials or affiliations or political ideological beliefs, who are in the military can be on occasion looked at as being suspicious," Ramey added. Officials allege that Maj. Hasan, who was due to be deployed to Afghanistan, opened fire on soldiers who were filling out paperwork in the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. Maj. Hasan could face capital punishment if the charges brought against him are proven. Maj. Hasan's case has been described as the highest-profile court-martial in at least a generation.

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Gunman kills 12, wounds 30 at Fort Hood

2009-11-06

Continues from yesterday... An Army psychiatrist opened fire Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 12 people and wounding 30 others before being shot to death, officials told NBC News. A statement on the teevee a few minutes ago said he was still alive, in custody... Eleven of the victims died at the scene, military officials said. A 12th died later at a hospital, NBC station KCEN-TV of Waco reported. Number's now at 13... NBC News' Pete Williams reported that U.S. officials identified the gunman as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who had been promoted to major in May. Defense officials said Hasan, 39, arrived at Fort Hood in July after practicing for six years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, which included a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry. Hasan was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq on Nov. 28. Hasan was reportedly "pretty upset" about his deployment orders. Hasan was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq on Nov. 28, officials said. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials had told her that Hasan was "pretty upset" about his deployment orders. The Associated Press, quoting federal law enforcement officials, said Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats. The officials said they were still trying to confirm that he was the author. One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog item that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Medical records on file in Virginia, where Hasan was born and was registered to practice, and Maryland, where he received his medical degree at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, revealed no disciplinary actions or formal complaints. Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, commanding general of the Army's III Corps, said the gunman used two handguns. Two other soldiers were taken into custody after the shooting. Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, said they were released, but later in the day law enforcement officials told Carter that another person had been detained for questioning. A senior administration official told NBC News that the shootings could have been a criminal matter rather than a terrorism-related attack A senior administration official told NBC News that the shootings could have been a criminal matter rather than a terrorism-related attack and that there was no intelligence to suggest a plot against Fort Hood. Military and local hospital officials said the victims were a mixture of men and women, military and civilian. At least one of those killed was a civilian police officer, Cone said. At least four local SWAT officers were among those wounded, KCEN reported. 'They shot me!' Among the wounded was Pfc. Keara Bono, 21, of Independence, Mo., who was shot in the shoulder. She called her mother, Peggy McCarty, to let her know she would be OK. Bono, who works with soldiers dealing with stress, arrived in Fort Hood only Wednesday from her previous posting in Topeka, Kan., NBC station KSN-TV of Wichita, Kan., reported. Her brother, Dustin, told the Kansas City Star that Bono was "mad more than anything." "They shot me! And I'm still here in this country!" Dustin Bono quoted his sister as saying.

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Perry raises possibility of states' rights showdown with White House over healthcare

2009-07-25

Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states' rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president's healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas. Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas' WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate. "I think you'll hear states and governors standing up and saying 'no' to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare," Perry said. "So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I'm certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats." Perry, the state's longest-serving governor, has made defiance of Washington a hallmark of his state administration as well as his emerging re-election campaign against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 Republican primary. Earlier this year, Perry refused $555 million in federal unemployment stimulus money, saying it would subject Texas to long-term costs after the federal dollars ended. Interviewed after returning from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, Perry spoke out against President Barack Obama's healthcare package less than 24 hours after the president used a prime-time news conference Wednesday night to try to sell the massive legislative package to Congress and the public. "It really is a state issue, and if there was ever an argument for the 10th Amendment and for letting the states find a solution to their problems, this may be at the top of the class," Perry said. "A government-run healthcare system is financially unstable. It's not the solution." Perry heartily backed an unsuccessful resolution in this year's legislative session that would have affirmed the belief that Texas has sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government. In expressing "unwavering support" for the 10th Amendment resolution by state Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, Perry said "federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens and its interference with the affairs of our state." Returning to the "letter and spirit" of the 10th Amendment, he said in April, "will free our state from undue regulations and ultimately strengthen our union." Perry, in his on-air interview Thursday with Davis, did not specify how he might use the 10th Amendment in opposing the Obama health plan. His spokeswoman, Allison Castle, said that the governor's first goal is to defeat the plan in Congress and that any discussion of options beyond that would be "hypothetical." "I don't think it's surprising that the governor is taking a stand against it," said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an Austin-based research organization that supports the House version of Obama's plan. "Unfortunately, the national dialogue on health reform has been extraordinarily partisan and polarized." The White House Media Affairs Office, asked to comment on Perry's statements, did not have an immediate response. In his remarks to the nation Wednesday, Obama restated his midsummer deadline for passage of the bill in Congress, saying it is urgently needed to help families "that are being clobbered by healthcare costs."

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