I LOL’d when I saw this Facebook post on Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson’s page:
Well, of course she does! The guy gave her the job of Harris County DA!
The irony of DA Anderson standing with Perry on this is hilarious. After all, Devon Anderson wouldn’t be in office right now if her husband hadn’t used a corrupt grand jury to defeat a reform minded incumbent. Then, when he passed away, Gov. Rick Perry appointed her to the job. And now Gov. Perry is crying foul about a corrupt grand jury? Good lord, you really can’t make this stuff up. Want to learn more about the corrupt grand jury that resulted in Mrs. Anderson’s appointment by Gov. Perry? Click here and scroll through the posts on Judge Susan Brown’s 185th Runaway Grand Jury.
Clearly his appointment of Devon Anderson to fill Mike Anderson’s seat was politically motivated as well. The grieving widow didn’t bother to fill her appointment application out in full but was appointed swiftly anyway. How do I know this? Because at the time he appointed her, I filed a Public Information Act request for the applications of everyone that applied for the job. Mrs. Anderson was the only one that didn’t bother to list any of her accomplishments during her legal career. The others had page after page of accomplishments, published articles, and examples of why they would be right for the job. But our Governor didn’t need to see any of that from Mrs. Anderson. Click here to read her application for yourself. Click here to learn more about Mrs. Anderson’s opponent in November, Kim Ogg.
About Perry’s indictment, another irony is watching the right and left reverse their arguments. In Perry’s case, the right is blasting the process and wants the indictment quashed. The left is supporting the indictment and telling us to let the process play out. Now go up to Ferguson, MO and you get the reverse. The right is telling us to let the process play out and the left is demanding swift “justice” (i.e., throw the officer out the window). How about we all calm down and let the legal system do its job in both cases?
And of course nothing would be complete without Michael Quinn Sullivan blaming Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of all people for the whole Perry mess. Instead of using his usual platform of Empower Texans, he takes it to Brietbart Texas “News”, telling us that Phil King tried to move the funding for the Public Integrity Unit out of the Travis County DA’s office and under the Texas Attorney General’s office. I guess that Tim Dunn has decided to fund Brietbart’s Texas operations. At any rate, Mike tells us that Straus’ “lieutenants” blocked the move and gives us the House journal report on it.
But as ususal with Mike’s attacks on Straus, it’s just half-true. Sure, 18 Republicans joined the Democrats to block the amendment. But what Mike doesn’t bother to tell you is that the very next amendment by King (Amendment No. 28) was to study moving the office from the Travis County DA and it was adopted unanimously. The report on that study would have been due September 1st this year had the governor not vetoed it. What that tells me is that there were still 18 House Republicans that put the best interests of the state ahead of partisan politics. That’s a very good thing, not a negative. Imagine if King’s first amendment had been adopted, then Ken Paxton gets elected to the AG post. He has far worse ethics and legal problems than the Travis County DA, so we’d be back at square one trying to move the funding back to Travis County. Knee-jerk reactions are never good public policy, regardless of which party they come from.
Texas politics. What can you say that hasn’t already been said?
UPDATE
Rep. David Simpson wrote a blog post yesterday on his reasons for voting against King’s amendment.
I voted against the measure because: (1) it was unconstitutional and (2) fraught with unintended consequences.
It perplexes me that the same people who are decrying the actions of the Ethics Commission are also questioning the votes of members who opposed granting the Commission an unconstitutional task.
Click here to read his entire post.