First off, Grace Community has a BIG facility. There was plenty of room (and rooms) for the estimated 1,000 attendees. My SD-11 was located in what appeared to be a youth facility – no carpet on the floor – and the room was also used for the midday forum, at which Gov. Perry was scheduled to be the featured speaker. The largest district, SD-7, was located in the sanctuary, which made sense after I walked in and saw Terry Lowry on the stage. The other districts were located in smaller rooms throughout the facility. The large corridors were filled with tables featuring various candidates, such as Ed Hubbard, Jared Woodfill, James Lombardino, Marc Brown and others.
Our meeting started close to the announced 10:00 am and was led by Sheryl Berg. She ran the meeting about as well as could be expected, given the constant interruptions by candidates wanting to address the delegates. I left after the precinct caucuses selecting State Delegates were held late in the afternoon, before the business of resolutions was even attempted. Kudos to those that chose to stay until the end.
One of the speakers to address us was Cathie Adams, current leader of the Texas GOP. She was installed by the SREC after Tina Benkiser resigned to work on Gov. Perry’s campaign and is now campaigning for the job. I’ve never heard her speak live and was impressed with her ability to fire up the crowd. I have to question her derogatory use of the President’s middle name, however. Is that really going to work well in the long run for Texas Repubicans? Yelling Barack Hussein Obama at the top of your lungs? Talking about this “sorry President in the White House”? I get that those words will fire up the conservative base of the party but how will the critical middle view this?
And how will the critical middle view the use of Bible verses to shape foreign policy? As many in the party are want to do, she quoted Genesis 12:1-3:
The LORD said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
Obviously, Israel is an ally of the United States and we should stand up for our allies. There are solid geo-political reasons for doing so. Why then is it necessary to use Bible passages to support this position? I realize that many, if not most, conservatives no longer think that the middle of the electorate matters, so my thoughts will most likely fall on deaf ears, but if the goal is to win elections, we need to remember that we must get to 50.1{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} and without at least a portion of the middle, we can’t do that.
County Judge Ed Emmett started off the forum by leading in the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag. Judge Emmett was in fine form, talking about the upcoming November election and how the party needed to come together to hold off the Democratic charge and put Republican judges back on the bench. He has a tough job heading this ticket and needs all of us to help.
The highlight of the day was when it was announced that the weather had prevented Gov. Perry from attending and Sen. Dan Patrick was asked to fill in. Sen. Patrick is at his very best when he speaks free-form, without preparation. And he was definitely at his best. To say he was fired up, and thus fired up the crowd, would be an understatement. His speech focused on Washington and he touched upon each of the areas that matter: health care, amnesty, cap and trade, deficit spending, etc. Fired up, he was.
One of his best lines came when he talked about four groups which the Republican Party should protect:: children, senior citizens, physically and mentally disabled, and veterans. Sen. Patrick said, if you aren’t in one of those groups, get off your butts and carry your own load. And he received a rousing, standing, ovation.
He also talked about four things that the party should be for. We should have a bigger tent but remindt the people coming into the tent that it is still our tent. We should be upholding the Constitution in everything we propose and do. We should emphasize that we are a Judeo-Christian nation whether people like it or not. And we should be the party of limited government. After his speech, people were literally dancing in the aisles. Very good job, Senator.
After the keynote speech, Jared Woodfill introduced Victory 2010. Sigh. I’ll have more on that later as I think that bringing three old white dudes out of retirement to go back to what worked 16 years ago is a huge mistake but it is what it is. Bob Eckels, Gary Polland, and Paul Bettencourt will be asked to do what Jared hasn’t been doing for eight years. Each of them gave a short speech, with Polland even mentioning Jared’s competitor, Ed Hubbard. How they can stand there and talk about Jared’s leadership at the same time they are talking about correcting what he hasn’t done with a straight face is beyond my comprehension. But like I said, I’ll have more to say about that later.
Overall, it was a fun day – always fun to be around like minded people. Now it is on to the State convention in Dallas June 11-12. Here are a few pictures from the day:
