« Bet On America? | Main | Addio, Luciano Pavarotti »
September 05, 2007
Not All Coverage Is Good Coverage
We have largely refrained so far from commenting on the upcoming U.S. Senate Democratic primary here in Texas to win the right to take on John Cornyn next fall. We support Rick Noriega, but don't have anything against Mikal Watts, the other principal contender.
R.G. Ratcliffe's story in today's Chronicle, however, gave us pause. In an obviously severe lapse in judgment, Watts, a successful plaintiff's attorney, boasted to opposing counsel in a letter that his "heavy" financial support of judges on the 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi would likely result in them ruling his way on the case in question. Wow.
It's one thing to try and intimidate an opponent with a little bravado -- you know, maybe an offhand comment in the men's room -- but writing it down in a letter? Perhaps just the error of a young lawyer (Watts was in his early 30s at the time, and is now 40), but it strikes us a pretty big error.
These days, plaintiff's attorneys in Texas have a tough enough hill to climb in the court of public opinion without lobbing a softball like this to their opponents. (Note: not sure where this story came from, but it almost certainly was not Team Cornyn. Their timing for such a piece would have been September 2008, not 2007.)
It is quite early yet in the Senate campaign, but the Watts camp has taken its second big hit. The first was its initial statewide story, the takeaway of which was that Watts is anti-choice and opposed to embryonic stem cell research -- not big sellers in the Democratic primary. What will be their next misstep?
Posted by houtopia at September 5, 2007 11:00 PM
Comments
Obviously I do know who I'm supporting, but either way it does show a severe lapse in judgment. Yesterday's revelations only strengthened my support for Rick!
Posted by: NoriegaBlog at September 6, 2007 12:46 AM