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March 12, 2009
A Tale Of Two Republicans
It is no secret that the Republican Party is in trouble. After two disastrous election cycles, which lost them both houses of Congress and the White House, the circular firing squad is now forming around the national party's new chair, Michael Steele. To boot, the last two elections have seen the GOP perform disastrously with young voters, who are forming political views and behavior that will likely last a lifetime. Not exactly a formula for future success.
Congressional Republicans have opposed President Obama's agenda to date, virtually in lock step, and watched their polling numbers head even further south as the country cries out for action from its government. And while Rush Limbaugh rallies the party faithful, to stick to dogma and with leadership that has demonstrably failed, to the rest of America the vaunted GOP "base" seems to be living in an alternate universe.
Here in Texas, which is still Republican-run but not quite as GOP-friendly as it once was, and which is assuredly feeling the economic pain gripping the entire country, our Governor appears to be in a universe, or perhaps a vacuum, all his own.
Yes, the policy genius who brought you zero-dollar budgets submitted to the Legislature, the HPV vaccine and the Trans Texas Corridor today decided, in his infinite wisdom, to reject federal stimulus funds to aid the unemployed. Never mind that Texans are hurting and pay federal taxes like everyone else, and that those funds will simply go to another state, Rick Perry is a true believer. He is also headed for a tough Republican primary for reelection, so throwing red meat to that aforementioned base is priority one.
Short-term, such a strategy may be viable in Texas, but our state has a large and growing underclass, not to mention a whole lot of folks in the middle who are being squeezed economically, so playing only to the Republican faithful is not likely a recipe for continuing to dominate politics statewide.
By contrast, the new Harris County District Attorney, a Republican who won office by less than 5,000 votes out of over 1.1 million cast, may have a strategy for success worthy of emulation by fellow Republicans. It's called doing one's job.
Pat Lykos, who took over for the previous Republican incumbent Chuck Rosenthal, a lying, philandering, drug-addled failure, seems to be making the restoration of public confidence in the DA's office her number one priority. Lykos just announced that DNA testing of evidence will become mandatory in every case where it is available and relevant. In addition to being the right thing to do, her action is a politically smart move in a county that has had several high-profile cases of wrongful convictions in recent years.
Republicans in Austin and Washington DC could learn a thing or two from our DA.
Posted by houtopia at March 12, 2009 11:01 PM
Comments
Who are you and where have you hidden houtopia? You are actually making sense. So who are you?
Posted by: Easter Lemming at March 13, 2009 03:15 PM
There is no such thing as a "good" republican, but I suppose a less corrupt one is better than a more corrupt one. Better to fix the problem completely by replacing him or her with a Democrat.
Posted by: Jon Foster at March 15, 2009 02:30 PM
Jon,
While I am definitely not a Republican, I know many good folks who are. And while I spend a considerable amount of my time working to elect Democratic candidates, I think it's important to recognize when elected officials do the right thing, regardless of party.
My point in the posting was that, sadly, DA Lykos seems to be the exception among current GOP officeholders. That's good for her, but bad for the public.
Posted by: houtopia at March 15, 2009 06:33 PM