From The Republican Legislative Staff Seminar
Austin, Texas
The National Democrats will continue to play the race card as long as the national press corps buys their act.
We understand that. But here are some nuggets I dug up while in Austin over the weekend:
In a state which is regularly ridiculed by the Upper East Side and LA intelligentsia (now being led by Brad Pitt) for being white-bread-and-red-necked, the people of Texas elected three African-Americans to statewide offices this past November.
Wallace Jefferson and Dale Wainwright were both elected to the Texas Supreme Court and Michael Williams was elected chairman of the influential State Railroad Commission.
I believe that would be three more African-Americans elected to statewide office than, say, (just to pick a state out of the air ...) New York.
Maybe Bill Clinton should move his office to Austin.
All three African-Americans elected in Texas are Republicans.
Never mind on the Clinton office move idea.
In fact the Texas GOP has, since 1994, elected five minority candidates to statewide office. For their part, Texas Democrats have elected four minorities to statewide office - since 1872. That is not a typo. 1872 is correct.
Open your copy of the Authorized Biography of George W. Bush and take a look at the time-line. When was he first elected Governor of Texas? 1994.
Gosh. Imagine that.
Rick Perry who ascended to Texas Governor after being Bush's Lt. Governor was elected in his own right in November and carried with him, not only the three men mentioned above, but:
- two additional Members of Congress,
- a U.S. Senator,
- a net gain of three seats in the State Senate (increasing the Republican majority to a record 19 of the 31 Senators)
- a net gain of SIXTEEN in the State House of Representatives (thereby taking control for the first time in 130 years) and,
- an increase of 15 in county Commissioner's Courts (which is what county councils are called here) controlled by Republicans.
Two-Thirds of all Texans now live in a county controlled by the GOP.
The next time someone tries to tell you that the November elections didn't amount to much. Read them those stats.
From our "Things Even I Couldn't Make Up Dept.": Here's another entry in our continuing discussion on
the press and whether it is, like Goldilocks' hometown paper, too liberal; too conservative; or just right.
Many people wonder why reporters tend to be more liberal than a cross section of their readers. I believe I have found the answer.
In Saturday's Austin American-Statesman there was an inquiring photographer type of feature in which people were asked what they would do with their tax cut money. Here's what one guy said - verbatim:
"I will use whatever I might receive for left/progressive political organizing aimed at (1) creating an economic system that meets the needs of people rather than lines the pockets of the wealthiest in the country, and (2) ending the United States' imperial foreign policy and the accompanying militarism."
I swear that is an exact transcription of what was in the paper. So what, you say? Here's the good part: The guy's occupation is listed as "Associate Professor, School of Journalism, University of Texas as Austin."
Case. Closed.
An Associated Press piece by Hans Greimel described a massive rally in Pyongyang as: "A crowd of one million people - neatly packed into the capital's main plaza, adorned with anti-American banners and huge portraits of President Kim Jong Il - erupted in chants and pumped fists toward the winter sky, shouting in unison, 'We wholeheartedly support it!'"
Can't you see Democratic candidate for President Al Sharpton out there leading the cheers:
"Ho HO!
Hey HEY!
This is what we've got to say:
We Wholeheartedly Support It!"
Maybe it rhymes in Korean.
[Because of an editing error in Friday's Mullings the link to the SDR was wrong. Here is the correct link to Friday's Secret Decoder Ring]
And on TODAY'SSecret Decoder Ring page: A touching Catchy Caption, The Mullfoto of me and a BIG rib, and a riff on Zager & Evans (which will only make sense when you read it)
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