Fucked up talking points
Yesterday, someone defending DeLay at Lawtalkers made this comment about Ronnie Earle:What's his record against the members of the different parties? At least two of his indictments against republicans have not resulted in convictions, specifically Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jim Mattox. This could be taken to indicate he only indicts Democrats you are actually criminals and indicts republicans for partisan reasons.
I knew he had no fucking clue what he was talking about because Jim Mattox is as Democrat as they come. I thought maybe, not being from Texas, he saw the "Mad Dog" nickname and just assumed that the mean son of a bitch (I say with all affection) was a Republican. I pointed out the error and moved on, not thinking about it other than the person had no idea at all about Texas politics.
But then I was checking out the glee over the indictment in other Texas blogs, and I saw this posting over at Greg's Opinion:There's also this in the same Culberson email that has me baffled: "Today's indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is proof that Ronnie Earle is nothing more than a hatchet man for the Democratic Party who uses his position as Travis County District Attorney to attack his political opponents. We should all remember that his 1994 indictment against former Texas Treasurer and current United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was so baseless that he had to withdraw the case on the first day of the trial. Ronnie Earle also zeroed in on former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox in the 1980s, and those indictments were eventually dismissed. An indictment from a grand jury is an accusation, and an indictment from Ronnie Earle against a powerful and successful Republican leader like Tom DeLay is simply a publicity stunt and political payback on behalf of the entire Democratic Party.
Ummm ... Jim Mattox, as we Texans know, is a Democrat. The inclusion of that point in Culberson's email serves to undercut the very point that Earle works "on behalf of the entire Democratic Party" ... a point that former House Speaker Gib Lewis might well second.
Culberson, unfortunately, is my representative in Congress. He has no fucking excuse for not knowing that Mattox was a Democratic Attorney General. Someone else is writing these talking points, and they're dead wrong. I reported the Lawtalkers thing in Greg's comments, and he replied that he'd seen the same mistake on Hardball.
Has anyone else seen it? It strikes me as odd as the point that the Republicans are coming out with swinging is just plain factually wrong. Usually they're a little more nuanced.
I knew he had no fucking clue what he was talking about because Jim Mattox is as Democrat as they come. I thought maybe, not being from Texas, he saw the "Mad Dog" nickname and just assumed that the mean son of a bitch (I say with all affection) was a Republican. I pointed out the error and moved on, not thinking about it other than the person had no idea at all about Texas politics.
But then I was checking out the glee over the indictment in other Texas blogs, and I saw this posting over at Greg's Opinion:There's also this in the same Culberson email that has me baffled: "Today's indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is proof that Ronnie Earle is nothing more than a hatchet man for the Democratic Party who uses his position as Travis County District Attorney to attack his political opponents. We should all remember that his 1994 indictment against former Texas Treasurer and current United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was so baseless that he had to withdraw the case on the first day of the trial. Ronnie Earle also zeroed in on former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox in the 1980s, and those indictments were eventually dismissed. An indictment from a grand jury is an accusation, and an indictment from Ronnie Earle against a powerful and successful Republican leader like Tom DeLay is simply a publicity stunt and political payback on behalf of the entire Democratic Party.
Ummm ... Jim Mattox, as we Texans know, is a Democrat. The inclusion of that point in Culberson's email serves to undercut the very point that Earle works "on behalf of the entire Democratic Party" ... a point that former House Speaker Gib Lewis might well second.
Culberson, unfortunately, is my representative in Congress. He has no fucking excuse for not knowing that Mattox was a Democratic Attorney General. Someone else is writing these talking points, and they're dead wrong. I reported the Lawtalkers thing in Greg's comments, and he replied that he'd seen the same mistake on Hardball.
Has anyone else seen it? It strikes me as odd as the point that the Republicans are coming out with swinging is just plain factually wrong. Usually they're a little more nuanced.