Casey disppointed with Hutchison decision
Featured Chronicle metro/state columnist Rick Casey admits today that he is "disappointed" that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) has decided not to challenge Gov. Rick Perry (R):
We like a fight for the simple reason that battles are great stories. Truces are good stories, too, but you can't have them without war.
The healthy newsroom's motto is this: Any storm in a port.
That helps explain why so many of us in the news business were disappointed that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison decided in the end not to take on Gov. Rick Perry.
It would have been a glorious gutfight, and it would have had the added virtue of spawning uncounted other fights as congressmen lined up to run for Hutchison's Senate seat, county officials lined up to run for Congress, city pols lunged after county posts and on down.
The rest of the column rambles on about how "moderates" might have made a difference in the hypothetical race:
Kay Bailey Hutchison had an opportunity to destroy a myth that is crippling Texas.
It is the myth that the only way to win the Republican primary — and therefore to win any statewide office and many regional ones — is to appeal to social conservatives and starve-the-government ideologues.
Hutchison had a chance to show something only a candidate with her profile and credibility, and not least of all her budget, could show: that given a credible choice, a Republican could win a Texas primary by appealing to moderates.
Mr. Casey seems blissfully unaware that he lives in a conservative state, and those social conservatives and limited-government types to which he disdainfully refers are known as the majority. It's good to see the featured columnist on metro/state matters so plugged in to the area he covers.
Thrown in for good measure is this non-sequitur:
Sure, most Texans are against gay marriage. But if you gave them a choice between a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and a tax system that funds schools adequately and fairly, my bet is that the overwhelming majority would choose the latter.
Where did THAT come from?
Actually, maybe asking that question isn't such a bad idea. To figure out where Casey is coming from, it's useful to recall some of his recent remarks at a Harris County Democratic Party event:
Rick says there is a new nationl religion: God wants you to be rich. If you are not rich, you are not with God. Basically, the right wing would like to do away with CHIP, Medicaid, and the school fund. Instead religion says we should worship markets.Markets aren't all bad, but Rick cautioned that we should consider how to make markets do what they do well and to tame them so they do. The rich say we do not have to do anything to manage markets. The poor just have to get with God, and that will solve their problems. Rick noted that at one time it was the blacks who were not believed to be with God, now it's the poor.
Essentially, the right wing has stollen the identity of Chritianity and turned it against the "non-believers." Rick asked how is it that God wants us to have a 3-5% revenue cap?
Those are "Rick's" own words, quoted by an apparent admirer.
That view of conservatives and Republicans is useful to keep in mind when "Rick" editorializes on Republican primary politics. It's also useful to keep in mind that a weakened Perry emerging victorious after a bloody hypothetical primary fight with Hutchison was one of the best hopes for the Democrats to retake the governor's mansion. One can understand their disappointment over her decision to put her party ahead of selfishness, even if "Rick" declined to share with readers that aspect of his disappointment.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/05 09:25 PM | Print |
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