Doctor-Congresswoman goes to Washington (cont'd)
During her short tenure in Washington, D.C., Doctor-Congresswoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs continues to spread the charm that made her such a hit among some former colleagues on City Council.
Meanwhile, a grown-up political reporter (the Washington Post's Charles Babington) dug up what seems like a pretty benign explanation for the "mysterious" computer activity:
Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs (R-Tex.), who is warming the 22nd District seat for only a few weeks, said that former DeLay employees apparently deleted the office's computer files shortly before they walked out, en masse, on Tuesday.
The records dated from her assumption of the office Nov. 8 and did not involve matters related to the former majority leader, Sekula-Gibbs said in an interview in her unadorned office in the Cannon Building. Those who erased the records, she said in a statement, "have harmed the 22nd congressional district" and "brought shame to this office." She has asked for an investigation.
David James, DeLay's former chief of staff, who stayed to work for Sekula-Gibbs -- until Tuesday's walkout -- said last night that the office computers "were scrubbed and reconfigured by an outside vendor in the days immediately prior to her assuming office," as House policies require. The new congresswoman was given a copy of everything "electronically or in hard copy, or both," James said in a statement.
Whoops! Maybe the Doctor-Congresswoman and her former city council staff were too busy flying off the handle as if still in campaign mode to familiarize themselves with House policies. Of course, as Doctor-Congresswoman has been known to say, we're not (medical) doctors, so maybe we just don't understand.
In the KRIV-26 interview taped segment, Doctor-Councilwoman also complains about all the work that has gone undone while the office has been unfilled. While it is unfortunate that the Congressional seat has been unfilled for so long, it is worth noting that the professional staff had continued to be fully engaged in constituent service work -- at least up until something about the Doctor-Congresswoman led them to resign en masse.
In other news related to the Congressional district, the Chronicle's Kristen Mack reports today that popular Harris County Tax Collector/Assessor Paul Bettencourt has all but formally announced his intention to run for the seat in 2008:
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collecter Paul Bettencourt said he is seriously considering taking Lampson on in 2008.
Problem is, he would have to resign his county seat as soon as he announced for Congress. He has two years left in his term.
He says he's willing to do that because of the "magnitude of the (Republican) turnover" in Congress.
Bettencourt will be extremely popular among primary voters (and doesn't have the Doctor-Congresswoman's baggage of being a flip-flopper on the key issues of abortion and Houston's sanctuary policy), and a formidable general-election candidate. Jared Woodfill is surely right to call him the frontrunner for the seat in 2008.
BLOGVERSATION: Texas Safety Forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 11/17/06 08:23 AM | Print |
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