04.29.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Cronyism, Education, Election 2010, Had Enough Yet?, Public Schools, Right Wing Lies, SBOE, SBOE District 10 at 11:37 am by wcnews
One thing yesterday’s Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC) hearing on the Texas State Borad of Education (SBOE) highlighted was, why the SBOE has been able to get away with mangling science and now social studies/history curriculum for Texas public schools. For the most part they’ve been able to operate below the radar and not held accountable for their actions. That changed yesterday when state Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer (D-San Antonio) held a hearing.
The first thing that came to light, even before the hearing started, was that the head of the SBOE didn’t want to show up, SBOE Chairwoman Gail Lowe Ducks Texas Lawmakers. Would Lowe have been subject to tough questioning? If having to come before legislators to defend the board’s recent actions is tough questioning, then the answer is yes. But to the average Texans it doesn’t seem like too much to ask for a governor’s appointee to show up, when asked, by elected leaders.
More than likely she was afraid she would let some truth slip out like Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott did, Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott Describes SBOE Curriculum Changes As “Payback”.
Rick Perry appointee and Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott described the process involving the curriculum changes under consideration by the SBOE as “payback” while testifying at a hearing at the Texas State Capitol.
[...]
The first person to testify during the hearing was Robert Scott, Texas Education Commissioner. During his testimony, questions were raised about the curriculum process and why certain decisions were made. Scott responded to the questions by justifying the SBOE’s controversial changes as “payback.“
I transcribed the key part from his testimony — video archive will be available after the hearing:
“One of the things, I think, that has been a problem in all of our deliberations regarding – whether it’s education or anything else – is that when you push out a particular group, and say we don’t care about you, when you push out, regardless of who that is, over time that creates a problem. And when the pendulum swings back, you know, there’s – whether you call it payback or a shifting in the alignment – I think that we need to be mindful as we deliberate to try to prevent the pushing out of any group, regardless of who they are. And that’s what I think this process needs to be about.”
Scott’s remarks are disgusting. Unequivocally disgusting.
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04.23.10
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Cronyism, Had Enough Yet? at 9:23 pm by wcnews
There really wasn’t much action on the Willingham case except for when John Bradly tried to shake up the recently created Willingham subcommittee. Chronicle here by the Texas Observer’s Dave Mann.
The meeting began with an apparent effort by Chair John Bradley to alter the makeup of the commission’s three-person panel investigating the Willingham case.
Commission member Sarah Kerrigan offered to step down from the Willingham panel. That was an interesting development because Kerrigan was the only member of the panel not appointed recently by Gov. Rick Perry. (In a controversial move, Perry named the other two members—John Bradley and Dr. Nizam Peerwani —to the commission in late September.)
Bradley immediately appointed defense attorney Lance Evans, another recent Perry appointee, to the Willingham panel. Bradley said he wanted a lawyer like Evans on the Willingham panel in place of Kerrigan, a forensic scientist with Sam Houston State University, because there are “a lot of legal issues in that particular investigation.” That’s a questionable assertion. The goal of the Willingham inquiry was originally to examine the fire science in the case.
But other commissioners, including Peerwani, objected to the move, and the commission eventually voted for Kerrigan and Evans to both serve on an expanded four-person Willingham panel.
For a blow-by-blow of today’s hearing go to the DMN’s Texas Death Penalty blog, Meeting of Texas Forensic Science Commission … It seems that Rodger Jones has had enough of Bradley’s secrecy.
We’ve now talked to Bradley afterward, questions are left unanswered and the continued secrecy is bothering me. Keep reading.
[...]
Bradley meets the press. Asked about the pace of the Willingham case ahead, he says it will proceed as appropriate. Asked if he would set a timetable, he says no. He says that would be arbitrary.
Asked about the newly configured, four-person Willingham committee, he says it will meet in private. Why not public? “I don’t think it’s in the best interest of how we choose to do things.” Asked who decided the Willingham committees will meet privately, he says the committee did. (I should point out that the assistant AG attending today’s session advised the commission that the committee were only made official today and that they couldn’t have made official decisions at their organizing meetings last week.)
Bradley cuts off questions before I could ask him particulars of what the committee will tackle at its next meeting.
Talking with Commissioner Evans, the Fort Worth defense attorney, who says it was news to him that the committee will be meeting in private. Should it be? Evans says he would have no objection to public meetings, though he appreciates that there is a level of frankness that can help get things done behind closed doors. Overall, he says he’s willing to listen to pros and cons.
Evans says he figures that committee members will be in contact to decide what materials to review and people to talk to for their next session — whenever that is.
On his way out, Adams says it was news to him that committees will conduct business in private. He presumed they would be public. But don’t worry, he says, other members of the commission will make sure business is above-board.
All in all the meeting turned out pretty much the way Rick Perry wanted it. Again Dave Mann.
in the end, the commission committed to keep investigating, which itself is progress. But it remained unclear what the next step will be, how long it will take, and whether the commission will ever hear testimony from Beyler, whose scheduled appearance was canceled in September when Gov. Perry shook up the commission.
The Willingham inquiry will continue. The details, though, remain a mystery. And nothing happened at today’s meeting to disprove the cynics out there who suspect that the investigation will drag on until after the November governor’s election,
A good day for Perry and Bradley, a bad day for justice.
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Posted in Around The State, Cronyism, Williamson County at 6:07 am by wcnews
The Texas Forensic Science Commission is meeting today in Las Colinas. Not much is likely to be accomplished regarding the Willingham case. I hope the media will finally, expecting something to be and stop being so nice about it after today. The DMN did make a well-deserved point about Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley in this editorial.
As Williamson County’s district attorney, Bradley is used to conducting business outside of public view. It looks like he would like to continue that as commission chair. Lawmakers have been disturbed – as this newspaper is – by reports that Bradley tried to get other commissioners to destroy e-mails and refuse to make public statements. Further, committees named by Bradley met last week in secret, with no posted notice. [Emphasis added].
In contrast, many eyes will be on Bradley today. People want to hear when he intends to take up the report of eminent arson scientist Craig Beyler in the fire deaths of Willingham’s three daughters in Corsicana. Many wonder whether Beyler was right in reporting in August that evidence at Willingham’s 1991 murder trial was the fruit of hocus-pocus, slipshod investigations.
Bradley was hired to bury this issue until after the election in November, and the media is, so far, allowing it to happen. Hopefully that will stop after today. Maybe they should keep track of this issue as much as they do someone’s tax return.
[UPDATE]: More about today’s hearing, including links to live video, Texas Forensic Science Commission to Meet Friday, and from Grits.
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04.21.10
Posted in Around The State, Cronyism, Money In Politics at 11:44 am by wcnews
Via Texas on the Potomac, Perry named one of worst governors by national ethics watchdog group.
Newsweek’s cover boy, Rick Perry, just got some more national publicity. And it’s probably the kind of attention the Texas governor would rather avoid.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the nonpartisan watchdog group that has hounded politicians from both parties, this morning chose Perry as one of “the nation’s most incompetent and unethical governors.”
Perry’s office dismissed the report and a spokesman said that the GOP governor has “one of the strictest ethics policies in the nation.”
The “winning” list of 11 governors — including nine Republicans and two Democrats — is composed of elected officials “who have pushed their states’ best interests aside in favor of their supporters, families, political parties and bank accounts,” CREW said in its announcement.
CREW singled out six Perry controversies. Among them, the group said that the governor “allegedly disregarded campaign finance laws and aided a business that was especially generous to his campaign” and “accepted travel and campaign donations from a business that received benefits from his official actions.
Here’s the link to Perry on CREW’s web site. And there’s more on Perry, So you want freedom of speech? Fill out these forms, and here, www.billymitchellsworld.com.
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04.15.10
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Cronyism at 9:58 am by wcnews
AS EOW posted last week, Worst fears realized as Bradley misses hearing, this is nothing new. Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley is doing what he was appointed to do. From Grits, Forensic commission should ‘reconsider’ rules, pull Willingham case out of stacked committee.
If one believes – as admittedly I do – that the Governor ousted his old appointees last fall and replaced them with Bradley and Co. for the purpose of scuttling the Willingham inquiry until after the election, then these new rules and committee assignments set them up admirably to accomplish the task. Particularly telling was the chairman’s brazen decision to assign himself to the committee assessing the Willingham case. From the Startlegram: “The notion that he would be on this particular committee in light of everything that has gone on in the last year is particularly inappropriate,” said Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. “A suspicious mind would be concerned about nefarious activities.”
Burnam’s right about Bradley and the appearance of neutrality. The Williamson County DA has already been sharply, publicly critical of the arson expert commissioned to investigate the lack of scientific rigor in the evidence presented at the Willingham trial. Bradley even tried to prevent the scientist from testifying before a legislative committee that requested his views on the role of expert testimony unrelated to the case.
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04.08.10
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Cronyism, District Attorney at 12:32 pm by wcnews
It sure looks like what most feared would happen when Gov. Rick Perry appointed Williamson County DA John Bradley to had the Texas Forensic Science Commission is happening – delay and cover-up. John Bradley decided to avoid yesterday’s House Public Safety Committee hearing, Lawmakers challenge Forensic Science Commission chairman’s priorities.
State lawmakers suggested Wednesday that the prosecutor Gov. Rick Perry placed in charge of the Texas Forensic Science Commission is doing more to impede cases than investigate them.
The chairman, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, has concentrated on clarifying the forensic commission’s policies and procedures and putting them into a manual rather than holding hearings on a death-penalty case that has raised questions about arson convictions statewide, members of the House Public Safety Committee charged.
The lawmakers wanted to hear about changes that Bradley has attempted to institute – including asking his fellow commissioners to destroy most of their e-mails after a day and to not speak with the media. He also has sought to discontinue the commission’s practice of allowing members from the public to address them during their meetings, his colleagues said.
Such directives “really undermine public confidence. That’s what we’re asking about,” said Rep. Stephen Frost, D-Atlanta.
[...]
Committee chairman Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, told two commission members who testified that taking six months to write a manual while not advancing in their investigations bothered him.
“I’m not very happy with what you’re telling me,” Merritt said. “Are we here to serve the public or are we here to throw up roadblocks to prevent you from doing your job? It appears to me we’re throwing up roadblocks.”
He also took Bradley to task for failing to appear for the hearing.
The worst fears of Bradley running this commission are being realized. The Texas Tribune has more, The Inquisition, and it appears he doesn’t have too many friends on the commission.
Lawmakers on Wednesday issued a public rebuke to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, but the commission’s embattled chair wasn’t around to hear it.
The knuckle-rapping came at an interim hearing of the House Public Safety Committee, whose members were clearly piqued at the conspicuous absence of John Bradley, the commission’s newly appointed head, and Leigh Tomlin, its administrative coordinator.
Ninety minutes of back-and-forth covered the besieged agency’s non-existent enforcement power, lack of written procedural guidelines and public records policy. On hand to receive the grilling were two current members of the commission, Garry Adams and Sarah Kerrigan, and one former member, Aliece Watts — all of whom stopped short of defending Bradley under pointed questioning from committee chair Tommy Merritt, R-Longview and others.
[...]
Earlier, at the meeting, the fellow forensic board members who did appear distanced themselves from Bradley under questioning by the board. The sharpest queries came from thae visibly peeved Merritt and state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, who made clear his displeasure with the agency’s lack of transparency.
Merritt heatedly described the apparent conflict between the current panel’s testimony and Bradley’s November statements before the Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee. Back then, Bradley insisted under questioning that the board could not move forward in probing the Willingham case until it crafted uniform rules.
On Wednesday, Merritt scolded Bradley in absentia. “What John Bradley testified in front of the Senate committee was that he could not do anything (on the Willingham case) because the commission needed to be organized. … And what I’m hearing the commission say now, from two commissioners and one former commissioner, that in your opinion, you were organized at the time,” Merritt said. “You were doing your duty, and then all of a sudden John Bradley says, ‘I can’t answer any questions and we can’t move forward for almost a whole year because we didn’t have our ducks in a row.’”
Watts, the former member, concurred. She responded that she had been “dumbfounded” when Bradley said the commission wasn’t ready to hear complaints.
But again, Bradley is doing the job Perry appointed him to do.
Willingham finally came up by name near the end of Wednesday’s hearing, when Burnam asked the panel what the agency planned to consider during its next meeting on April 23. One item on the agenda that day will be the case of the Corsicana man the state executed in 2004.
There’s very little talk anymore about the Willingham case, just about how badly Perry’s appointee is running the commission. A job well done so far.
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04.07.10
Posted in Around The State, Cronyism, Election 2010, Money In Politics at 9:57 am by wcnews
Texans for Public Justice (TPJ) has a new report out, Gov. Perry Pockets $6 Million from Regent Appointees. In it they detail how much money Perry has collected over the years from people who donated to his campaigns for governor, that he has appointed to Texas public university Boards of Regents over the years.
Rick Perry has collected almost $6.1 million from the 155 people whom he has appointed to be non-student regents since becoming governor in late 2000. Over the past decade, 97 regent appointees gave to Perry’s campaign—or 63 percent of Perry’s regent appointees. Regents contributed both before and after their appointments.
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The average Perry-appointed regent overseeing a public university contributed $39,251 to the campaign of the Regent-In-Chief. Regents at the elite University of Texas and A&M University contributed average amounts approaching $100,000. Just the regents whom Perry appointed to UT, A&M and Texas Tech dumped $4.1 million into Perry’s campaign coffers. At the other end of the spectrum, Texas Woman’s University regents contributed an average of $234 to Perry’s campaign.
[...]
Michele “Mica” Mosbacher was the top overall regent donor. This appointee to the University of Houston Board of Regents has contributed $440,400 to Governor Perry’s campaigns. Paul Foster, vice chair of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, contributed $370,157. There are 21 regent appointees who contributed more than $100,000 apiece to Perry’s campaign.
There is nothing illegal about this, and Perry is by no means the first governor to do this. But what this goes to show is how “burrowed in” Perry’s right-wing cronies have gotten into all corners of our state government because of Perry’s long tenure as governor. The report also mentions complaints that surface during the GOP primary that appointees who supported Kay Bailey Hutchison may have been pressured to resign by Perry campaign intermediaries.
This report adds to the evidence that Perry’s been around too long and that it’s time for new leadership in Texas.
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02.09.10
Posted in Central Texas, Cronyism, Road Issues, Transportation, Williamson County at 10:44 am by wcnews
Ben Wear has the story, Toll road agency lawyer resigns after bar suspension. Land deal gone bad apparently. The most illuminating thing about the CTRMA in the story is the vetting process for their high ranking employees.
Mobility authority Executive Director Mike Heiligenstein, whose friendship with Nielson goes back two decades to when their children played youth sports together, said he knew nothing about the disputed land deal between Nielson and Wilson.
“It was never brought up during his employment, or before that during the interview process,” Heiligenstein said. “He obviously thought it had been worked out.”
In 2005 Texas Comptroller released a scathing report on the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), A Need For A Higher Standard, some of which was summarized in the AusChron at the time.
…the Regional Mobility Authority, appointed by regional county commissioners with the approval of the Texas Transportation Commission – the first of several planned RMAs around the state – is an ill-conceived and -executed agency, marked by organizational deficiencies, inadequate accountability to voters, and insufficient safeguards against corruption. Moreover, Strayhorn’s audit found what the report describes as sloppy management practices, apparent “favoritism and self-enrichment” in the appointments to the RMA, excessive budgeting for marketing, and instances of lax expenditure controls (e.g., sloppy handling of expense accounts).
And they have since instituted automatic annual toll increases as well, Unelected CTRMA board votes to raise toll taxes on 183-A.
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10.13.09
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Cronyism, Had Enough Yet?, Privatization, Road Issues, SD 5, Transportation at 10:18 am by wcnews
Transportation schemes are continuing, despite “death” of the TTC
Some things everyone must keep in mind before whenever how to pay for highways, or highway financing, is discussed. Sooner or later somehow the taxpayers of Texas will have to pay for new roads – highways in particular. Currently there are only two ways to do that, gas taxes or toll taxes.
Until the mid-90′s we used the gas tax to pay for most of our roads. By then tax increases – no matter how needed they were – became politically unfeasible. Our highways funding in Texas began to shrink and they were neglected due to decreases in funding. The gas tax was unable to keep up. Because of that our elected officials began working with corporations on a scheme to pay for roads with toll taxes. Essentially giving state government money up front, for the right to build and toll tax the people of Texas for as much as 50 years. Many profit making incentives were built in for the corporations to profit off these deals, and get their “up front” money and much, much more back in the long run.
A massive public backlash occurred, halting some deals, for now, and that’s where we find ourselves today. Paul Burka’s recent post, Cronyism and the Corridor, should be read by every Texan, but specifically by public school teachers and state employee in Texas. In essence Burka is saying that Perry will try to stack the management of the retirement systems of teachers (TRS) and state employees (ERS), in order to use them to finance toll roads in the future. From Burka:
This is a scary story. The Statesman reported yesterday that Governor Perry is removing Linus Wright, a former Dallas school superintendent, as chair of the board that oversees the $88 billion Teacher Retirement System and will replace him with a current board member who is also a member of Perry’s campaign finance team, Dallas real estate investor R. David Kelly. (Wright succeeded Jim Lee, who was one of three co-chairs of the Perry fundraising apparatus; Lee had resigned in the wake of news reports that he had run up six-figure gambling debts in Las Vegas.)
The removal of Wright occurred just a few days after Perry had announced the death of the Trans-Texas Corridor. The juxtaposition of events reminds me of the old Mark Twain line: “Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated.” The concern is that the governor’s office has installed a crony as chairman who will urge the board to invest retirement system funds in toll roads as a means to pump money into funding-starved TxDOT. Perry appointees who don’t go along–as we have learned in the case of board of regents and the Forensic Science Commission–are likely to find themselves replaced.
I’m not just being an alarmist here. Remember, in the summer of 2008, Perry, Dewhurst, and Craddick signed a letter agreeing to work together to find a way to pay for new roads. An earlier Statesman story about the agreement said:
One prong of the plan would create a Transportation Finance Corporation to allow state investment funds — including the state employee and teacher retirement systems, among others — to directly invest in state transportation projects. Combined, the two state systems manage $135 billion in assets.
But TRS and ERS officials “took a cautious view of investing in state projects in testimony this year before the Senate Finance Committee, saying a mandate to invest in Texas infrastructure could conflict with their duty to find the best return on investment for retirees.”
Toll roads are highly questionable investments. Their success depends entirely on the accuracy of traffic forecasts, which can be influenced by consultants who tell roadbuilders (and pension funds) what they want to hear. The industry newsletter TOLLROADS NEWS reported on October 9 that a major toll road in South Carolina is insolvent and about to default:
US Bank, trustees for the bondholders of Connector 2000 Association, the owner of the Southern Connector tollroad in Greenville South Carolina have issued an official notice that they expect a default Jan 1, 2010 with insufficient funds being available from the pike to make debt service that’s due. (Link to Perry, Dewhurst, Craddick letter [.pdf])
To those of us that were paying attention in 2008 this is no surprise, Texas GOP Leaders Want To Use Public Pension Funds To Build Corporate Toll Roads. Our own state Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) was trying to get the horrible “transportaion bank” idea through the lege last year. They see this big pool of cash that no one’s using, so why not “invest” it in toll roads? Well hopefully teachers and state employee’s will not stand for this.
But who will stop this. Here’s what Burka’s states in the last paragraph in his post.
The thing I find most interesting is that Perry removed Wright and replaced him with a crony in the middle of a governor’s race. What does that tell us? I think it says that he is supremely confident and he is going to do whatever he feels like doing and doesn’t care what the media (much less bloggers) are going to say about it. He had to know what people were going to say about his replacement of Wright, especially coming on the heels of his evisceration of the Forensics Commission, and he did not care. Rick Perry is one tough guy. Don’t think I don’t admire that.
I think Burka’s wrong. It has less to do with being tough, and more to do with payback. That’s what cronyism is after all. So who will turn this around. Certainly not his GOP Primary opponent. Remember there’s only two ways to pay for roads, and it’s unlikely that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will utter the “T”-word in a GOP primary. More on that from the DMN’s tranportation blog, Where is Kay Bailey Hutchison on transportation?.
I have more of a problem with Kay Bailey Hutchison’s failure to articulate any vision at all on transportation. Her statements on the subject have been overwhemlingly politically opportunistic — essentially, what she’s against — and scarcely illuminating on what kinds of programs she would put forth. Look at the “issues” section of her campaign website. Instead of stating what she stands for, she asks opinions from the public. And this after identifying transportation as one of her big five issues.
Of course Democratic candidate Hank Gilbert is committed to work for and with the people of Texas to pay for roads the right way.
Remember, currently there are only two ways to pay for roads, gas tax and toll tax. The gas tax is an up front tax, where the roads are paid for as they’re built. The toll tax usually involves some sort of scheme, where the cost includes corporate profits and how much they will ultimately cost is unknown. It really seems like an easy choice
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10.01.09
Posted in 2010 Primary, Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Criminal Justice, Cronyism, District Attorney, Election 2010, Williamson County at 9:35 pm by wcnews
There are several issues to deal with when it comes to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s decision yesterday to remove three members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission (FSC). Including his appointment of Williamson County DA John Bradley as the new commissioner.
After reading several items, (which will be linked below), on this issue it’s obvious this was a political decision for Perry. This action has little to do with the truth, or finding out what went wrong and correcting it so it doesn’t happen again. It appears to have more to do with making sure the investigation stalls, and that Perry’s reelection isn’t mortally wounded by this horrible mistake. That is why his ploy will be to try and make this about the death penalty, as opposed to whether an innocent man was killed by the state. Here’s an excerpt from Glen Smith’s post at Dog Canyon.
So Perry fired the commissioners, and the meeting’s been cancelled. Perry no doubt feels like a little death penalty squabble will fire up his right wing base. His Republican opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, offered mild criticism of Perry, but stressed that she was a strong supporter of the death penalty. Such cowardice is business as usual with these two.
Here’s Perry’s thinking: His voters support the death penalty. Texans won’t learn enough about the details of the case to think it’s anything but an argument over the death penalty, and he’ll be on the right side of that argument. End of story. The great moral matters of innocence and death are reduced to insignificant little nothings. This is why it is deadly important that the press get the facts to voters.
[...]
Next time, it might be someone you love who is wrongly accused. It might even be you. The debate over the death penalty will go on. Meanwhile, the actions of Rick Perry must be judged within the context of today’s law. In that context, Perry’s actions are morally repugnant. Perry ought to want to know the truth of the matter. The truth won’t hurt him politically and it might save his soul.
I have no doubt Perry will try to make this a debate about the death penalty. It is not. At the core, it should be a debate about the governor’s moral judgment. He could probably fight that debate to a draw by standing up now for the truth. Instead, he’s managed to make the best argument to date for a moratorium on executions.
Of course, another aspect that points to this being a political move, is that he appointed a partisan hack as the new chairman. More on that from Paul Burka, The Cover-Up.
Let’s call this what it is: a cover-up. The new chairman, Williamson County district attorney John Bradley, is a political ally of Perry’s (see below) who famously tough on crime. It would be a conversion of mythic proportions if he were to agree with the investigators’ criticism. He now controls when the commission will meet, and you can bet that the report will not be heard or discussed in a public forum before the March 2 primary.
This example of Bradley at work is from “Grits for Breakfast,” the excellent criminal justice blog, in 2005:
During the hearing Thursday on HB 2193, which would strengthen Texas’ probation system, the Statesman’s Mike Ward reports that aides to Governor Perry proposed gutting amendments to the bill. The proposals were apparently supplied by Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, the only bill opponent who spoke at the hearing.
Of course that leaves the question Why would Bradley take the job, or maybe a better question is would anyone else have taken the job? Only an ideologue would take it. In other words, it’s extremely likely that Perry was only going to appoint someone who he knew was going to run this commission the way he wants it to be run. And who would take a job as chair a commission to do Perry’s bidding? A partisan hack, that’s who.
Of course, that may not be the case. And there’s a way for Bradley and Perry to prove everyone wrong. It’s very simple, as Kuff points out, all Bradly has to do is Reschedule the meeting.
If you [Bradley] have any respect for the Commission and its members, then your unfamiliarity with the Beyler report should not prevent you from making a commitment to hold the hearing that was scheduled for tomorrow at another time. You don’t have to set a date yet, but a simple statement that once you have spent the weekend boning up on the materials you will put it back on the calendar forthwith would offer reassurance that this isn’t about politics. Give Dr. Beyler a call – it’s just common courtesy, after all – to check what his schedule is like, and to let him know that you look forward to hearing from him in a few weeks. I really don’t think that’s too much to ask.
In essence if this case is either postponed beyond the primary or is handled drastically different than it has been so far, that will confirm the reason for Bradley’s appointment as being a political cover up. More signs that point to it being political is that it was done with such short notice and so close to the upcoming hearing.
On Wednesday, the governor chose not to extend the appointments of commission chairman Sam Bassett, an Austin lawyer, as well as Fort Worth prosecutor Alan Levy and a forensic lab specialist, Aliece Watts of Burleson.
Levy’s position, reserved by statute for a prosecutor, was given to Bradley, and the governor immediately named him chairman of the nine-member commission. Watts was replaced by forensic pathologist Norma Jean Farley of Harlingen. A replacement for Bassett, who held the slot reserved for a criminal defense attorney, was not named.
All of their terms had expired Sept. 1, but Bassett, named chairman by Perry two years ago, had asked to retain his slot.
Bradley said he learned of the appointment Wednesday morning when he was called by the governor’s office. He said it was not a position he sought.
He said he canceled Friday’s commission meeting because he thought “it was too much to ask for myself and the new members to absorb,” and because he wanted time to review the Beyler report and materials.
Bradley said he is not yet “informed enough” to know if he would ask Beyler to present his report at a future meeting or continue the line of questioning begun unanimously by the commission.
“I just know it’s going to keep my weekend busy,” Bradley said.
Bassett said he learned Wednesday morning that he was being replaced – and the timing disturbed him.
“In my view, we should not fail to investigate important forensic issues in cases simply because there might be political ramifications,” Bassett said.
Others still are comparing Perry’s actions to those of Nixon, Is Perry pulling a Nixon?
“Is it true?” the Innocence Project’s Barry Scheck asked me when I called him for comment, unable to believe it himself.
Scheck likened the move to President Richard Nixon’s infamous attempts to oust a special prosecutor investigating Watergate.
“It’s a Saturday night massacre, pure and simple,” Scheck said. “If you don’t like the evidence, you just get rid of the judges.”
It’s unlikely this will play any part in the GOP primary as Hutchison’s comments above show. Democratic candidates for governor – Tom Schieffer, and Hank Gilbert – both made statements condemning Perry’s actions. But what this shows is that one party controlling all the levers of power in Texas can be deadly. A governor can act this way when there is no accountability. That’s why it’s so imperative that we elect Democrats statewide and more in both chambers of the legislature in 2010.
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