09.14.07
More On Kay’s Toll Pandering From the “Texas Observer”
There’s more in the TO’s post about the the purported Toll Roadblock.
But what does the amendment say? I read it and I’m not so sure. It seems to allow exactly what it promises to prohibit, and it is written in the deliberately confusing, dependent-clause-rich prose of lawmaking. But, hey, we’ll have to trust our senators on this one.
The end about Sen. Cornyn’s lame attempt at trying to take some credit, but not too much.
Cornyn is certainly interested in the anti-toll vote, but his office seemed a little late in trumpeting his involvement in the amendment (so Hutchison had the lead to herself).
Perhaps Cornyn is hesitant to embrace the anti-toll constituency because of its distrust of government and its dislike of the current GOP leadership in Texas, which seems bent on privatizing public roads willy-nilly. Or maybe it’s because the big money in GOP politics in Texas favors toll roads (and the TTC). A cursory search of the Federal Election Commission website found contributions for Cornyn in the last year of more than $10,000 from Williams Brothers Construction, $7,000 from Dannebaum Engineering, and $15,000 from people associated with Zachry Construction. We are sure that’s just a drop in the bucket.
Cornyn’s not going to have Kinky and Carol “What’s Her Name” in this race to nullify the anti-toll vote.