06.12.06
Rep. Garnet Coleman, A Legislator Worth Watching
So says PLAN in their Profiles in Courage series. Garnet Coleman, Increasing Democracy.
When progressives have control of a legislative chamber, the measure of their leadership is how they improve the lives of the residents of their states. But when they are in opposition, the measure of leadership is how they stand up for principle and highlight the abuses of rightwing power.
Garnet Coleman, a Texas House member elected from Houston, is a shining example of that kind of oppositional leadership. Just this last week, as chairman of the Texas Democratic Platform Committee, Rep. Coleman sheparded through principles that rebuked the hardline anti-immigrant position of the state’s rightwing GOP leadership, instead advocating a more balanced approach of strengthened border security with a “path to citizenship” to bring undocumented immigrants out of the shadows of the underground economy. The platform mocked the state’s rightwing for their professed concern for supposed lost wages due to immigration:
We believe it is the height of hypocrisy for Republicans who consistently oppose increases in the minimum wage and worker protections to now claim they are ‘protecting American jobs’ with extreme immigration proposals
There’s plenty more on Rep. Coleman click the link above.