10.26.09
News and commentary of local interest
Through Saturday almost 2,300 have shown up to early vote [.pdf] in Williamson County. Early voting continues through Friday and information can be found below on where to vote as well as some guides and explanations:
- Early voting inforamtion for Williamson County
- Four City of Hutto Propositions on November ballot
- Information on the 11 Constitutional Amendments
- EOW recommends “NO” on Prop. 11
- Endorsements: 2009 Texas Constitutional Amendment Elections
Burka discussed the SD-5 GOP Primary, The Gattis-Bius race and TLR.
The conventional wisdom is that Gattis is a heavy favorite in this Senate race, and I have to agree. He comes from the biggest county in the district, and he has been running hard for some time, especially in Brazos County, the second largest county. Still, I have heard an interesting case to the contrary from the Ben Bius camp, which I will pass along.
Bu sure and read the comments too, there’s some interesting stuff in there. It’s seems that Gattis has a reputation for being arrogant. Who would have known?
More on Carter’s disclosure woes, Rep. John Carter Finds His Missing $300,000 in Exxon Profits.
Continuing the hypocrisy that reigns in much of Washington, Carter thanked Roll Call for bringing the matter to his attention. Just like Rangel, who had claimed he made an honest mistake, Carter also said he had overlooked the income. Carter also argues that has problem involves merely failing to report income, while Rangel’s involved failure to pay taxes. Carter, therefore, seems to endorse a double standard regarding the nature of financial reporting errors that he had recently criticized, saying, “We cannot tolerate a double standard in this country, one for the common man and another for the rich and powerful.”
In defending his colleague, House Minority Leader John Boehner said that many other members of Congress have made the same mistake as Carter. To make matters worse, he also claimed that the mistake was not entirely Carter’s fault — Boehner said that Carter received bad advice from the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (also known as the Ethics Committee). Boehner’s office later retracted the accusation.
These shifting standards of accountability are very worrisome.
Carter is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for funding federal spending on areas such as defense, education and homeland security. Carter’s committee may not be as powerful as Rangel’s, but it nevertheless holds great responsibility.
With this latest disclosure, perhaps we should ask Carter the same question we posed to Charlie Rangel: Is it time for John Carter to go?
While this story has made national news and has even been picked up in Waco and Temple, there’s been absolutely no reporting on this in the local papers online in Williamson County or in the Austin American Statesman. That seems odd.