Corruption Chronicles: Gov. MoFo and Texas' own K Street project

Already blogged here, and also by Kuff and Eye on WC and others, and Paul Kiel pushes even more of the pieces together:

The more you learn about the Texas lobby boondoggle (this is where the state's federal relations office was gutted in order to hire K-Street-Project-approved private lobbyists such as DeLay's former Chief of Staff), the more ludicrous the narrative becomes.

The Texas Office of State-Federal Relations (OSFR) has existed since the 60's, and its purpose is clear from the title. According to the website, it's there in Washington to "advocate for the interests of Texas." Simple. You might even say that they're there to lobby the federal government on behalf of Texas. ...

... Members of the OSFR staff quietly went over the bids and selected the Federalist Group's Drew Maloney, who had been Tom DeLay's Chief of Staff until March of `02. The Federalist Group is literally an all Republican firm.

The Governor and his minions at OSFR snuck this past the Democrats, the press, everyone.

...

Gov. Perry is responsible for this, on whose orders you can probably guess (hint: back in 2003, the Houston Chronicle had an anonymous source who claimed that a certain Majority Leader was responsible). It was clearly his initiative. The Governor appointed Perez to his post, and Perez serves at his pleasure. The idea that a career bureaucrat would come up with this on his own, offering to deeply cut his own staff - from 17 to 7, more than half - is ludicrous.

...

Everyone seemed happy with this arrangement until early 2004, when Sen. Hutchison and Gov. Perry clashed over the issue of base closings. Perry made a big show of supporting the Pentagon's draft guidelines; Hutchison came out against. At the same time, Hutchison was reportedly mulling over running against Perry for the Governorship.

Then, in February, the Governor began to publicly worry whether Piper Rudnick had a "conflict of interest" in representing Texas, since the firm was reportedly in negotiations with Florida to lobby to preserve their bases.

Now, there is an inherent conflict of interest when a private lobbyist, with a full slate of corporate clients, is paid with state taxpayer dollars to lobby for federal dollars. So this is obviously a phony line of argument. And the Federalist Group has a host of other governmental clients (cities, counties, university systems, etc.) that the Governor has never had any problem with.

No matter: the contract with Piper Rudnick was abruptly severed in the spring of '04. Another round of bidding ensued, and Todd Boulanger, former member of Team Abramoff, won the contract, despite the fact that his bid wasn't the best, as if that was the point.

The excerpts above simply don't do justice to the research done by Kiel. You must read the entire thing to get the true sense of the breathtaking cronyism that has snaked its way throughout our state government.

Kiel says he's got more to come, but I've already read all I can stand.

The past week's Democratic candidate scramble

Yesterday, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in southwest Houston, I met Wesley Clark briefly. He was in town stumping for Bob Gammage, and he also met Hubert Vo and Kristi Thibaut and a small clutch of media and supporters before he left for Corpus Christi to campaign for Juan Garcia.

Eddie tried to live-blog the event in CC but got caught in that weak-wireless-signal Catch 22 -- stay inside to hear the event, or go outside to post, but not both.

While I was there, John Kerry decided to filibuster Alito. Good on him.

David Van Os asked me to be his campaign manager, and I accepted. So I'll be blogging a lot less, and as a matter of ethics, not at all after today about the man whom Ronnie Duggar calls "the Ralph Yarborough of his generation". So you need to bookmark his website, and help out a little from time to time if you can.

You see, Van Os has no intention of running television commercials ad nauseum or even trying to blanket the state with yard signs; his campaign runs on a virtual shoestring. My time and efforts, for example, are currently gratis, as I wind down my business in order to go full-time. His message is delivered the old-fashioned way; directly to the people.

One thing I've learned in the short period of time that David has been my good friend is that once you hear him speak, it's over.

I experienced this for myself a few years ago where he outshone Jim Hightower, and I've seen it happen time and time again, most recently at a little place called Arturo's Underground Cafe in Austin where about fifty people ( about forty of them under the age of 25) gathered at a post-steering committee meeting after-party. They came to hear a four-piece bluegrass band named Herb Pharm (sorry, no link; when you Google their name and add 'bluegrass' or 'austin' you still only get 100,000 hits for supplements) and they stayed to hear David.

I also added the button in the right column for SH 146 candidate Borris Miles, who's taking on incumbent Al Edwards. I could say a lot about my representative, but I'm pretty sure it's all been said. And I can't say anything bad about the third Democrat in the race, Al Bennett, who is an outstanding gentleman and to whom I wish all the best. I want to support your candidacy in another race very soon, Al.

There's a lot more to talk about, but I'll get back to you later on it. Don't go away and stay away, please.