Judge Al Bennett and Durrel Douglas

-- Congratulations on your confirmation as a federal judge.

After months of delay, a unanimous U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Alfred Bennett to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, cracking open slightly a national logjam of judicial nominations and a backlog of cases.

[...]

Bennett’s is the first judicial nomination to clear the Senate since Republicans took over in January. The delays mounted under Democratic control as well, even after Senate rules were changed to ease confirmation of presidential nominations to the lower courts and executive offices.

[...]

Of the Lone Star state’s 11 federal judicial vacancies, nine are in district courts and two on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which reviews cases from Texas.

That is one-fifth of 55 total current vacancies nationwide, according to Glenn Sugameli, who tracks judicial appointments for Judging the Environment, a Defenders of Wildlife project. Meanwhile, the nation faces a record backlog of more than 330,000 civil cases.

Yeah, the Fifth Circuit.  A real nest of conservative snakes.  But I digress.

Bennett, for his part, will replace U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, who went on senior (semi-retired) status in March, 2013, more than two years ago.

Bennett has served as the presiding judge for the 61st Civil District Court of Texas.

In this week's game of "Can You Top This?" I posted the article above to Facebook, then Stace picked it up and added a picture of him with the judge, and this morning Charles bragged about working with Bennett's cousin.  I can top that.

In 2006, when Bennett and Rep. Borris Miles both challenged then-Rep. Al Edwards to represent Texas House District 146, I went to Miles' office and offered my support early on.  But Bennett approached me before the primary (he ultimately finished third) to ask if there was anything he could do to earn my support.  I said to him: "Please run for something else in 2008, so that I can give you my support."  He did, I did, and the rest as they say is history.  After defeating the Republican incumbent in 2008 for the 61st state district court, Bennett was elected administrative judge by unanimous vote (the same as his Senate confirmation approval) over Harris County's 24 civil district courts in 2009.

“I’m the first African-American to hold this position, and I’m the first Democrat to hold it in years, and I’m the youngest tenured judge to hold it,” (Bennett said).

As I have been perplexed many times over the course of the years by Miles' personal conduct as state representative, I have often wondered what might have happened if history had taken a different course, and Bennett was serving in the Texas House instead of on the state (and now federal) bench.

All things considered, I have to say that I'm glad Al Bennett was not elected to represent me in the Texas Lege nearly ten years ago; it is HD146's loss that he wasn't.  But it certainly was not Judge Bennett's.

Bennett isn't just an exemplary jurist, though; he is an exemplary person.  He is a Scoutmaster for his sons in what spare time he has, and as an Eagle Scout I know that experience imparts a wisdom and maturity to young men that can't really be matched by anything in this day and age.

It's just another example of who the man is.  Congrats again, Judge Bennett.  Well-earned and well-deserved.

-- Durrel Douglas, one of Houston's rapidly ascending community activists, declared for Houston City Council, At Large 5 and kicked off his campaign this past Sunday.

He was a blogger (for awhile), has served Working America, TOP, and the League of Women Voters; he co-founded Houston Justice, and is destined for even bigger things.



Philippe Nassif, a fine candidate in his own right, is going to have to move on to yet another slot so that the two men don't split Democratic voters in the general election and send Jack Christie back to Council.  Christie is a conservative jackass who never should have defeated Jolanda Jones in the first place.  I blame, among others, Bill White for that.

Judge Al Bennett and Durrel Douglas will be effecting great changes for Houston and Texas in short order.  Both men's talents are much needed in their respective areas of expertise.

Scattershooting Clinton and Rubio and Christie and Carson

-- Nailed it.

What could we expect from a Hillary presidency? My guess is that it would be Wall Street–friendly, militarized and secretive — though seasoned with mostly empty rhetoric about uplift, community and inclusion. It would do little to address polarization and rot. In fact it would be a perfect embodiment of polarization and rot. There will be strenuous efforts over the next year and a half to argue otherwise, but they will convince no one but loyalists.

-- No Plan B (as in back to the Senate) for Marco.

The newly minted GOP presidential candidate made clear in Fox News and NPR interviews that he’ll leave the Senate when his term ends in January 2017, and not reserve his options to run for re-election in Florida if his White House bid doesn’t work out.

“I don’t have a Plan B to pivot back to the Senate race. I intend to be the nominee,” Rubio said Monday night on Fox News, shortly after declaring his candidacy. “And that’s why I think it’s important for us to have a strong candidate in Florida who’s out there working now. If I went around talking about how I would pivot back to the Senate race if things didn’t work out, our best candidates may not run.”

He's in for the same reason Ted Cruz is: to be the vice-presidential nominee of his party in 2016, and/or another crack at the title in 2020.  I'll take even-money odds on a Rubio-Castro VP debate in October of next year.  Two actually; one in English and one in Spanish.

-- No, Chris Christie is not bold.  He's incredibly arrogant, exceptionally devious, highly obnoxious, and still morbidly obese two years after having his stomach banded.  He remains the nation's most at-risk-of-mortal-cardiac-event politician, bar none.

-- Dr. Ben Carson will (allegedly) announce his campaign for president in his hometown of Detroit next month.  No one really knows why he is running, especially now that Wayne LaPierre of the NRA inadvertently shot down Carson's only plausible rationale.

“Eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough.”

Cruz and Rubio also thank you for your endorsement, Wayne. 

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance revels in the start of both another presidential election season and baseball season as it brings you this week's roundup of lefty blog posts.

Off the Kuff looks at the case to pass a state law that would enable "rideshare" services like Uber and Lyft to operate in Texas cities.

Libby Shaw, writing for Texas Kaos and contributing to Daily Kos, cautions Latino voters to beware of slowly starving Republican wolves that are dressed in sheep's clothing. GOP woos Latino voters while punishing immigrants.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson writes that as the GOP-dominated Texas House passes its budget, taxes take center stage, in The Texas Way - the more you make the less you pay, and the less you make the more you pay.

SocraticGadfly thinks that creating a national Appomattox Day could be part of dealing with all the political problems that unreconstructed Southerners have caused for America.

To quote Emperor Palpatine: "It is inevitable." To quote the Borg: "Resistance is futile." And to quote Yogi Berra: "It ain't over 'til it's over." PDiddie at Brains and Eggs dissects the 'inexorable' meme that surrounds Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.

Texas Leftist also posted about Hillary's rollout, declaring "she has no healthy competition" for the Democratic nomination.

Dos Centavos asks if Latino voter turnout is dependent on Latino candidates.  It's an open-ended question.

Nonsequiteuse says it is time to wear orange and head to Austin (or the internet) to rally against HB 723 as the Texas House of Representatives Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence committee considers a little word with constitutional consequences for minors who need access to safe, legal abortion services.

The Lewisville Texan Journal confirmed that a conservative group sent questionnaires to local candidates, inquiring about vital issues such as the ACLU and sharia law.

Neil at All People Have Value said that the Houston/Galveston National Weather Service offers useful instruction about life. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

=================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Spaced City celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Houston Astrodme, along with tens of thousands of others.

Texas Watch blogs about sex, drugs, and plant biology; or why Texas is covered in all of this green, brown, and yellow gunk (and why we're all dosed up on over-the-counter allergy medication).

Juanita Jean coins a new word for our culture war-infused times.

Dwight Silverman answers your burning questions about cable cord-cutting.

Free Press Houston noted that Texas Right to Life bullied Saint Arnold's Brewing after they rented out party space to a pro-choice group.

In lauding the Purple Hearts given to survivors of the 2009 Fort Hood shootings, Ted Cruz glossed over his 'no' vote on the bill authorizing them, writes Trail Blazers.

The Lunch Tray explores the ethics of sneaking vegetables into school food.

Better Texas Blog calls for raising the minimum wage.

Texas Clean Air Matters points out that promoting the use of clean energy is a great strategy for conserving water.

The Texas Election Law Blog decries "indignities and tyrannies" in local elections.

And finally, Grits for Breakfast penned an ode to Rep. David Simpson (who is sponsoring the legalization of marijuana bills in the Lege) called "treat it like tomatoes".

Of inevitability and Hillary Clinton

Above all, however, Hillary Clinton will struggle against the inevitability of her own campaign, the messianic pull of an office that has long eluded her and could once again be out of reach.

“Inevitability as a message is a bad message, especially when it becomes clear you’re not as inevitable as you thought you were,” says Democratic strategist Anita Dunn and former senior campaign advisor to President Obama. Clinton, however, “has learned that nothing in politics is inevitable.”

Compared with other nominees in the Democratic field, Clinton certainly looks inevitable. O’Malley is polling at 1% and Bernie Sanders is at 4% compared with Clinton’s 66%. She also holds a remarkable lead over her likely GOP opponents, beating out former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush 54% to 40% in a match-up, and with even larger margins over Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Though her favorability dropped over the last month after the controversy over her private email account, she still commands a solid approval rating among voters. No candidate in recent memory has faced such a wide-open field on the opposing side.

Resistance is futile.

But in the immortal words of Yogi Berra: It ain't over 'til it's over.

Though there are some who have been ready for Hillary since 1992, Democrats usually aren't the party that nominates the person whose turn it is.  Look what happened the last time they did: 2000, and Al Gore.  The old saw that 'Democrats fall in love, while Republicans fall in line' appears to be reversed for 2016.  Ominous?  Maybe.  There's about an equal number of Americans that want, and don't want, to see her in the White House.

My own feeling is that 2016 represents -- assuming Hillary and Jeb Bush are the major party standard-bearers -- a breakout possibility for the minor party nominees: Jill Stein of the Green Party, Gary Johnson of the Libertarians, perhaps others.  Progressive Democrats (an oxymoron, but also a digression) already seem scared shitless about that.  The most likely scenario that turns an apathetic electorate more so is the torrent of money flowing into the candidates' coffers.  Even the completely unelectable Ted Cruz, whose bid this year is really just to set him up for 2020, is awash in cash already from the richest of the very, very rich.

There are a few things Hillary needs to explain better, as we know.  Benghazi is not one of them, no matter how much of that incessant whining we are forced to endure from the right.

And if you don't want to go there, maybe you should go here.  Or here.  On a more encouraging tack, by far the most cogent thought about a transformative Clinton candidacy comes from here.

(My son) said that the amount of money that is being reported as about what Ms. Clinton’s campaign will cost presents a unique opportunity for both her and the Democratic Party. He is aware of the massive sums that the Republican party will be spending, both on the presidential and other races (congressional, state, and local). He noted that the Koch brothers and their ilk will be attempting to channel their millions into a coordinated, saturation campaign of lies. Hillary Clinton, he noted, has the opportunity to change the process; by using a method similar to judo, he said, she could use the current “corporations are people” mega-money madness to bring a higher level of awareness to the public.

Could you imagine, my son asked me, if rather than enriching advertising agencies et. al., she went to various communities -- cities and towns -- and used a large portion of her campaign funds to invest in them? If she said, “The American people have donated money to me, because they believe that I can institute change. It starts now: I am re-investing this much-needed money in your community. And that is exactly the approach that I will take as your President.”

He said some funds should go to charities, which would allow her to address specific social problems -- and solutions. It’s true that some problems can’t be “solved,” they must be dealt with on an ongoing manner. (He was quoting his father.) Other funds could go to specific community needs, again allowing her to highlight problems and solutions. He said that large segments of the country have accepted the problems that the bankrupt Bush-Cheney policies inflicted on our country. A great leader must change the way that people think -- about themselves, their value, and their relationship to community and country -- before those people can be expected to behave differently. And no single person, not even the President of the United States, can “solve” our nation’s problems: they require an ongoing effort upon all of our parts. 

I know, I won't hold my breath.  Still, that kind of candidate could be the progressive populist leader that millions of disaffected Democratic voters might take themselves to the polls to vote for.  We'll watch and see if some semblance of her shows up over the course of the next year-and-a-half.

Sunday Funnies

The Turner-Whitmire dynamic

It's the key to the runoff, and perhaps the mayor's office itself.  Not the most recent news development for observant watchers, but it's been busy blogging around here for the past couple of weeks.

The mayor, the senator, and the representative 

announcing the firefighters pension agreement last month.

"My name is John Whitmire, and I'm Sylvester Turner's state senator," he said, a go-to laugh-line that landed in a sea of donors. "Everyone in my district is important, but Sylvester Turner kind of stands out."

Kind words like those -- exchanged again and again over the past 12 months in both directions -- have gone a shade past the standard "good friend" lavished by nearly every politician on their predecessors at a dais. The alliance between Turner, a powerful Democratic state representative, and Whitmire, the most senior Democrat in the Senate, say people familiar with their ties, is genuine yet politically potent and already is sculpting the local Democratic landscape.

"The moon, the sun and all the planets have come together in the Sylvester-John orbit," said Carl Whitmarsh, a longtime Democratic activist close to both men.

This is the primary reason -- beyond all the other good reasons -- why Sylvester Turner is and has long been the front-runner in the race for mayor of Houston.  It's why Noah has already picked him as his favorite, why Kuff has taken note, and why the stars seem to be aligning, as Carl Whitmarsh pointed out above.  They're both not only senior legislators in powerful chairs in the Lege (in a dominated minority party), they're also personal friends.

Earlier (in March), Turner and Whitmire claimed credit for brokering a deal between an equally dug-in City Hall and fire pension board to modify the city's pension payments. And Whitmire is expected to co-chair Turner's mayoral campaign, formalizing what has been an aggressive courting of the local political establishment by the senior senator on Turner's behalf.

To see how their long and strong partnership is shaping the race, just look at a couple of the other contenders' reactions.

"They've been allies for a long time. It doesn't surprise me that they support each other," said Turner opponent Oliver Pennington, a city councilman who is critical of the pension deal struck by the Democratic pair.

Pennington is one of two Republicans most likely to be in a mayoral runoff with Turner.  (The other is Steve Costello.)  The Democrat most likely to join Turner in the second round is Chris Bell, and Turner and Whitmire know it.

When Jim Jard, a politically connected developer, planned to align with Chris Bell, one of Turner's opponents, Whitmire "called in a chit," according to a person with direct knowledge of the interaction.

Jard is now supporting Turner.

"  'Hey Jim, Sylvester has a self-interest in fixing a lot of these problems that everyone's worried about,' " Jard recalled Whitmire saying. " 'If he's going to be mayor, who has more of an interest in getting it fixed?' "

Seems a little redundant, Whitmire's rationale.  Jard's probably not telling us everything he knows.

It's still too early to rank Pennington, Costello, and/or Bell after the odds-on favorite, and if Adrian Garcia ever busts a move, things get scrambled... but only for second place.  I remain of the opinion that Garcia is wise to stay out because he has by far the most to lose.

I just don't think Sylvester Turner is going to let himself get Laniered a second time.

Update:  This kiddie pool-depth "Where's Waldo" article -- meant to update us on Garcia's status but not telling us anything new -- from Groogan at Fox26 (who usually does a better job) contains yet another odious fundraising importance meme from a political consultant, and the most ridiculous Mark Jones quote to date.

As for the threat of losing support among influential Hispanics, Jones says rivalry driven defection among Latino leaders has become the norm.

"I think there are quite a large number of Hispanic political elites in Houston who believe if they can't be mayor or someone in their faction can't be mayor I think they would prefer that a non-Latino be mayor," said Jones.

Remind me what you think their options are again, Dr. Jones?  Latino, non-Latino and what else?

K-Pax draws grand jury scrutiny

Our lazy-eyed unlicensed financial adviser/attorney general might be in trouble... but is probably not.  RG Ratcliffe (who is really doing a great job in taking over Paul Burka's blog):

The Houston Chronicle’s Lauren McGaughy got the break on reporting that the Collin County grand jury had asked the Travis County district attorney for its files in the Paxton securities case. District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg had previously decided the proper venue for the case was Collin County and referred it to Collin District Attorney Greg Willis. Paxton is from Collin County and any possible crimes occurred there. Willis, who is a Paxton friend and former business partner, has refused to act.

[...]

Paxton admitted to the Texas State Securities Board that on multiple occasions he sold securities without registering as a securities dealer. The board issued a reprimand and fined him $1,000.

To review, this is stuff we all knew a year ago, when Paxton was in the process of being nominated by the TXGOP to replace Greg Abbott in the OAG, and the bad news kept breaking all through the election season, and into this year.  Here's more on this week's worm-turn from Chris Hooks at the TO.  (Be sure and read from the start to understand his premise that Paxton is in deep doo-doo.  Let's scroll to the bottom, excerpt, and disagree.)

Once the grand jury hears the evidence in Paxton’s case, an indictment seems more likely than not.

“This case is absurd because Paxton has already admitted to a crime with Texas regulators,” says )Texans for Public Justice head Craig) McDonald (who has called for a special prosecutor). His admission of guilt, passed off by his consultants during the election as the end of the matter, “in no way adjudicates his potential felony criminal behavior.” As a reminder of the surreal nature of the fact that he may not be prosecuted for a crime which he has apparently admitted to committing, McDonald says, he keeps Paxton’s “signed confession” on his desk.

"Once the grand jury hears the evidence in Paxton’s case, an indictment seems more likely than not."

I doubt it.  It's just as easy to no-bill a ham sandwich when your pal is the DA.

*coughDavidMedinaArsonChuckRosenthalcough*

And I would surmise that more than a few of Willis' and Paxton's supporters sit on that GJ.  I smell a whitewash, but then I'm a skeptical sort when it comes to Republicans and ethics.

Update: DallasMorningViews reveals the big stall.