Thumbs up, down
Ethics problems in Austin, silent politicians in D.C., and cheers at Minute Maid.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves; let’s not open up a can of jinx, but the Astros are looking good, and the only things missing are butts in each seat. The team is off to its best start in franchise history, with a winning percentage of more than .700. Three of the last four teams that have won this many games this early have gone on to win the World … oh, never mind. Let’s just say Sports Illustrated magazine is looking pretty good with its June 25, 2014, cover featuring George Springer and the headline: “Your 2017 World Champs.”
How impressive is the latest biography of Thomas Jefferson by Rice history professor John B. Boles? Longtime Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley, who had vowed never to write another review, came out of retirement and called “Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty,” “perhaps the finest one-volume biography of an American president.”
Donald Trump hinted recently that he may record private meetings in the Oval Office. We don’t play coy like that. Guests at the Editorial Board are commonly reminded that phones on the desk are taping each word. For example, there’s our session with congressman Mike McCaul. Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security when he isn’t representing points between Katy and Austin, McCaul talked to us late last year about Russia. “Russia is not exactly a bastion of human rights and liberty,” he said. “They are not our friends. Vladimir Putin is not our friend.” So as a headspinning week comes to an end, you have to wonder why (a) the president treats Russians like friends and invites their reporters into the Oval Office while shunning American news organizations and (b) why elected officials like McCaul aren’t going before their buddies on Fox News saying this is not right.
These pages have long believed that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton should have resigned after being charged with securities fraud. The state’s top law enforcement officer has been dogged by legal problems each day of his lackluster, two-plusyears in office. So as equal opportunity moralists, we also would urge state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, to tender a resignation. A federal grand jury indicted Uresti this week on charges of bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and other unseemly things in a frac-sand deal that prosecutors called a “Ponzi scheme.”
During a week when a state senator was indicted, you’d think we couldn’t have too much ethical oversight in Texas. That’s not the view of senate budget writers. Their proposed document refuses to fund $300,000 that the Texas Ethics Commission needs to hire outside counsel in case the attorney general’s office declines to represent them. What’s going on here? It turns out that a political ally of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is likely to come before a court that will rule whether he must pay a fine imposed by the commission for having failed to register as a lobbyist. Michael Quinn Sullivan, the president of ultra-conservative watchdog group Empower Texans, has tried to claim he’s a journalist, but the commission held he was a lobbyist, citing his practice of telling legislators his positions on upcoming votes and holding them accountable at election time.
This isn’t exactly “stop the presses” news, but loose dogs continue to plague large swaths of the city, and it’s time for the mayor to add another item to his “fix-it” list.
The Thumbs bicycle was chased by dogs of many sizes at least 10 times on a recent roll through the East End. We made it safely to the office only to read a news story about the fenced-in pet of a Chronicle reporter. That boxer had his paws badly mangled when wild pit pulls bit him through the fence. BARC’s response: We don’t respond to dog-on-dog attacks.