Thumbs up, down

Bad-behaving elected officials have no shame; a legendary voice waxes poetic.

Let us count the reasons you should rush to a locally owned bookstore to snag a copy of Dan Rather’s NYT best-selling, “What Unites Us.” 1) In a literary world where Houston is ignored, Rather paints vivid pictures of his childhood in the Heights during the Great Depression. 2) Despite humorous self-deprecation about his writing ability, Rather has mastered the 1,200-word essay, a skill we’d like to think he honed as a reporter for this newspaper in the 1950s. 3) The book is a pitch perfect tonic for today’s America and never mentions the “T” word.

Rather is knocking on the door of age 90. He doesn’t hesitate to talk about his mortality or his mistakes. At a small dinner with the Thumbs staff, Rather reminisced about covering Houston politics in the 1950s and ’60s. He told a story about covering then city councilman (and later mayor) Louie Welch. The elected official was caught gambling in Galveston’s Balinese Room, and his frugal wager earned him the name “Bet a Quarter, Louie.” You can’t help but long for the days when rolling dice was the scandal.

When we’re called to meet our maker, please ask former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to deliver the eulogy. At Monday’s funeral for former University of Texas regent Charles Miller, she captured his essence: “You are a prophet and soothsayer on trends of all kinds … you deserve much of the credit for the work your ‘disciples’ have done. Take comfort in knowing that we will carry on as best we can, asking always, ‘what would Charles do?’ ”

You can bet that there’s a memo out there written by the Billion Dollar Buyer that orders televisions in each of his restaurants to be tuned to the Rockets. And why not? They’re the hottest team in basketball.

Peter Brown, Houston’s patron saint of urbanism, died last week after a life devoted to making the city walkable. Hopefully, before his last breath, he saw that the city told residents of Broadacres they couldn’t keep fellow Houstonians out of the neighborhood. The signs along North and South boulevards that read, “No photos,” were removed. Meanwhile, there’s an explosion of holiday lights in River Oaks, where no one is saying “keep out” and the post-sunset traffic is bumper-tobumper. Of course, most of the residents this time of year are in Aspen, the Caribbean or Punte del Este while the notorious ROPO (River Oaks Patrol) guards the premises.

Looking at party success in Alabama and Virginia coupled with reprehensible behavior in Congress, you’d think Democrats would be lining up to run for office. So what happens in Harris County? After announcing his candidacy for Harris County judge with a scathing attack on incumbent Republican Ed Emmett, Houston attorney Mike Nichols dropped out of the race about 10 minutes after getting in. What’s wrong with that? Well, he chased away potential candidates, denied the party a robust primary discussion and generally wasted everyone’s time. If you’re going to run, see it though.

Brief thoughts about bad-behaving elected officials among us: • The Democratic Party seemed to have no interest in forcing convicted state Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, to resign. It is very possible he will run for office from jail next year. His conviction for barratry was upheld by an appeals court.

• The same party seems content to let state Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, avoid scrutiny after reports of vile and abusive behavior. He should step down.

• Finally, it’s good riddance to U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi. He resigned under pressure this week, but Congress has done nothing to prevent using taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims which Farenthold.