Thumbs up, down
Republicans need to hug it out; Patrick shows his priorities; Dems have a Longoria problem.
That strange voice that spoke to Kevin Costner in “Field of Dreams” is at it again, this time whispering to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that, “if you pay for it, you will find it.” How else to explain his willingness to offer up to $1million in rewards to people who come forward with evidence of voting fraud in the presidential election. Seeing as how voter fraud is incredibly rare, this seems like a win-win for Patrick, who gets to support Donald Trump’s sore loser efforts to defame and delegitimize U.S. elections and keep his cash. It’s too bad that a win-win for Patrick is a loss for democracy, but hey, at least he can spend that money getting other Republicans elected, right?
Or not. As noted in the Quorum Report, while Gov. Greg Abbott and other conservative organizations were spending millions to help Republican candidates for the Texas House, Patrick was sitting atop $15 million in campaign cash, donating only production services for digital endorsement videos for social media worth just $101.95. What a team player. We take back that “Field of Dreams” reference, as Patrick is less a “Shoeless Joe” Jackson and more of a Smaug the dragon. GOP hobbits beware.
Then again, Patrick’s neglect is preferable to Texas GOP chairman Allen West’s outright hostility against the presumptive House Speaker, state Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont. “Texas does not need a Republican political traitor, not at a time when the two diverging philosophies of governance are this lucid,” West said in a statement. What did Phelan do to warrant such disdain? Unlike West, who likes his steaks rare and his policies scorched- earth, Phelan is apparently willing to work with Democrats. The GOP is riding high from holding off a blue wave in Texas, surely cooler heads can prevail and Republicans can take their sniping behind closed doors.
Or not. During a radio interview this week, outgoing Speaker Dennis Bonnen, who likes his burns sick and his irony well done, called out his party’s chair. “We need to have a fund for Allen West to be bought a one-way bus back to Florida. The problem is, I don’t think Florida would take him,” Bonnen said. Oh, boy. The Thumbs hate to step in and mediate, but how about we all agree that if anyone’s a would-be traitor it’s Bonnen, who lost his speaker post for scheming against other Republicans and — when will elected officials learn? — trying to cover it up. Besides, while West’s brand of self-aggrandizing, irresponsible, culture-warrior divisiveness is a better fit for Florida than Texas, after Jan. 20, the Sunshine State will be full up with cantankerous retirees.
It’s not just Republicans who should mind their Ps and Qs, though. Eva Longoria, a staunch Texas Democrat and one of the hosts of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, had to clarify some comments she made on MSNBC, where she called Latinas “the real heroines” of the election. Oops. “Black women have long been the backbone of the Democratic Party, something we have seen played out in this election as well as previous ones,” she tweeted, adding that she was comparing Latinas to Latino men. The Democrats have a Longoria problem, but it’s not that the actress misspoke. It’s that in a year with a Latino presidential hopeful in Julián Castro and up-and- comers such as U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Longoria was still the most prominent Latina at this year’s convention. If Latinos want attention from the Democratic Party, maybe Castro can move to Pennsylvania by 2024.
To end on a positive note, let’s talk about Willie Nelson. The famed singer-songwriter, who has a new memoir co-authored with his sister Bobbie ( you can read an excerpt in Sunday’s Chronicle), recently mentioned Houston in an interview with The New Yorker. Recalling his last live performance before the pandemic, Willie got wistful. “We had eighty thousand people there. I’ll never forget that show,” he said. We can’t escape politics right now. Heck, even the red-headed stranger had Georgia on his mind at some point or another, but somehow knowing that Houston is in Willie’s thoughts makes things feel a little less crazy.