Texas Green Party and the GOP: In Bed to Keep Texas Red

By
Glenn W. Smith
– July 7, 2010Posted in: Politics

oil on water 300x299 Texas Green Party and the GOP: In Bed to Keep Texas RedWhy would Texas Green Party leaders make a deal with Republican Gov. Rick Perry to help beat Democrats? Perry and other GOP allies of the Greens are their bitter enemies on every single policy issue they care about. The sleazy deal, if successful, will help the GOP continue its poisonous environmental record, its crony capitalism, its pro-big insurance agenda. The deal is twisted and dishonorable.

Gov. Rick Perry’s lackies and cronies are all over scandal. Just yesterday another name surfaced:  Consultant Anthony Holm, who has worked for Perry and Perry financier (and Swift Boat funder) Bob Perry, was named a source of money by Greenie kat swift (nothing upper case about her) in her happy email. They needed the money to fund a petition drive so they could get on the ballot here. More than half-a-million dollars. Where’s Bebe Rebozo when you need him? On the other end of kat swift’s emails, it seems.

It’s a case of childish willfulness overwhelming judgment and the moral compass as well. I believe kat swift and the Green Party candidates care about their causes. But what they seem to care most about is being publicly recognized. Among their friends, they can take comfort in a sanctimonious fairy-land in which only they are right and just. The GOP wants them on the ballot to take votes from Democrats. But Republicans are really bribing the Greens to help perpetuate Republican rule and the status quo. But nothing can shake the self-righteousness of the Green’s fairy-land. It’s sad, really.

Now the Green’s have retreated to an argument that they simply want to preserve the voices of those who signed their petitions (petitions circulated with hundreds of thousands of dollars of dirty money). They are destroying the integrity of the election process to save it, I suppose, or so their story goes.

Do they really believe that their hoped-for ends — which they drive further away by their actions — justify these means? Really?

Related Articles:

Tags: , , , , , , ,

About Glenn W. Smith

Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”

Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.

In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.

As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.

Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.

Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.

As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”