Roddy Stinson of the San Antonio Express hits another Home Run
Roddy Stinson: Runagate Eleven's message to Texas youth: Don't fight. Hide!
Web Posted : 07/31/2003 12:00 AM
What a wonderful message Leticia Van de Putte and her fellow Democratic state senators have sent to the young people of Texas:
"Boys and girls, when the going gets tough, when you face overwhelming odds, when it appears you might lose the game ... don't do a gut check, don't stand and fight. Walk off the field. Take it on the lam. Run away and hide.
"Better still, get a rich friend to send a private jet to the nearest open field so you and your teammates can hightail it in style."
Oh, and between now and then, boys and girls, carry this Associated Press report in your gym bag and read it every so often to remind yourself that jellyfish can live well:
"Democratic Texas senators who are squabbling with their Republican counterparts over the congressional redistricting holed up in a New Mexico hotel on Tuesday to discuss their strategy.
"The 11 senators entered a room to dine on a breakfast of strawberries, melons, cereal and coffee. ..."
Such is the life of a runaway at Albuquerque's Marriott Pyramid North.
"... a Southwestern-style hotel, featuring an open, 10-story atrium with a rock waterfall and lush greenery ... with two restaurants and a lobby lounge, indoor/outdoor pool and fitness room."
San Antonio's Van de Putte, the Albuquerque-jaunt organizer and the unofficial spokesperson for the Runagate Eleven, worked up an appetite for her strawberry breakfast with a Monday night news conference in which she said:
"This is not about Democrats. It's about democracy, and it's about civil rights."
What moonshine.
With Van de Putte, it is ALWAYS about Democrats. But not just any Democrats. Her undying loyalty is to the shabbiest segment of the Democratic Party.
Lest Texans have forgotten ...
In the spring of 1994, Van de Putte, then a state representative, was one of several San Antonio legislators who tried to defeat incumbent Democratic Texas Supreme Court Justice Raul Gonzalez, one of the most honest, decent jurists to ever grace the state's courts
His sin: He refused to kowtow to the state's personal-injury lawyers, the sugar daddies of South Texas Democrats.
During a political campaign that was savage even by Texas standards, the trial lawyers and their political allies pummeled Gonzalez unmercifully.
One of the supporters of the savagery was Leticia Van de Putte, who endorsed Gonzalez's opponent, Rene Haas, the wife of a Corpus Christi trial lawyer.
How ugly was Haas' campaign against Gonzalez?
Editorial writers around the state called it "despicable," "unconscionable" and "a desperate pursuit of political power" that "exceeded the boundaries of taste and truth."
Throughout that desperate pursuit, a smiling Van de Putte was pictured in pro-Haas news releases.
Nine years later, the same smiling face is being featured in broadcasts from Albuquerque, and the politico behind it is telling the world, "It's about democracy and civil rights."
Not true in 1994. Not true in 2003.
It is still about a desperate pursuit of political power.
Or in the case of the Runagate Eleven and the trial lawyers who whisper in their ears, an attempt to hold on to power.
Unfortunately for them, the political publicity stunt is limpidly transparent.
Between dining on melons and strolling through lush greenery, Van de Putte and her colleagues may cry "civil rights" and trumpet their nobility. But they are only fooling themselves.
When the New Mexico vacation is over and the "democracy" charade is done, the senators will return to a state whose voters simply don't believe the humbug anymore.
To contact Roddy Stinson, call (210) 250-3155 or e-mail
rstinson@express-news.net. His column appears on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
