I guess he’s under indictment for some reason is like saying I guess Hitler invaded France for some reason. Actually he had a lot of reasons. none of them valid.
I’m pretty old. Never heard of a governor being indicted for threatening a veto. How about you?
There are 50 states, 50 governors. Think in our history lots of them have threatened lots of vetoes for lots of reasons?
I guess Perry is that one evil criminal governor. Glad Mr. McCrum caught him for the evil use of his Constitutional veto power.
And McCrum comes out and dead pans his press conference as if hey, no big deal, criminalizing the veto power is right there in statute. Except it isn’t.
I would bet you most governors, most politicians, “threaten” in this way most days.
“I guess he’s under indictment for some reason is like saying I guess Hitler invaded France for some reason. Actually he had a lot of reasons. none of them valid.
I’m pretty old. Never heard of a governor being indicted for threatening a veto. How about you?
There are 50 states, 50 governors. Think in our history lots of them have threatened lots of vetoes for lots of reasons?
I guess Perry is that one evil criminal governor. Glad Mr. McCrum caught him for the evil use of his Constitutional veto power.
And McCrum comes out and dead pans his press conference as if hey, no big deal, criminalizing the veto power is right there in statute. Except it isn’t.
I would bet you most governors, most politicians, “threaten” in this way most days.”
Here. This clip is from the SA Xpress News
I guess he’s under indictment for some reason is like saying I guess Hitler invaded France for some reason. Actually he had a lot of reasons. none of them valid.
I’m pretty old. Never heard of a governor being indicted for threatening a veto. How about you?
There are 50 states, 50 governors. Think in our history lots of them have threatened lots of vetoes for lots of reasons?
I guess Perry is that one evil criminal governor. Glad Mr. McCrum caught him for the evil use of his Constitutional veto power.
And McCrum comes out and dead pans his press conference as if hey, no big deal, criminalizing the veto power is right there in statute. Except it isn’t.
I would bet you most governors, most politicians, “threaten” in this way most days.
San Antonio Express News // Nolan Hicks
AUSTIN — Aides to Gov. Rick Perry offered beleaguered Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg continued employment in her office if she resigned her elected post after a drunken-driving arrest, officials familiar with the offer said Thursday.
The offer came after Perry threatened and then vetoed $7.5 million in funding last June for the district attorney’s anti-corruption unit, known as the Public Integrity Unit, because Lehmberg refused to step down.
Several officials told the San Antonio Express-News that Perry — through intermediaries — offered various options to Lehmberg to entice her resignation, culminating in promises to restore funding to the unit, another position for her in the district attorney’s office and the selection of her top lieutenant to serve as the new district attorney.
A Travis County grand jury has been convened to look into allegations of wrongdoing. The governor’s office contends that Perry was in his constitutional right in trying to remove Lehmberg from office after she was accused of a crime.
Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daughtery, a Republican, said he reached out to Perry’s office after the veto to see if there was some way to restore state funding for the Public Integrity Unit. He said negotiations eventually included allowing Democrats, who dominate Travis County politics, to essentially pick Lehmberg’s replacement.
“There was this massive amount of fear that if Rosemary steps down, it’s the governor who gets to appoint someone,” Daughtery said.
He said a Lehmberg aide was floated as a potential replacement to make it palatable to Democrats.
Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe confirmed that Perry’s office had said Lehmberg would be replaced with another Democrat who was currently working in the district attorney’s office.
“Then the offer was made, I was told, that the governor would appoint a Democrat, and preferably one already working in the DA’s office,” Briscoe said.
Biscoe added that he had never directly communicated with Perry or his staff during the talks.
The proposed replacement was First Assistant District Attorney John Neal, according to a former public official and an elected official with knowledge of the proposals who spoke on background to candidly discuss the offers.
In late July, the offer was sweetened again, the unnamed officials said, when the governor’s office indicated that Lehmberg would be allowed to remain in her office in another capacity if she resigned her elected position.
The offer was explicit; “they were clear,” the elected official said.
Lehmberg, whose term ends in 2016, said she would not seek re-election.
The grand jury is expected to meet Friday. It was convened to look into allegations that Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, broke the law by threatening to veto the Public Integrity Unit funding to force Lehmberg to step down.
A special prosecutor, San Antonio attorney Michael McCrum, was named to investigate.
McCrum said recently that he did not know if there was wrongdoing on Perry’s part but that he was “concerned about different aspects of how all this happened, and that includes the governor’s actions.”
Rudy Magallanes, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said Lehmberg had no comment on the matter.
The governor’s office did not respond to several phone calls seeking comment. But the office has defended Perry’s actions as a constitutional use of his veto authority.
In a statement explaining his veto last year, Perry said he axed the money because Lehmberg was unfit to remain in office.
“Despite the otherwise good work (of) the Public Integrity Unit’s employees, I cannot in good conscience support continued state funding for an office with statewide jurisdiction at a time when the person charged with ultimate responsibility of that unit has lost the public’s confidence.”
Government watchdog group Texans for Public Justice called the veto threat coercion and potential bribery in complaints filed with the district attorney’s office and the Travis County attorney.
The veto threat came as the anti-corruption unit was investigating the scandal-plagued Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Its creation was championed by Perry. The investigation encompassed a variety of matters, including improperly awarding $11 million to Dallas-based biotechnology company Peloton Therapeutics.
The district attorney’s office closed the investigation into the cancer-fighting agency in December after Jerry Cobbs, a former high-ranking official there, was indicted. Cobbs is accused of misleading other top officials about Peloton’s grant by failing to tell them that it did not undergo required reviews.
Prosecutors said at the time that Perry’s decision to veto the unit’s funding had slowed the investigation.
Meanwhile, the Texas Tribune first reported Tuesday that Perry’s office offered to restore the funding after the veto in exchange for Lehmberg’s resignation.
Since then, officials have painted a scenario in which several offers were proposed by the governor’s office.
Judge Biscoe said discussions were centered on removing Lehmberg from office, with little concern about other jobs she could do in the office.
Perry’s veto came two months after Lehmberg’s arrest for drunken driving in April 2013. She later pleaded guilty.
Video of her arrest and subsequent booking into Travis County Jail, which showed a visibly intoxicated Lehmberg berating law enforcement officers, became a viral sensation on the Internet.