Texas Attorney General- “I go into the office in the morning, sue Barack Obama, and then go home".

[KittyWampus]

Sixty-six years after the Texas City Disaster (wherein 600 died in fertilizer plant explosion), it is finally time for this pathological avoidance of oversight to end in Texas. To understand how deep the state’s regulatory resistance runs, one need only to listen to the state’s attorney general, Greg Abbott, who often spearheads the Lone Star state’s rebuffs to federal imperatives. Earlier this year he was asked what his job entailed. “I go into the office in the morning,” he replied. “I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/opinion/in-the-texas-plant-explosion-history-repeats-itself.html?_r=0

[sakabatou]

1. I hope this creep is voted out

[sadbear]

3. Collectively, we Texans are idiots.

Got an R after your name? That's good enough for us. Hell, George P. Bush will soon win a statewide election. Can you imagine that?

[redqueen]

8. We had nothing but Democratic governors for almost 100 years.

The first woman governor here was elected in the 20's. Our last one, Ann Richards, only left office in '95. And even after her term, when that POS Bush took office, we still had a Democratic lieutenant governor for another four years. Things started changing in the 80's.

[LostOne4Ever]

14. Yeah, but it was a different Democratic party back then

Yeah for 100 years we had democrats, but they were nothing like the democrats of today. They were dixie-crats who supported succession and segregation.

Don't forget that Rick Perry used to be a democrat. Texas has always been socially conservative.

Ann Richards only got in because not all of the conservatives in the state had gotten the memo about the Republican party being the party of social conservatism yet, and it helped that Clayton Williams was a complete idiot who PO'd every woman in the state.

As for "Ma" Ferguson, she was just a patsy for "Pa" Ferguson and both of them were crooks and criminals.

[sadbear]

16. The South was a Democratic stronghold until the Civil Rights Movement.

[redqueen]

20. Ann was elected after the civil rights movement.

We are the home of many liberals and progressives and I hate seeing us broad brushed the way you did.

[sadbear]

23. I've lived in Texas all 37 years of my life.

Bill Clements, who was elected governor in 1978, was the first republican governor of Texas since Reconstruction. At the time, it was unheard of for a republican to win in Texas. He was defeated for reelection once, but came back and won again in '86.

Ann Richards was losing to Clayton Williams in 1990 until he started opening his mouth, and she only barely defeated the misogynistic fool by 2 points.

And after she lost to '94, we haven't had a Democratic governor since.

Unfortunately, the broad brush is appropriate for Texas.

[lexw]

12. Wasn't it mostly the gerrymandering that took Texas to the right?

I know many strong Democrats and liberals (if you want to separate the two) who live in Texas, and they told me this.
Never verified it.

[Jim Lane]

13. No, I'm afraid not.

Gerrymandering can't explain the continued Republican success in statewide elections (Governor, U.S. Senator, the Presidential electors, etc.), which are necessarily single-district. For example, Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 was the last Democrat to win a Senate election in Texas.

Even in 1996, when we ran two Southerners (Clinton-Gore) against two non-Southerners (Dole-Kemp), we lost the state by about five percentage points. Last year, Obama lost by about sixteen percentage points.

Certainly, gerrymandering has enabled the Republicans to magnify their natural advantage in the House races, but with the current electoral demographics, they do have a natural advantage that fair districts wouldn't fix.

[lexw]

18. Wow. Thanks for clearing that up.

My buddy was wrong, but what else is new.

[sadbear]

15. Texas is the South.

Most Southern Democrats became republicans after the Civil Rights Movement (The Southern Strategy.) Texas hasn't elected a Democrat to statewide office in about 20 years. Gerrymandering has nothing to do with that.

[lexw]

19. Okay. Thanks sadbear. I was told wrong. Thx.

[redqueen]

21. I would suggest reading as opposed to taking the word of strangers on the net.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Texas_redistricting#Redistricting_targeted_Democrats

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/opinion/sunday/the-great-gerrymander-of-2012.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[sadbear]

24. Sorry, but the republicanization of Texas started way before then.

[LostOne4Ever]

26. I have lived in Texas my entire life

So I think I know something about the states politics.

Texas was strongly Republican back when they did that redistricting. Not to mention that the only reason we did not go red sooner was because of democratic gerrymandering before that. All the 2003 redistricting did was decrease the already low number of Dems slightly. Mainly those from the few democratic strong holds that were left.

We were overwhelmingly Republican before then.

Also from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_politics

However, since the 1950s the Republican Party has grown more prominent within the state, and became the state's dominant political party in the mid-1990s. This trend mirrors a national political realignment that has seen the once solidly Democratic South become increasingly dominated by Republicans.

I live about an hour away from Midland Texas (pretty much the seat of conservatism in the state). During my lifetime this state has NEVER been liberal.

We have a few democratic holdout areas here and there, but this state has always been socially conservative. Of course, Texas is undergoing a large demographic shift. The state may become a battleground state in a few decades from now...

[Botany]

2. Tex-ASS proud

W, Perry, Stockman, Cruz, Gohmert, and now this ass carrot?

[still_one]

4. It is people like this which created the resentment some on DU had after the plant explosion. That

does not mean we should not help the victims, however, as the help is given, and it should be given, it should be pointed to the country the hypocrisy of these policiticans

[Cha]

5. Isn't he a special kind of greedy dunderhead.

Looking the other way and suing those who aren't while the horrible inevitable accidents like the one in West, Tx, occurred.

[bluedigger]

6. I LOL'd.

[Eleanors38]

7. The cat crept into the crypt, crapped, then crept out again.

[pinboy3niner]

9. I love his theme song...

Born under a bad sign!

[Lobo27]

10. The reason these idiots get voted in is because of our states vast rural areas.

Doesn't matter if Austin is blue, hell even Dallas is sorta blue now, the southwest is blue. Yet, everything else is RED............

[TwilightZone]

25. Lots of blue, actually.

Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and most of the counties along the border all went blue in 2012.

Also, only Austin itself is blue. The Austin metro is split up into six Congressional districts thanks to gerrymandering, effectively isolating that blue as far as House races are concerned. Similar situations in Houston and San Antonio.

[SunSeeker]

11. Abbott should be disbarred. nt

[Orsino]

17. "And get paid for doing nothing, while the people's business goes undone." n/t

Guess his party affiliation.

[Rex]

22. My state has some real losers in charge.

If that is all he does, then he needs to get a pink slip.