Journalist provides account of altercation with GOP Lt. Gov. candidate Dan Patrick
[font color=green]This is a juicy story that reminds me of a National Enquirer exposé. If accurate, it casts serious doubt as to whether Dan Patrick is fit for public office.[/font]
Good day Austin:
On May 30, 1987, Paul Harasim was a columnist for the Houston Post and Dan Patrick, between successful stints as a TV sportscaster and radio station owner/radio talk host, was the co-owner of several Houston sports bars, which didn’t prove to be very successful.
It was a little before midnight when Harasim and his wife, Maria Teresa Espinoza Harasim, arrived at one of these bars - the Nice-n~E.Z Club. They had been invited guests to the grand opening and they were comped at the door – a courtesy befitting what they thought was their good standing with Patrick. But, when they arrived, they were confronted by Patrick, who, it seems, hadn’t liked some things that Harasim had written about him, and told the Harasims hat they were not welcome and needed to leave.
What happened next ended up the subject of a criminal trial and civil suit, and ultimately the release – courtesy Harasim’s attorney - and the distribution last night to a number of Texas reporters - courtesy Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson – of documents from those proceedings that offer a window into Patrick’s past mental health struggles. That provoked a furious reaction from the Parick campaign's Allen Blakemore (“This is outrageous! Dewhurst had already hit bottom, and now he has found a new low! He has no honor, and knows no shame!), a disclaimer from Patterson, an ardent Patrick detractor, that, in his opinion, "if this were up to David Dewhurst, it wouldn't have been released," and an expression of empathy from Dewhurst. ("My heart goes out to Dan and his family for what they've endured while coping with his condition."
But first, back to fight night, May 30, 1987.
As Harasim, now a medical reporter with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, recounted it in brief for me this week:
More at http://www.statesman.com/weblogs/first-reading/2014/may/16/paul-harasim-coldcocking-dan-patrick-i-think-what-/ .
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