June 9, 2009
For a while I thought it was going to be difficult to find interesting stuff to write about after election season was over. But then I remembered, this is El Paso, there's always something interesting going on in the world of politics.
The latest circus to come to town is the ethics complaint filed by city Rep. Emma Acosta against County Judge Anthony Cobos. Here's some background to the story in case there is any way you have missed this on-going drama that is clearly worthy of television.
Yesterday was the hearing on a series of motions filed by Cobos' legal team made up of Theresa Caballero and Stuart Leeds. For some reason, this hearing was scheduled on a Monday, the same day that Commissioner's Court meets. As a result of the day-long session, not much business was done by Commissioner's Court.
The fact that Theresa Caballero was the attorney representing Cobos is something that is bound to draw attention due to the fact that she has a fiery personality and legal talent.
Caballero's talent is something that gets lost in the mix sometimes. It's mostly her fault that it does, but it is what it is. People tend to remember her berating her father, former Mayor Ray Caballero, or her public meltdowns on the campaign trail against long-time District Attorney and my tocayo Jaime Esparza.
But underneath the sometimes icy, cold, calculating crust, lies the heart of a very talented and passionate attorney who believes in what she does. She's a world class hell-raiser and I admire that tremendously.
I went to the hearing hearing yesterday to catch some of the action after I heard Barbara Perez's account of the morning action. I just had to go watch, so I made my over to the courthouse and took a seat in the back.
I didn't see the army of lawyers from the county attorney's office that some have talked about, I saw a few, but nothing more than expected. What I did see for the first time was Caballero in her element.
Caballero presents an imposing image. She's tall, articulate, extremely intelligent and has something called command presence. She laid out her arguments logically, succinctly, and passionately. She's clearly worth whatever she is being paid and is someone I'd want on my side if I got in a jam.
One problem though. She lost on every significant issue she raised.
"Commissioner Gandara is stupid"
Those aren't my words, those are the words of Theresa Caballero yesterday on talk radio. Barbara Perez missed part of her show to watch the proceedings in court and came back to do the last part of her show. Around that time, there was a lunch break and Caballero called in to Barbara's show to update her on the progress of the proceedings.
She broke in to some discussion about Commissioner Gandara and an affidavit. Gandara's affidavit said he was County Commissioner for Precinct Four.
He isn't.
So Caballero ripped in to Gandara about that and ended her rant by saying on-air that "Commissioner Gandara is stupid".
Here's where karma shows up.
In the afternoon portion that I attended, Caballero raised that issue before the court and said that in his affidavit, "Commissioner Gandara doesn't even know what precinct he is commissioner of. He says he's commissioner for precinct four, when in fact he's commissioner for precinct two."
She made that point twice.
Here's the funny thing about that. She's wrong too. He's actually Commissioner for Precinct Three. If her measurement for calling Gandara stupid is the fact that the affidavit says the wrong precinct, she should at the very least get the precinct right herself.
The whole idea of calling Gandara stupid makes no sense. She has no tactical advantage to gain by doing so.
More Nuggets from Caballero
Barbara Perez invited Caballero to be her guest today and Caballero let loose another barrage. She talked about placing people on the witness stand and turning the tables around on them. "We took their guns away and pointed it at them."
Must not have been loaded or maybe it jammed because they lost on every significant issue.
She also said that the County Attorney's Office looked like a bunch of "morons."
Those "morons" seemed to hold their own in court. Maybe Caballero could try waterboarding next time. I hear it's all the rage in questioning these days.
The Real Issue
This all got started over an open records request for employment records of Rep. Acosta. Records that were used to make her look bad, but ended up being something that was completely innocent.
Caballero's strategy in court was to show that County Attorney Jose Rodriguez doesn't like Cobos. Sort of a pointless strategy because it doesn't address the real issue and if you lined up all the people that don't like Cobos, it would look like the line of procrastinators at the passport office, around the block a couple of times.
The real issue at hand is if Cobos' buddy's request received special treatment because of his relationship with Cobos. Everything else is just procedural moves meant to stall the proceedings at the Ethics Board.
But all is not lost for Cobos. He can fall back on another tactic to avoid discussion of the Ethics Board.
He can always call another press conference about the on-going threat of Swine Flu.
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Abeytia writes the Lionstar blog and is a political animal who spends way too much time traveling the wilds of El Paso politics. Reach him at lionstar@thelionstarblog.com.