June 15, 2009
This week in El Paso politics was all about the public corruption scandal and the ethics complaint against County Judge Anthony Cobos. Theresa Caballero and Stuart Leeds, Cobos' legal team, started off the week with their chance in court to argue a series of issues raised in what can only be described as the Chewbacca Defense.
After a day-long hearing on the issues, Caballero and Leeds lost on every major issue they raised.
So the following day Theresa Caballero files an ethics complaint against County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, making an almost identical argument that is being made in the ethics complaint against Cobos. It wasn't a surprising move, but it was interesting because it completely undermines Cobos' assertion that the ethics complaint filed against him was frivolous and without merit.
Nice move Caballero.
Caballero also announced Cobos' re-election bid in her complaint against Escobar, claiming Escobar was out to derail Cobos' re-election chances. Hate to break it to you TC, but Cobos did that himself a long time ago.
I'm not sure who's more out of their mind, Judge Cobos for thinking he's going to be re-elected or his Chief of Staff Jaime O. Perez for thinking he ever will be elected. Perez announced this week that he will be a candidate for Congress. No, I'm serious, he really said that.
The week ended with the revelation that Bob Jones, former CEO of NCED, was in negotiations with the feds to enter into a plea agreement. Jones will no doubt receive a lighter sentence in exchange for rolling on some other people. So after more than two years the FBI public corruption scandal seems to be coming to a head.
It's about time if you ask me.
Palin Ailing
Everyone's favorite conservative hottie from Alaska resurfaced in the news this week. First it was because of a discussion over who's the new face of the Republican Party and then later in the week for a public dispute with late night talk show host and comedian, David Letterman.
David Letterman was completely out of line for some comments he made about Sarah Palin's daughter and Yankee's overpaid walking headline, Alex Rodriguez. But Letterman is a comedian, so being controversial and outrageous is good for ratings.
Palin, on the other hand, wants to be president someday and has an uncontrollable urge to fight with the media. In a sometimes confrontational interview with Today Show host Matt Lauer, Palin fired back at Letterman. She made a remark that implied Letterman was a pedophile.
This is why politicians should never get in a war of words with comedians. Comedians will win that battle every time. It's not even a fair fight. Comedians are generally popular, politicians are generally unpopular. Comedians are witty, politicians wish they were. Comedians have large audiences, politicians wish they did. Okay, Obama does, but he's the exception.
But David Letterman doesn't want to be taken seriously, he's a comedian. All he wants is ratings. Palin wants to be president someday and she needs to be taken seriously. That's hard enough to do when she's shooting wildlife out of a helicopter, looking at Russia from her house, and parading her teen-mom daughter as a spokesperson for an abstinence program!
Letterman was wrong for attacking a family member and would probably be pretty upset if the shoe was on the other foot, but controversy boosts his ratings. Controversy for Palin hurts her credibility.
As I watched Palin's often contentious interview with Lauer, something was nagging at me. Where have I seen this play out before? A hot fiscal conservative with a limited following who blames the media for all of her problems? Hmm, that sounds familiar. Where have I seen that before?
Aha! I know where I've seen it play out before!
Melina Castro is El Paso's very own Sarah Palin.
Who's Driving the Bus?
The GOP is a party at a crossroad. They are in very real danger of becoming a regional party that only shows electoral strength in the South.
They are also a party in the midst of a civil war. A very disciplined and quiet civil war, but a civil war nonetheless. With a popular president and both houses of Congress in the control of the Democratic Party, the GOP is fighting over the keys as the bus rambles towards the edge of a cliff.
So who's driving? Is it Sarah Palin? Or is it one of the old retreads from the 1990s like Newt Gingrich or Rush Limbaugh? Is Republican Party Chair Michael Steele even in the conversation?
Who knows, but one thing is for certain. The GOP has to make some big-time changes if it wants to stay relevant. It's getting some help from the Democratic Party because there aren't the sweeping and substantial changes that the people voted for in the last election. President Barack Obama needs a little good ol' fashioned Texas swagger.
He needs to start taking that high approval rating for a spin and start ramming stuff down the GOP's throat and make all that change we voted for start to happen.
But neither he, nor Congress has done so yet. This would be an excellent chance for the GOP to get back in the game.
Here's the reality of the situation. The GOP is a party of old white men. That demographic is a shrinking part of the electorate. The GOP needs to modernize if they want to stay relevant. Republicans can give up the idea of attracting African-Americans to their party because that's not going to happen for a very long time, if ever.
However, they can reach out to the Latino community, which isn't as lock-step Democratic as the African-American community.
But yet again, the GOP is expressing its bi-polarism. They have just hired the firm that was behind the Swift Boat ads to conduct PR against the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. If the GOP swiftboats Sotomayor, they will do so at risk of alienating the only segment of the population they have a chance of expanding into.
A couple more election cycles and they'll be begging for Ron Paul!
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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.