- Click here for background from the Texas Tribune, and here for background from the Austin American-Statesman.
The story is long and convoluted and stems from long standing animosity between the state legislature and the Travis County District Attorney's Office. The office - usually held by a Democrat since it is in Austin - has been the source of recent investigations of activities of the legislature, which for the past ten years has been dominated by Republicans. The source of the tension should be obvious.
- Click here for the Texas Tribune's section on the Public Integrity Unit.
- Click here on the unit's prosecution of Tom Delay, and here for Delay's promise to go after the DA.
Conveniently enough, the current DA was popped for a DUI during the last legislative session and Republicans demanded her resignation. She didn't, and the governor used that as a reason to cut state funding for the unit. This has been attempted before.
But questions have persisted about whether the line item veto was not only politically motivated, but designed to minimize the ability of the unit to investigate corruption, which is illegal.
The Lubbock Avalanche Journal reports that Perry risks indictment, and offers a harsh assessment of his governorship.
- Click here for the article.
That shaking you felt this morning wasn’t caused by fracking in a field near you, it was the eruption of stories reporting that Governor Rick Perry could face possible indictment for bribery, coercion, and abuse of official capacity.
Texas Tribune’s John Reynolds reported that a special prosecutor is looking into Perry’s attempts to force Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign by way of a veto for state funding of the Travis County DA's Public Integrity Unit. His actions prompted a complaint filed on June 14th from watchdog group, Texans for Public Justice.
Special Prosecutor Mike McCrum was on video this morning discussing that he is "deeply troubled and very concerned about certain aspects of what happened here”.
Why would Rick Perry do this? Two reasons: To replace an elected Democrat with a Republican DA (most likely, one of his friends or campaign donors) and to wipe out the state’s public corruption watchdog, the Travis County DA's Public Integrity Unit, which is presently looking at another incident of Perry’s corrupt administration, his involvement with corporate subsidy programs—the real basis for the “Texas Miracle” that he touts in his road shows, laying the groundwork for his 2016 aspirations.
It’s been no secret that Rick Perry operates a private employment agency for his friends and donors. The most recent being Joe Weber’s appointment to TxDOT and Phil Wilson’s move to the Upper Colorado River Authority. It’s Plutocracy in Action, which you may read about at the Houston Press, here.
Perry’s list of legitimate crimes is long, but it’s been completely ignored, even by the press, whose job is to be the ultimate communicator of truth, the people’s watchdog. Perry cultivates a mysterious and fortuitous inattention through his “pay-to-play” appointments and networking of corporate funders. History will judge him harshly. His legacy will be that of the most corrupt Texas Governor in history, since Pa and Ma Ferguson.
