Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/365950
Whenitcomestopoliticalcorruption,it's rarely as simple as taking a bribe on hid- den camera. Political corruption is usually messy, such as the ongoing trial of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who took a king's ransom from a guy who had a crush on the First Lady in exchange for using the Governor's Office to promote his nutritional supplement business. See? It gets complicated. Political corruption usu- ally isn't about a lust for money or sex, but for power. A governor's aides shut down a bridge to punish a mayor who wouldn't en- dorse him. Public employees use government comput- ers to do political work for a boss under siege by labor unions. If it all seems so petty and small, it's because we're talking about politics. Sorry to disappoint. What's happening in Texas has nothing to do with sex or illegal gifts or even politics, and because it's Texas the story takes a bit longer to tell and is both cruel and absurd. A grand jury led by a Republican special prosecutor charged Gov. Rick Perry with abuse of power. That charge—an abuse of power—is the point of this story, not politics. After "oops," it's easy to write Perry off as a joke as the press did on his most recent trip to Iowa when they gleefully quoted him as saying, "You're welcome. I'm awesome!" But the se- cret to Perry is that he is less an idiot and more of a savant when it comes to wielding power. He doesn't just appoint state govern- ment bureaucrats but many of the lobbyists, too, by sug- gesting to businesses which of his former staffers might best represent their inter- ests before his office. So when the legislature created a new agency and gave it $3 billion to fund cancer research, Perry thought he could call the shots because he always has. His friends got the re- search contracts, sometimes over the objections of the scientific review process, and of course his friends contributed to Perry's cam- paigns. There was smoke, and a scandal of sorts broke out. A top aide resigned, and the prosecutor in charge of state government corrup- tion started looking into it, but then she got arrested for drunk driving, and she wasn't just a little drunk. She was a hot mess. She thrashed, wailed, pleaded, and threatened long enough that her jailers had to shackle and muzzle her. It's painful to watch on You- Tube, and many, including me, thought she should re- sign. It was that bad. She pleaded guilty and asked for the max, but that wasn't good enough for Perry, who demanded she resign. Funny thing: If she resigned, he could appoint her replacement, which would be handy since she was investigating his she- nanigans. So he vetoed her funding, and if that's where he had left it he would probably be in the clear. But then he said that he would restore the funding if she resigned. The grand jurors and the Republican special prosecutor thought this constituted an abuse of his official capacity and co- ercion of a public servant. You can decide for your- self if using your office to replace a prosecutor who is investigating you meets the definitions of those fel- onies, but it seems pretty clear to me. The guardians of the sta- tus quo—Perry allies and much of the press—see this through a political lens, though they only seem to ascribe partisan motives to Perry's accusers. In this telling, Perry was indicted because he stood up to a prosecutor who didn't have the decency to take a taxi home. "Do I have this right: Gov Perry has been indicted be- cause he tried to force res- ignation of a DA who'd been arrested for drunk driving?" tweeted former George W. Bush speech- writer David Frum. (Fun fact: Frum's former boss ap- pointed the special prosecu- tor who indicted Perry.) This isn't about a prose- cutor's alcoholism or the de- light of local Democrats that Perry's reign of error might be coming to a scandalous close. This is about a politi- cian who tested the limits of power for a generation and may have gotten caught on the wrong side of the law. Jason Stanford is a regular contributor to the Austin American-Statesman, a Democratic consultant and a Truman National Security Project partner. You can email him at stanford@oppresearch.com and follow him on Twitter @JasStanford. JasonStanford It's the abuse of power, stupid Thinking about the Ann Coulter book, "How To Talk To a Liberal (If You Must)," which I briefly described last week as a compilation of her columns from the late 1990s through 2005, it seemed worth another column. If this were a liberal- dominated area, the regular derision she unloads on the Left might come across as gra- tuitous but, in our conser- vative part of Jefferson, I mean California, those eas- ily offended can simply move along while the rest of us appreciate some of the foolishness, lunacy, hy- pocrisy and mendacity of liberalism from that period. Since only Human Events regularly published her columns, this is, to me, origi- nal, rarely seen material. Re- garding the "How to talk to a liberal" theme, her advice and warnings started with "Histor- ically, the best way to convert liberals is to have them move out of their parents home, get a job and start paying taxes. But if this doesn't work, you might have to actually argue with a liberal." She warned that "when arguing with lib- erals, you are always within inches of the 'Arab street.' Lib- erals traffic in shouting and demagogy." Their political To- urette's Syndrome includes "Bush lied," "racist," "Hallibur- ton" (or now the all purpose, mindless repetition of "Koch brothers"), and the recently fabricated "War on Women." Then there is their inability to follow one line of argument. Don't take Ann's or my word for it, just listen to any of the talk radio hosts trying to en- gage a liberal caller who can't respond to one issue without jumping around to 3 or 4 other, usually irrelevant, talking points. Sunday show panels are notorious for stacking several liberals with one, lone conser- vative who politely allows the others to finish their thoughts; the conservative will usually get 2 sentences out before the liberals interrupt, gang up and shout him or her down. That happened to Rich Lowry on "This Week" when he attempted to truthfully point out that it was President Obama's singular obsession to leave no resid- ual troops in Iraq to keep the relative calm that prevailed when President Bush turned Iraq over in 2009 (BTW, we're still in Bosnia—result: no eth- nic strife). The liberal harpies converged on Lowry merci- lessly—how dare he lay any re- sponsibility on Obama's door- step. In fact, the refusal by Obama to heed wise military advice for 20,000 troops was then cloaked in the duplici- tous charade that Iraqis didn't want them. The Germans and Japa- nese probably didn't want the American military, either; re- sponsible leaders honor sac- rifices by keeping troops sta- tioned to secure peace in the midst of potential instabil- ity. That prevents subsequent chaos and bloodshed requiring going back into a country like Iraq—the vicious, slaughter- ing hordes of ISIS are Obama's lasting legacy. As her subtitle, "The World According to Ann Coulter," sug- gests, her pithy, often caustic take on events, liberal actions and reactions is a tour-de-force of outrageousness from the po- litical, media, judicial and cul- tural left. The largest section, "This is War," organizes doz- ens of columns on the broad topic of the War on Terror, be- ginning with "How 9/11 Hap- pened." It is riveting to read a summary of President Cart- er's timidity and appeasement of Muslim extremists, com- pared to Reagan's decisive mil- itary response (Democrats, not Reagan, insisted on withdraw- ing militarily from Beirut af- ter the Marine barracks were bombed). Bush 41's less-than- Reaganesque response to the terrorist destruction of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scot- land, tarnished his record. Then, through his 8 years, President Clinton had no less than 9 opportunities to re- spond to Muslim or other ter- rorist attacks or threats. On 6 of those occasions, Clinton did nothing. 18 dead Amer- ican military in Somalia re- sulted in withdrawal, which Osama bin Laden referred to on ABC News as proving "that the American soldier was a pa- per tiger and after a few blows ran in defeat." Then there were ineffectual responses like lobbing bombs hundreds of miles from Iraqi troops or just threatening to bomb until the UN objected. After Clinton's serial feck- lessness, President George Bush, having no chance to de- liver on his determination to eliminate al Qaeda, (as told to his National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice), was faced with the previously unimagi- nable attacks on 9/11. (To be continued) "Imagine" (with apologies to John Lennon's version) Imagine there're no liberals; It's not that hard to see. No Left to goad or force us To give up living free. Imagine all Americans Living in liberty. You might say I'm a dreamer; But I'm not the only one. Perhaps some day you will join us, God-given freedoms shall be won. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at don- plsn@yahoo.com. The way I see it Liberal foolishness, mendacity detailed in Ann Coulter's book You can decide for yourself if using your office to replace a prosecutor who is investigating you meets the definitions of those felonies, but it seems pretty clear to me. Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. Anyidiotcanpostontheinternetorget published that doesn't make it true, Polson does it every week and his background is in flipping hamburgers and selling real estate. That don't mean what they say is true. It just means they have an opinion. Pat Johnston: On a letter to the editor she wrote regarding the Jefferson State issue "Growers like them mess it up for all us guys that grow it for our own use....gorilla growers suck" Dave Cleveland: On the arrest of two men for growing marijuana in the Lassen Forest Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. 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Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Cartoonist's take Assemblyman Dan Logue, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217 Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate. ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Can- non House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 YOUR OFFICIALS Regarding the "How to talk to a liberal" theme, her advice and warnings started with "Historically, the best way to convert liberals is to have them move out of their parents home, get a job and start paying taxes. But if this doesn't work, you might have to actually argue with a liberal." Don Polson OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, August 19, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6