WED brief 1.5.21
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Today’s Stories
GEORGE P. BUSH, with an assist from the Texas Tribune, is attempting to position himself “as the toughest candidate on the border.”
While laughable, it’s illustrative of his family’s playbook. Do or say anything to get elected, then ignore campaign promises once in office.
P’s gambit is the current iteration of Dubya's promise to pursue a “humble foreign policy” or 41’s “Read my lips” pledge.
There will be plenty of keystrokes spilled over the hypocrisy of P’s assurance in light of his family’s long-standing support of open borders. That’s undoubtedly correct.
But there's another aspect of P’s family's record that merits a mention.
A frequently overlooked reality of the border security/illegal immigration debate is that migration from points South of the U.S. is often a function of prevailing political and economic conditions.
When Latin America is stable, the U.S. Southern border tends to be calm and vice versa when things are dicey.
Author Al Martin, former naval intelligence officer and business partner of Jeb Bush, illustrates:
Those who are well educated on Iran-Contra would remember the great effort that was made in 1986-1987 to keep [then Vice President] George Bush [41] and his two sons [Dubya and Jeb] out of the Mexican indictment of [former Mexican president Jose Lopez] Portillo on the oil fraud because this was a fraud in which Zapata corporation, Tidewater corporation, and Harken energy had all participated in.
There was a desperate effort by the Reagan-Bushites to keep Bush’s name out of that indictment, which was successfully done. (219)
A discourse on the office of the U.S. Vice President in the 1980s and Latin America is beyond the scope of this newsletter, though author Daniel Hopsicker is highly recommended.
Suffice to say, “border security” pledges coming from said Vice President’s grandson should be taken with a grain of salt.
Speaking of the Bushes, and their critics, see next item (AC)
During the Christmas hiatus, WAYNE SLATER, longtime Capitol correspondent for the Dallas Morning News, died in a traffic accident.
While Slater was (very) liberal, he maintained his independence during an era (the 1990's and early 2000's) when Karl Rove largely neutered the press corps. Slater's two books about Rove are required reading for serious students of the Bushes.
Slater was like the late Molly Ivins in that, while conservatives would often disagree with the causes he pursued, his willingness to call B.S. was commendable.
Slater's work has stood the test of time (remarkably) well.
R.I.P. (AC)
HOUSTON ISD had two recent former employees indicted on bribery charges. This comes after candidates backed by the GOP flipped trustee seats the previous week.
An indictment isn’t a conviction. These defendants have the same fourteenth amendment rights as anyone else. But this is hardly the district’s first brush with scandal, and intelligent observers have been encouraging the G.O.P. to take political advantage for a while.
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