By Lynn Woolley
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Lets get one thing straight from the get-go. The Democratic District Attorney of Travis County Rosemary Lehmberg (right)
the woman who is in charge of the State of Texas Public Integrity Unit is a convicted drunken driver who should have stepped down. When she refused to resign Gov. Rick
Perry correctly tried to force her to leave office. Now a Travis County Texas liberal DA working with a liberal watchdog group called a Grand Jury likely comprised of mostly-liberal citizens and
got an indictment.
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Rosemary Lehmberg/caption
Lehmbergs crime was being caught driving with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit and with an open bottle of vodka on the passenger seat of her Lexus.
The issue before us today is whether Perry stepped over a legal line.
Perrys crime if one exists is a legal technicality.
She then became belligerent to the officers who were booking her and pulled the old do you know who I am?" stunt that political elites often do. This would be bad enough for any public official. But Lehmberg is supposed to go after politicians for doing precisely they type of thing she did.
The irony is palpable.
While she was handcuffed and was verbally abusing the officers she indicated that she was powerful and that there was going to hell to pay. Rick Perry who believed that a convicted drunk should not run her office is on the receiving end of her revenge.
In case you dont know Travis County is a Democratic Party stronghold. Most elected officials there are Democrats and they dont like Rick Perry. When Perry threatened to veto funding for Lehmbergs Public Integrity Unit if she didnt resign he was making a political move.
Note that President Obama does this all the time telling the Republicans in the U.S. House that he will veto any bill that might reach his desk for example to repeal Obamacare. That type of thing is done all the time and is well within Gov. Perrys powers.
Lehmberg did not resign. In liberal Travis County she felt insulated enough to continue in office for the rest of her term giving her time to get even with Perry. She was abetted by a liberal watchdog group known as
Texans for Public Justice. They filed a complaint based on a law that relates to coercion." The word in its legal sense refers to the political pressure used by one official to threaten another.
So the threat of the veto was no problem. The veto well within Perrys powers was no problem. But the threat of the veto followed by the veto is what amounts to coercion according to
Texans for Public Justice.
When this gets to court if it does its going to be interesting.
Video: Gov. Perry answers the charges
In Temple an hours drive north of Austin a convicted city councilwoman named
Judy Morales sat in open session and heard the local mayor and three councilmen urge her to resign or they would take steps to remove her. She resigned. But what if she hadnt? Would the rest of the council have run afoul of this same law had they:
- Threatened to remove her and
- Followed through and done it?
Fair warning of what is to come hardly amounts to coercion. What Perry has done is to engage in politics. What the Democrats have done is to criminalize politics.
This could come back to bite them.
The Republicans are politicians but they are amateurs compared to Democrats.
President Obama threatens the Republicans all the time. He has violated the Constitutional separation of powers time and again by changing the terms of the Affordable Care Act and through selective enforcement of laws he doesnt like.
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Tom Delay/caption
Speaker John Boehner has sued the President and a lot of ink has been devoted to the futility of the action. Its not likely that Boehner and the House Republicans will get anywhere with their lawsuit.
But Travis County Texas is a whole different situation. A liberal DA working with a liberal watchdog group called a grand jury likely comprised of mostly-liberal citizens and got an indictment just as they did with Tom DeLay.
DeLays money-laundering conviction was thrown out by an appeals court but not before the Democrats had gotten even by making his life miserable. Now they want to embarrass Perry and derail his chances for the Republican nomination. The charges might do just that but they might backfire as the Clinton impeachment did and make Perry a sympathetic figure.
Rosemary Lehmberg is not even with Rick Perry just yet.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based radio talk host who blogs at WBDaily.com.
Tom Delay/caption
Speaker John Boehner has sued the President and a lot of ink has been devoted to the futility of the action. Its not likely that Boehner and the House Republicans will get anywhere with their lawsuit.
But Travis County Texas is a whole different situation. A liberal DA working with a liberal watchdog group called a grand jury likely comprised of mostly-liberal citizens and got an indictment just as they did with Tom DeLay.
DeLays money-laundering conviction was thrown out by an appeals court but not before the Democrats had gotten even by making his life miserable. Now they want to embarrass Perry and derail his chances for the Republican nomination. The charges might do just that but they might backfire as the Clinton impeachment did and make Perry a sympathetic figure.
Rosemary Lehmberg is not even with Rick Perry just yet.
Lynn Woolley is a Texas-based radio talk host who blogs at WBDaily.com.
