TEXAS GOVERNOR ACCUSED OF ABUSE OF POWER, COERCION
Just as he was beginning to reemerge on the national political stage, Texas Gov. Rick Perry saw his future thrown in jeopardy when a Lone Star State grand jury indicted him on two counts of public corruption.
A grand jury in Travis County (home of the state capital in Austin) indicted Perry on abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant – charges related to his decision to veto funding for a local public corruption unit led by one of his political rivals.
San Antonio special prosecutor Michael McCrum is leading the investigation and says he is “ready to move forward” with the case against Perry. Meanwhile the governor’s supporters have accused the prosecutor of engaging in a witch hunt – and reaffirmed Perry’s right to veto the $7.5 million in question.
“The veto in question was made in accordance with the veto authority afforded to every governor under the Texas Constitution. We will continue to aggressively defend the governor’s lawful and constitutional action, and believe we will ultimately prevail,” Perry’s attorney said in a statement.
The veto stems from the arrest of Democrat Rosemary Lehmberg – a district attorney who runs the Travis County public integrity unit. In April 2013, Lehmberg was observed driving erratically – weaving in and out of her lane and even crossing into oncoming traffic at one point. She arrested by Travis County deputies for driving under the influence of alcohol after her blood alcohol level was recorded at nearly three times the legal limit.
On top of all that, Lehmberg engaged in an epic drunk hissy fit after her arrest … self-important ranting, raving and threatening which quickly became the stuff of YouTube legend.
Take a look …
(Click to play)
Hmmmm …
At the time Lehmberg was popped for driving while intoxicated, her unit was probing Perry’s involvement with the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) – one of the governor’s pet projects. According to reports, the CPRIT – whose former director has also been indicted – was using taxpayer money to dole out favors to Perry supporters.
“A lot of (the Institute’s) money was going to people who shouldn’t have gotten it,” The Texas Observer reported back in April. “And some of those folks had close ties to Perry.”
In fact Peloton Therapeutics, a company which gave $440,000 to the campaigns of Perry and his lieutenant governor, received an $11 million grant from CPRIT with no formal review.
Sounds like that’s the real scandal to us …
Anyway when Lehmberg was busted for DWI, Perry’s machine pounced – demanding her resignation and basically holding funding for her office hostage. Perry, incidentally, would have been in charge of naming Lehmberg’s replacement in the event she resigned – which she refused to do.
Our view on this scandal? Well, we’ve known Perry was a crony capitalist for a long time … yet another aspiring “Republican” presidential candidate who habitually put the interests of a select few over the interests of the rest of us. So it doesn’t surprise us in the least to learn there are additional allegations of that sort of behavior …
But what about the veto that forms the basis of this indictment?
Eh … we’re not ready to call this scandal a “nothing burger” just yet (after all Perry must turn himself in, go through booking and appear in court on the corruption charges) but it certainly seems to us that the real corruption in this case involves the crony capitalism, not the veto.
Unless of course Perry was attempting to obstruct justice by blocking funding to a group that had the goods on him …
48 comments
Damn, the Republican contenders seem to have a penchant for shooting themselves in the foot.
“Damn, the Republican contenders seem to have a penchant for shooting themselves in the foot.”
Or shooting their friends in the case of Dick Cheney . . .that Second Amendment does not seem to be their friend.
Looks like Lehmberg put the bottle to her head and pulled the trigger.
Austin is the containment area for liberals in Texas so this is mostly the Austin liberals banging on Perry. It would be sorta like getting an indictment on Bobby Harrell.
Oh, wait…
” . . . mostly the Austin liberals banging on Perry.”
Maybe they’ll knock some sense into him – oops!
Reminds me a Jean Toal!
I agree. Only Toal is so much worse. But Bill Nettles has her back.
Haley was just in Texas raising money….mmmmm
If being stupid was a crime, he’d get life in prison without parole.
“If being stupid was a crime, he’d get life in prison without parole.”
They cut to the chase and go straight to the death penalty in Texas.
Isn’t Texas the most prosperous state in the Union, currently…and at a time when Obama has F*#ked up the nation’s economy….
I’d say Perry makes you like an Ignorant F*#k…wouldn’t you?
Another one of your Gods is going down…just like your boy in Virginia. The folks on Fox will tell you what to say on your blog just as soon as they are done with yet another report on Bill Ayers. They will report on this Perry thing soon.
Kinda like I told FITS about this and he finally got it 15 hours after I did…so you’d know what to think….LMAO…
And the point is ???? Answer, DUMBER THAN OWL SHIT
GT I gotta a different view on this. We may have to give Perry up to the enemy. My understanding is this could go to trial in 90 days.
Convict Perry. Legal precedent established. Win the senate.Impeach Obama and find a county with a conservative District Attorney ANYWHERE in this country , a Grand Jury and have him indicted. Axlerod has figured out this one out and is supporting Perry.
Is it true Tom Ervin is performing same-sex marriages at race tracks in South Carolina in the ‘pits’? :-)
Ever heard of OIL ?
Ever heard of OIL ?
Philip Branton on line one….
GT I gotta a different view on this. We may have to give Perry up.. My understanding is this could go to trial in 90 days.
Convict Perry. Legal precedent established. Win the senate.Impeach Obama and find a county with a conservative District Attorney ANYWHERE in this country , a Grand Jury and have him indicted. Axlerod has figured out this one out and is supporting Perry.
Is it true Tom Ervin is performing same-sex marriages at race tracks in South Carolina in the ‘pits’? :-)
idiot.
Texas is #25.
“Isn’t Texas the most prosperous state in the Union”
No
You would be sent to the electric chair if it was.
Were you molested?
Seems to be a slam-dunk prosecution. “Resign or I cut your funding.”
Where’s the ambiguity?
He can veto that clueless hag’s budget for any reason he wants, you ignorant Dumb@$$…he’s the governor. That’s what they do…
We hope Nikki’s ICE DOWN works for her also.
Perry was never going to win the Republican nomination anyway.
I hope Hillary does for the Dems…I need a good laugh…
Don’t worry, you will get your wish.
Reminds me of how that army of corrupt lawyers invaded Alaska and plastered Palin with frivolous lawsuits…it worked…she folded…
You bet it did, didn’t ya ?
I bet if the statute of limitations has not run out, Sanford is crapping his pants – if vetoes are now being prosecuted if you happen to be a Republican..
Democrat Dirty Tricks at the lowest. SCPD has a better analysis, but I must add: FITS did not jump in – with blind stupidity -w/ the democrats, as I expected he would…kudos FITS…
you can indict a ham sandwich
“you can indict a ham sandwich”
Did you mean sammich?
anti-Semite!
Maybe the same court can indict Barry for abuse of his authority regarding his numerous lawless exec orders and his multiple lies…
While TBG has no reason to believe that Perry is any less corrupt than most high ranking government officials…it would seem that a governor should be able to veto any damn thing he wanted to for any damn reason.
Perhaps if Perry had checked with Ron Paul, he wouldn’t have gotten in this trouble.
a governor should be able to veto any damn thing he wanted to for any damn reason.
——-
an officer in the military can give any order he wants for any damn reason… but he has to answer for it later.
Only Liberals would support a drunk who was driving almost 3 times over the legal limit. Only Liberals in Travis County would support a drunken D.A. who threatened police officers with their jobs and spit on jail personnel. Only Liberals in Travis County would support this drunken D.A. staying in office and continuing to oversee the “Ethics” Division of the D.A.’s office.
Question: Where is the integrity Liberals? Surely there is a smidgen there somewhere to be able to decipher right from wrong.
Uh, you may want to observe South Carolina before saying liberals cannot determine right from wrong. When a governor leaves a country unannounced to see his soul mate in Argentina, that is wrong. The right thing to do would be to avoid electing him to public office again. Also, when the governor of a state is backed by people who have been indicted or are facing indictment (Perry, Walker, etc), that is not a good sign. In fact, that is wrong. The right thing to do would be to investigate what the governor has in common with these individuals.
George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in the early 90’s Alcoholism (and other drug addiction) are classified as illnesses and considered handicapping conditions for ADA purposes.
Most employers work with employees with handicapping conditions to assist them in getting the treatment that they need because it is discrimination to do otherwise.
In the case of alcoholics and other drug addicts, if an employee participates in treatment and remains sober, they should be given that chance if the employer is to be in compliance with this wide ranging civil rights law. Now, if they mess up over and over, fire ’em.
This woman’s employers are the people who elected her. If they don’t mind giving her a second chance – which the Christian(ist) Perry should love to give anyone – who is Rick to complain? Unless, he wants to intimidate a prosecutor’s office into leaving his contributors alone?
Perhaps you should look at Barry’s bundlers with equal vigor.
the ethics laws are so spotty, I almost don’t blame him for not knowing where the line is that he couldn’t cross. So much corruption is actually technically legal (like we see in SC all the time) that it must be hard to remember what it is illegal.
Politics aside, the fact remains that the at “the time of Mr. Perry’s veto last year, prosecutors in the unit had been investigating a state agency called the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. The agency — one of Mr. Perry’s signature initiatives — came under scrutiny by state lawmakers after accusations of mismanagement and corruption; a former official there was indicted last year for his handling of an $11 million grant.”
This, in itself, can be deemed as an effort “to thwart the investigation into the cancer-research agency” — and it confirms that “he was demonstrably trying to scrap the ethics unit for other than his stated reason.”
As such, the indictment is not at all “sketchy.”
This indictment has been attacked from many quarters. Perhaps I am just cynical, but it appears Perry used the DA’s DUI offense as an excuse to defund the special anti-corruption investigative unit. Why? That step, in itself, should trigger alarm bells. I am suspicious of ALL politicians who seek to stifle transparency. What does Perry want to hide?
Perry punished the people because he couldn’t force her to resign. He’s the one that should resign.
For what?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUDVMiITOU
Seems like the only constitutional option for Perry to discipline a Democrat that should have resigned and disbarred, then again that is the Republic of Tejas, double jeopardy, when you want to lynch a Republican, is not an issue.
Good article that explains what this indictment is really all about. Not just the BS Republican Party line as announced by the Fake News Network.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-moore/why-rick-perry-will-be-co_b_5686664.html?utm_hp_ref=politics