The Texas Observer

Christian Right bird-dogger Max Blumenthal turns on the camera at the Christians United For Israel conference in Washington, D.C. and, well, you can watch for yourself. It ain’t pretty. CUFI is the brainchild of San Antonio megachurch pastor John Hagee, a man whose warped End Times theories have led him to stake out a militant pro-Israel position well to the right of even Ariel Sharon. CUFI is a lobbying vehicle for Hagee and fellow Christian Zionists who see Israel and the Jewish people as central to fulfilling biblical prophecy.

Yes, the getting is good at CUFI, where Blumenthal captures Rapture enthusiasts bashing Muslims, calling for war on Iran, explaining cheerfully why most Jews will be Left Behind, and interpretative dancing to Christian Zionist anthems. Also caught on tape are former Hammer Tom DeLay admitting that the Second Coming is “what [he] lives for” and former Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman comparing Hagee to Moses in what can only be described as a Hagee-ography (we couldn’t help ourselves). Sharing the love, Hagee backslaps Lieberman for his support for “a military preemptive strike against Iran to prevent a nuclear holocaust in Israel.”

That sounds about par for the course at a Hagee-sponsored event. Last October the Observer went down to the pastor’s Cornerstone Church in San Antonio for the annual “A Night to Honor Israel.” Imagine hundreds and hundreds of regular San Antonians waving the Israeli flag, blowing the shofar, and cheering lustfully for Benjamin Netanyahu while Hagee and his sons sit on thrones on stage, then maybe you begin to understand. The Observer also visited Cornerstone before the Iraq war to witness Hagee’s Christian militarism in full force.

Blumenthal, who is Jewish, managed to get himself ejected, ostensibly for recording the faithful rank-and-file going off the conference organizers’ script. It seems Hagee wanted to tamp down the Armageddon talk while in D.C., denying to reporters that his organization’s rabid support for Israel has anything to do with his desire to hasten Christ’s return. (For just a taste of how strange Hagee’s eschatology is consider this: He believes the Gog and Magog mentioned in the dark poetry of Revelation will in fact be a pan-Islamic military force led by elements of Russia’s high command.) Security personnel bounced Blumenthal, his cameraman, and at least one other Jewish journalist out of the conference.

While Hagee tries to turn his extreme theology into policy in Washington, other evangelical leaders are taking a more temperate approach to the thorny Israel-Palestine dispute. Last Friday, 30 evangelical leaders sent a letter to President Bush pledging support for a Palestinian state and reminding Israel of “the profound teaching on justice that the Hebrew prophets proclaimed.”

Texas Watch has been doing all the heavy lifting on this, but director Alex Winslow has dug up yet another interesting document on the fundraising efforts of the state’s senior Supreme Court Justice, Nathan Hecht. Last week Travis County D.A. Ronnie Earle announced his office was looking into one of three complaints filed by Judicial Watch against Justice Hecht for possible omissions on his campaign finance reports.

All of the trouble stems from Hecht’s efforts to get reimbursed for legal expenses he incurred while employing “Oprah’s lawyer” to appeal a reprimand from the state’s judicial ethics commission. The admonition was overturned on appeal, and Hecht eventually paid the bills by hitting up “attorneys, lobbyists, and litigants with business before the Court soliciting funds to cover his personal legal expenses.” Now Texas Watch has obtained a copy of the letter Hecht sent out, reproduced below. It’s a tiny bit of insight into how state officials conduct business:

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More importantly, as Texas Watch notes, the letter’s significance is that Justice Hecht says that “The firm [Jackson Walker] has also agreed to designate a large part of the fees as an in-kind contribution to my campaign.” Hecht’s campaign finance reports show no in-kind contributions from Jackson Walker, which could be a violation of the Election Code.

It’s worth noting Hecht’s explanation in the letter, as well. His letter makes it clear that he thinks he never should have been reprimanded in the first place and that he saw his case as a larger stand: “So I appealed — to clear my record, to ensure that other Texas judges would not be subjected to such abusive treatment by the Commission, and to uphold the rule of law. … Because of the public importance of my case, it could not be lost to misstep. Trial costs were high.”

For what it’s worth, Law.com has a good rundown of both sides from when Hecht was first admonished. For our views on Hecht’s conduct read the Observer editorial “Hecht of a Job.”

The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club held an … interesting, coattails-riding press conference today. At a locally owned Austin theater, the enviros used the premier of the Simpsons movie to protest plans to build more nuclear plants in Texas.

For at least a year, Texas green groups have been playing off the poor reputation of the Springfield nuclear power plant. A year ago, the line was: ““Do we really want to rely on Homer Simpson technology in making our choices about energy production?” This afternoon, the fliers being handed out to movie-goers at the Alamo Drafthouse said, “Don’t let Texas’ STNP & Comanche Peak make more fish like Blinky!”

Blinky would be the famous three-eyed fish spawned by the polluted waters around Mr. Burns’s plant. You can see him in the picture on the right, just behind Cyrus Reed, who braved the TV interviews today and worked last session as a lobbyist for the Lone Star Chapter. Other members of the chapter wore Simpsons masks and made themselves available for interviews, as well.

STNP is the South Texas Nuclear Project, an over-budget and oft-delayed fiasco down in Bay City. Last year, some new owners of STNP announced plans to drop $5 billion on two new reactors (for a total of four) at the site. Groups like those out today, which also included Public Citizen and Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Corporation, argued against any new projects on the grounds that nuclear power: is not safe because of the threat of accidents and terrorism; produces waste for which there is still no safe disposal; and is costly, when that money could be better spent on less risky measures that also reduce greenhouse gases.

For more, including the huge role federal incentive money plays in making nuclear energy profitable, see this informative Austin Chronicle article from last year, which lays out the claims of Texas environmental groups in detail.

Turns out the weird stuff that happened at a couple dueling U.S. Senate press conferences earlier this month was, in fact, just a coincidence. Back then, we noticed two guys offering what seemed to be aggressively partisan lines of questioning at media gaggles for State Rep. Rick Noriega and for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. But, it looks like we can consign the conspiracy theories back to spiral-bound notebooks.

Some nifty work by a reader tracked down the identity of the day’s first reporter, who pressed Noriega on questions about immigration and impeaching the president. His name is Phil Archer, and he’s a veteran TV guy KRPC-TV in Houston, a job he’s held down for about 30 years.

Still no word on the reporter who lauded Cornyn for standing up to Rove.

To localize the previous post, a timely report came out today measuring the state of children’s health care. How’d Texas fair? Down at the bottom, as always.

Via the CPPP, the KIDS COUNT Data Book, a national state-by-state report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, found:

– Texas continues to have the highest rate of uninsured children in the nation. For 9 of the last 10 years, Texas has led this category

– Texas has the highest teen birth rate in the nation, 63 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19.

– Texas has the 7th worst child poverty rate in the nation. One in four Texas children lived in poverty in 2005 (a 14 percent increase since 2000), ranking Texas 44th in the nation. The national child poverty rate also worsened, increasing from 17 percent in 2000 to 19 percent in 2005.

– Texas’ infant mortality rate increased by 11%, although it is still just slightly better than the national average.

More details in the full CPPP report.

Of course, CHIP expansion wouldn’t solve all of those problems, although it could go a long way toward that first one. But it’s hard to see how nothing is better than something, which is what Bush is pushing.

In Dave Mann’s post yesterday President Bush, attempting to explain his obstinate stand against expanding the successful CHIP program, let fly this doozy: “I believe government cannot provide affordable health care,” Bush told the Washington Post. “I believe it would cause the quality of care to diminish. I believe there would be lines and rationing over time.”

You’ve got to be kidding. Against all evidence that CHIP is working, all Bush can conjure up in opposition are the same tired bogeymen invoked by those who oppose something resembling national health care?

Seriously, check out this current ad campaign by Health Care America, a health care industry group whose goal is to convince you that government-run health care is some kind of nightmare, because — the horror — sometimes you have to wait. Surely it’s just a coincidence that Bush is invoking the same demons.

As Matthew Yglesias says, “And, of course, it’s true — in systems with government-run health care systems you sometimes need to wait to see a doctor. Much as in the United States you need to wait on line to see a movie. Or how in the United states you need to . . . wait to see a doctor.”

If you look at the website of Health Care America, you can “Hear the horrors of a government-run health care system.” They gladly provide you with terrifying anecdotes about when the Canadian health care system, in some circumstances, didn’t work well for some sick people.

Just as if you do a little Googling, you can find horrific anecdotes about the American health care system, when insurance delays nearly killed a professor, or when waiting and waiting for an appointment wasted the time of an assistant professor.

Beware, one might surmise from all this that neither health care system is perfect — imagine! And yet, because Bush fears the quality of care might diminish — as opposed to, say, no health care at all? — or that kids might have to wait to see a doctor, that’s reason enough to veto a bipartisan bill expanding their coverage. C’mon.

Several months ago Justice Nathan Hecht, the longest-serving member of the Texas Supreme Court, racked up some $450,000 in legal bills fighting a ruling by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which he paid through the kindness of campaign donors. Details are of that tawdry tale are here.

Now, as Texas Watch documented in a complaint filed today in Travis County, the problem is that Hecht didn’t actually pay that entire legal bill. Turns out he received a discount from his lawyers at the firm Jackson Walker worth about $100,000. While judges are allowed to collect contributions for legal defense funds, they are limited to $5,000 for individuals and $30,000 for PACs, including law firms. If considered the same as a campaign contribution, Hecht’s big discount could constitute one of several violations. Texas watch explains where the complaints were filed and why:

• Public Integrity Unit: The Texas Penal Code prohibits judges from accepting a gift from a party who the judge knows is likely to appear before him. As Jackson Walker is a prominent law firm with numerous clients with interests that are likely to come before the Texas Supreme Court, the discount the firm gave Justice Hecht was possibly an illegal gift. A violation of this statute is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of $4,000.

• State Commission on Judicial Conduct: The discount on his legal expenses is a gift that reflects adversely on his impartiality and is a possible exploitation of his position in apparent violation of the Canons of Judicial Ethics.

• Texas Ethics Commission: The $100,000 discount that Hecht received on his legal bills is an in-kind contribution in excess of the statutory $30,000 contribution limit that law firms are permitted to donate to judges and judicial candidates. A violation of this statute is punishable by a fine of three times the amount of the illegal contribution.

Alex Winslow, the watchdog’s executive director, is asking for a full investigation into the discount.

Hecht, for his part, has denied that any of the contributions to his defense fund would influence proceedings before his court.

Hecht’s lawyer, Chip Babcock, a high-profile First Amendment lawyer in Dallas, told Fort Worth Star-Telegram in April that any rules violations were unintentional. “I’ve said all along that I want to do the right thing, and if the right thing is that I’ve got to be paid more money, then so be it,” he told the paper. “I wouldn’t have done it that way if I thought it was going to cause a problem, especially not to Justice Hecht.”