ustxtxb_obs_1981_05_15_50_00024-00000_000.pdf

Postmaster: If undeliverable, send Form 3579 to The Texas Observer, 600 W. 7th, Austin, Texas 78701 a freight train, and in the card games Vale wiped everybody out. Brooks had disappeared, but the fact was equivocal Hobby had asked him to absent himself the first day. Longoria hid first at a ranch in Northern Mexico, then at another one in Starr County. Heard corrects an injustice the Killer Bees should not have let stand at the time. The trooper who mistakenly arrested Jones’ brother was misled by that brother into thinking he was the senator. The Bees let the state hoo-rah the hapless trooper without volunteering the information that he had been deliberately misled. In the Senate chamber, Hobby and the senators still there did all they could to convince the people, through the press, that the Killer Bees were fugitives from justice who were violating their constitutional oaths to perform their sworn duties. They were “shameless and perfidious,” said Hobby. “An embarrassment to me,” said Sen. Grant Jones, Abilene. Had a “cavalier attitude,” said Sen. Ray Farrabee, Wichita Falls. But this hypocritical pomposity fell of its own nauseous weight obviously breaking a quorum is a time-honored way for senators to fulfill their sworn duties. Fortunately the canny Doggett had foreseen that they must not go, say, to Mexico, opening themselves to the charge they were having a lark. Tapes of the castigations in the Senate, snuck in and played for the Killer Bees in the apartment, enraged them and strengthened their resolve to stay out. After four and a half days, Hobby was beaten. The Killer Bees in the apartment piled into three cars for the drive from West Austin back to the Capitol. Patman, driving along one of the cars carefully and slowly, provoked Parker to say, “Patman, I tell you one thing: When we go into a permanent life of crime, you’re not going to drive the getaway car.” Students can learn more about real democracy from stories like that than they can from texts and tables of organization, and Heard’s book has plenty such stories. “The best part of it is,” Heard says, “all those years I labored under a yoke. I never coulda written that for the AP. I don’t have that editor in Dallas cutting things out. That’s a pleasure you all have had at the Observer for years, and I’m really enjoying it now.” 24 MAY 15, 1981 return it also came naturally to them to play softball with the team from the lieutenant governor’s office. Governor Clements more resembles the charge they were having a lark. Tapes of the castigations in the Senate, snuck in and played for the Killer Bees in the apartment, enraged them and HEARD CALCULATES that all eight Killer Bees who were on the ballot in the 1980 primary won. Of the six critics of the Killer Bees who faced reelection last year, two had safe Republican districts, and of the four Democrats, one quit, one won, one lost, and one narrowly escaped defeat. Probably, then, breaking the quorum cost no Killer Bee his seat. The fact that the voters in 1980 had to choose between the Democratic primary and the Republican one with its presidential primary probably helped Jim Hightower make such a good showing for Railroad Commissioner. HOBBY’S CHOSEN ROLE in this affair was Lord of the Knights defending the Dying King’s Castle, but in this book two years later the superheated accusation from the Killer Bees that he had “switched the rules in the middle of the game” should not have been carried forward as if it was a just charge. Hobby says, and Heard agrees, that Hobby did not break a single rule. He made shrewd and unexpected use of the rules, but only a cry-baby complains that he’s been outwitted in a fair fight. Retorting to unfair mass-media charges with an unfair mass-media countercharge, the Killer Bees were doing what comes naturally in politics, but the day after their return it also came naturally to them to play softball with the team from the lieutenant governor’s office. Heard also says Hobby broke a gentleman’s agreement, that the regular calendar would not be used, but there was no such gentleman’s agreement. Requiring a two-thirds vote to bring up a bill was the way it had been done, but using his power as he had a right to do, even in his execrable cause of the hour, Hobby broke no agreement. If re-elected, the Observer asked Hobby, will he again in 1983 try to foist a split-primary bill off on the state? “There seems to be a drift away from presidential primaries,” he responded. He would prefer to pursue the attainment of an earlier primary in Texas, giving the Texas outcome influence now enjoyed by the early New England primaries and the Iowa caucuses, he said. But does he intend to push a split-primary bill again in 1983? “I think it’s a dead issue, frankly,” he replied. “Governor Clements proposed something that would have been far better, a regional primary, but apparently there’s no interest in it.” That was his answer, and observers with a sufficient respect for his parliamentary and political subtlety will surely notice that he did not say, “No, I won’t push it again.” R.D. Not Mark White Mark White’s tenure as Attorney General has been a significant disappointment. His well-publicized feud with Governor Clements more resembles the intramural squabbling bewteen Haig and Weinberger than it resembles a dynamic confrontation between opposing polical philosophies. White has been stonewalling on legal issues which affect the fundamental quality of human life in Texas. He stonewalls on needed prison form. He stonewalls on education for children of undocumented workers. He stonewalls on bilingual education. Even worse, he has countenanced the raping and pillaging of the consumer protection act and has been certainly less than enthusiastic in representing the interests of Texas consumers in court or in the legislature. It is appalling that White would even be considered an alternative to Clements when he is such a pale imitation of Wild Bill. If we intend to go to the mats in the Governor’s race next year to oust Clements, we had better do so with the clear conscience that comes from backing a geniune alternative such as John Hill, Bob Armstrong or Jim Hightower. Thomas A. Prentice, 2203 Dove Springs, Austin Tx. 78744. Abortion & Welfare If the congressional Calvinists succeed in defining life to begin at some instant prior to birth, won’t that automatically make the unborn fetus eligible for Aid to Dependent Children? What a novelty to imagine the neanderthals voting for increasing a welfare program! J. Derral Mulholland, P.O. Box 49062, Austin Tx. 78765.