ustxtxb_obs_1989_02_10_50_00014-00000_000.pdf

inequitable means of financing. But the stadium proposal passed at the polls. Whereupon Cisneros was quoted in the local press saying that the city has taken “a giant step onto the national stage. We have fulfilled our appointment with destiny.” And whereupon people began wondering again about Cisneros’s own appointments with destiny. Had his political career been revived? He had recently suggested, according to the San Antonio press, that he might reconsider his withdrawal from politics and run again for reelection as mayor. Former mayor Lila Cockrell, who is already raising money for this spring’s mayoral race, frowned upon the prospect. And then Cisneros again announced that he is staying out. But what about a Senate race in 1990? Will his reputation be on the rise again by then? Some Democrats are saying that, whether polls are registering it or not, there is likely to be a strong judgement against Cisneros, among women and Catholics especially, when it comes to the discrepancy between the family-man-image he was cultivating and the private affair he was hiding. V REPUBLICANS are jockeying for position, as the 1990 governor’s race continues to be the leading speculation game in political circles. As some Republicans began to wonder aloud what possible charm there could be to the spectre of Secretary of State Jack Rains running for governor, Rains himself made it 95 percent official that he would go through with it. During inauguration week in Washington, he told Dallas Morning News reporters, “If you ask me today, I’d say the odds are about 95 percent I’m going to make a race.” Rains said he was saying so to “counter those who are spreading rumors that I am not a candidate.” V THE MORE interesting candidate to the state’s media would probably be George W. Bush, the President’s son. Bush admits he’s looking at the race, and it’s clear that he’s charmed many in the Republican establishment in his travels on behalf of Bush the elder. Lately, Bush Junior has been in the headlines for trying to put together a deal to buy the Texas Rangers baseball team, which is traditionally under right-wing ownership. Financially troubled businessman Mad Eddie Chiles has been trying to unload the Rangers. But even beyond the baseball world, Bush has been “making systematic overtures to the Republican right,” according to former Observer editor Kaye Northcott, who is now writing a political column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in addition to her reporting duties. Northcott also notes that Railroad Commissioner Kent Hance and oilman T. Boone Pickens cannot be ruled out of a run for the governor’s mansion. LOUIS DUBOSE George W. Bush v AN EARLY contender for Bonehead of the Year is Al Edwards, the state Rep. from Houston. Edwards became an object of derision only three weeks into the new session of the legislature when he announced that he was drafting legislation that would punish convicted drug dealers by cutting off their fingers. Edwards told reporters that his legislation would provide for the tip of the little finger to be cut off on a drugpusher’s first offense and then, for each subsequent offense, an entire finger would be lost. Edwards, a legislator in good standing with the Dim Bulb Club, gained statewide news coverage with his finger proposal. But the winner, hands down, for best lead paragraph among the news stories is Andrew Kirtzman of the Houston Post, who put the Edwards story in its international perspective. His piece began: “Taking a cue from the Ayatollah Khomeini, a state representative from Houston wants to pass a law to cut off the fingers of drug dealers and heavy users.” That pretty much says it all. Or does it? The next day, the Post reported that Edwards had recently written a letter urging probation for a convicted dealer of crack and cocaine. Hmm .. . V ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: the Dallas Morning News editorial page continues its long march out of darkness. News editorial writers considered the budget priorities facing the 71st legislature, including necessary spending on public education, health and human services, and state employees’ salaries, and came up with this startling conclusion: “At this point, current revenue projections are just not enough to build the state’s future. Investment needs must be met.” And now to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson”: Where have you gone / William Murchison? / The Right Wing turns / Its lonely eyes to you. .. . V MORE internationalism down at the legislature. . . . South Texas Rep. Larry Warner distributed a press release in January that began: “State Representative Larry Warner has filed a bill calling for human rights around the world.” v THE BUSH administration’s idiotic proposal to put a tax on depositors in order to bail out the nation’s mismanaged Savings and Loans apparently doesn’t stand a chance of surviving in Congress, but it was almost worth it for all the good quotes it generated. Pennsylvania Senator John Heinz, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, declared, “I will only vote for this idea posthumously, and then only if someone casts my proxy against my direct wishes as expressed in my last will and testament.” V OUR REPORT in last issue’s Political Intelligence that described Washington attorney Judith Bagley as “one of five people in Texas who actually got along with Dukakis’s Campaign ’88 director Tom Cosgrove” triggered a phone call from a skeptical Campaign ’88 worker. Surely we were exaggerating about the Cosgrove situation, he said. At which point he demanded to know who were the other four people who allegedly got along with Dukakis’s controversial campaign director. He charged us with inflating our figures. We admitted we lacked documentation to back up our claim. V NOTING THAT J. Livingston Kosberg has resigned from the board of the Department of Human Services, Dallas Morning News columnists Carolyn Barta and Scott Bennett recorded with some disapproval Gov. Clements’s comment on Kosberg’s departure. Kosberg, a Houston savings and loan executive who has been a consistent advocate for more humane social spending policies, said in his resignation letter that he hopes state leaders will “respond more aggressively to the desires of our populace to be a caring society.” Clements’s comment to reporters: “Well, he probably had that same philosophy in his savings and loans, too.” Barta & Bennett’s description of Clements’s response: “tacky. ” v FORMER HOUSTON mayor Fred Hofheinz continues to keep hope alive for Houstonians looking for a candidate to unseat Mayor Kathy Whitmire. Hofheinz recently added another law partner to his firm and suggested that his reasons for doing so should be obvious. He has also picked up the support of Houston Congressman Mickey Leland who told the Houston Chronicle that he would support Hofheinz 14 FEBRUARY 10, 1989