{"id":39004,"date":"2023-07-25T17:08:48","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T22:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=39004"},"modified":"2023-07-25T17:08:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T22:08:48","slug":"thats-not-encouraging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2023\/07\/25\/thats-not-encouraging\/","title":{"rendered":"That&#8217;s Not Encouraging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX), last being suspended by the Texas Senate for suspected corruption, before that leading the <strong>SCOTUS<\/strong>-rejected <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Texas_v._Pennsylvania\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Texas vs. Pennsylvania<\/a><\/em>, and before that being accused of various acts of corruption by his own staff &#8230; deep breath &#8230; appears to attract the corrupt as well. And Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R-TX) now faces questions:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"t-copy t-links-underlined t-align-left\">Lt. Gov.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/dan-patrick\/\">Dan Patrick<\/a>, who is presiding over the impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ken-paxton\/\">Ken Paxton<\/a>, received $3 million in campaign support last month from a top group campaigning against Paxton\u2019s impeachment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"t-copy t-links-underlined t-align-left\">In a campaign-finance report published Tuesday, Patrick \u2014 who is not up for reelection until 2026 \u2014 reported a $1 million contribution and a $2 million loan from Defend Texas Liberty PAC. The political action committee was by far his biggest benefactor on the report, which covered Patrick\u2019s fundraising from June 19-30. It was the first opportunity state officials had to fundraise since the House impeached Paxton in late May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"t-copy t-links-underlined t-align-left\">Patrick\u2019s Senate has scheduled a trial to begin Sept. 5 to determine whether to permanently remove Paxton from office. Patrick has been acting as presiding officer of the trial \u2014 effectively the judge \u2014 and the fundraising period partially overlapped with the Senate\u2019s deliberations over the trial rules. The chamber\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2023\/06\/20\/ken-paxton-impeachment-trial-senate-rules\/\">approved the rules June 21<\/a>.<em> [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2023\/07\/18\/ken-paxton-impeachment-dan-patrick\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Texas Tribune<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/PXL_20230621_190823258.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-39006 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/PXL_20230621_190823258.jpg?resize=226%2C301&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/PXL_20230621_190823258.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/PXL_20230621_190823258.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/PXL_20230621_190823258.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/PXL_20230621_190823258.jpg?resize=1152%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1152w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/PXL_20230621_190823258.jpg?resize=113%2C150&amp;ssl=1 113w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a>Mr. Paxton has been in trouble for a good long time, and, to my sensibilities, that suggests either someone is out to get him, or he&#8217;s a bad to the bone politician who has no sense of morality. Let&#8217;s assume the latter. He may possess a sense that God is on his side, and it keeps him going, but it&#8217;s a bit irrelevant.<\/p>\n<p>The important point is that the Republicans seem to be attracting this sort to their party, and this will tend to drive away independents, even those who distrust the ways of the Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>Now, to the credit of the Texas Republicans in the State Senate, they have suspended him and are looking to impeach him. However, Lt. Governor Patrick didn&#8217;t report that $1 million, plus a $2 million loan. Did he not realize who Defend Texas Liberty PAC backed? I&#8217;d believe that. Or did he just not care.<\/p>\n<p>Ya gotta wonder if Texas is a swirling pit of corruption, or if they&#8217;ll end up ejecting Mr. Paxton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas State Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX), last being suspended by the Texas Senate for suspected corruption, before that leading the SCOTUS-rejected Texas vs. Pennsylvania, and before that being accused of various acts of corruption by his own staff &#8230; deep breath &#8230; appears to attract the corrupt as well. \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2023\/07\/25\/thats-not-encouraging\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39007,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39004\/revisions\/39007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}