Texas GOP leaders censure party official: Whaley accused of leaking taped calls
We have located the rarest of rare creatures: a Texas Republican with a conscience. This endangered species has, sadly, a very short life span, since it becomes easy prey to it's own, often before making itself known to the outside world. Not in this case, however....
AUSTIN -- Texas Republican Party leaders are trying to oust a GOP committee member whom they suspect of helping to leak information about confidential party phone calls to the Houston Chronicle.
Thomas Whaley of Marshall, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, has been instructed to appear before high-ranking GOP officials to answer allegations that he let non-SREC members listen in on party conference calls on April 7 and May 13.
He also has been given the option of resigning.
In the first call, later reported in the Chronicle, Texas GOP Chairwoman Susan Weddington downplayed the effects on the needy of state budget cuts advocated by the party. Many low-income Texans, she said, could purchase their own health insurance and "maybe have a little less disposable income or a little less inheritance from Mom and Dad."
The second call, also reported in the Chronicle, took place after more than 50 Democratic members of the Texas House had fled to Ardmore, Okla., to kill a congressional redistricting bill during the regular legislative session.
During that call, Weddington told SREC members that she was deliberately using language in public statements that suggested the runaway Democrats were guilty of "criminal wrongdoing," although she acknowledged that their quorum-busting act wasn't criminal.
The Chronicle reported both stories after obtaining tape recordings of the calls.
Who knows why Whaley provided the tapes to the Chronicle? Perhaps we'll never know. I applaud his doing so, however, and exposing Republicans as the craven, power-mad lot they are. Sure, they're going to take their wrath out on Whaley, but does anyone really think we'll hear Susan Weddington explaining her amoral attitude? Doubtful.
Remind me again why Republicans hold such a stranglehold on political power in this state? And no, this is NOT a case of the ends justifying the means....
